Still, it doesn't seem ridiculous to do one at the end of the year. So when asked recently by a writer at another site to come up with a top 10, we put our heads together and came up with the following list. Voting was simple, with 10 points for first, nine for second, etc.
The year's not quite over, as there are quite a few notable fights this weekend. None of the men on this list are in action before the end of 2008 though.
Feel free to tell us how wrong we are. Or how right, though that probably won't be as much fun.
Here goes nothing...
BoxingWatchers.com Top 10 Pound-for-Pound Boxers - End of 2008
- Manny Pacquiao (30 pts.)
- Joe Calzaghe (25)
- Bernard Hopkins (24)
- Juan Manuel Marquez (23)
- Israel Vazquez (15)
- Paul Williams (14)
- Antonio Margarito (13)
- Kelly Pavlik (9)
- Ivan Calderon (5)
- Rafael Marquez (3)
Spartan117's 10 is not enough honorable mentions: Chris John, Ricky Hatton, Vic Darchinyan
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17 comments:
I think Arthur Abraham, Nate Campbell, and Celestino Caballero also deserve honorable mention.
Abraham and Campbell do garner some respect usually on our Power Rankings
I already regret not putting Chad Dawson higher.
Well, one voter left Bad Chad out of his top 10, but I won't call him out by name!
The Power Rankings are a whole different animal. I'll be doing a year-end version of those too, but I have to wait until after this weekend because Wlad K. is fighting.
Abraham is a tough one. I wanted to squeeze him into my personal top 10 but just couldn't quite do it.
Dawson deserves the top ten over Rafael Marquez and he is poised to move higher.
Next year we'll get Floyd Mayweather Jr. to be one of the voters and see if he votes Dawson No.1!
Dawson Tarver II will give Chad another chance to show us something.
In my opinion, Margarito shouldn't be in the top 10. Yeah he beat Cotto, but it's obvious Cotto is a much better boxer. Margarito just outlasted him, his chin is incredible, but the guy is not much of a boxer. Go ahead, let me have it. A lot of people think I'm crazy for thinking that. I think Cotto will win a rematch. He was making Margarito look STUPID the the whole fight up until the end of round 10. I have always agreed with Mayweather, Margarito is slow with looping wide punches, he also has very little defense. Who has he beat anyways? Cintron, which proves what? Who else? Hmmmmm, oh yeah.... wait.... There was.... no.... hmmmm.... Joshua Clottey, but if I recall right, it was a gift decision... So?????? Oh yeah, Andrew "six heads" Lewis, there ya go, definiely a top 10 lb for lb fighter in the world.
Wait wait wait, I just remembered, The Clottey fight wasn't a "gift". If I remember right, Clottey hurt his hand in the 3rd or 4th round. He even "rocked" Margarito pretty good before he hurt his hand. After the injury, he really didn't throw anything.
I agree with you and think that Cotto is the superior boxer to Margarito for sure. I was super impressed with Cotto after the Mosely fight, super impressed with his win over Quintana, mildly impressed with his win over Judah, and he impressed me for a lot of the Margarito fight too. He really is much more than a slugger, has underrated defense, fights inside and outside, backwards and forwards, switches stance at times, and can cut off a ring.
Nevertheless, Magarito did beat Cotto, head to head, fair and square, without controversy.
Beating Cintron twice isn't monumental in itself, but he annilhated him both times. Cintron isn't an easy out for anyone. His only two losses are to Margarito.
It hasn't happened yet, but I think Tony will stop Shane too. The win over Clottey is looking better and better, although perhaps he caught a break in that one, and so is the very close loss to Williams. If Tony were to fight Paul again at 147, and Tony starts earlier, he could win that rematch.
You add it all up, and maybe he does loop the punches, but Margarito has been very successful with them.
I added it up, minus your opinions of the Mosley fight and Williams rematch..... Still the same, Margarito is overrated. Don't get me wrong, he's good, but I don't think top 10 lb for lb. While he did beat Cotto, fair and square, that win didn't prove anything to me. I just don't see anyting on his resume that impresses me. Thats just me though.
I do think Margarito may not be long for the top ten anyway. That style of being stronger, and tougher than everyone and not having the boxing skills and athleticism to back it up will eventually get you in trouble. Someone is going to out box you, as Williams did and Cotto did for a lot of the fight.
I think he stops Shane because of the size and age of Mosley, but if there is a Cotto rematch, which Arum seems to be saying will happen regardless of the Mosley outcome, than I think Cotto is going to get him.
Just out of curiousity, ICUH8N, what would your ten look like?
1)Manny Pacquiao
2)Juan Manuel Marquez
3)Joe Calzaghe
4)Bernard Hopkins
5)Israel Vazquez
6)Paul Williams
7)Ivan Calderon
8)Kelly Pavlik
9)Miguel Cotto
10)Chad Dawson
Honorable mentions: Ricky Hatton, Arthur Abraham, Rafael Marquez, Vic Darchinyan, Antonio Margarito, and Nate Campbell.
Questions? I can explain everything on there.
ICH8N, I agree with you about Margarito. People immediately dismiss the idea of Manny vs. Margarito saying that Margarito would destroy him and it would be a total mismatch and Manny couldn't hurt him and etc. etc. I really think that Manny would give Margarito more problems than everyone else thinks. Nobody thought Manny would do what he did against De La Hoya so why couldn't he surprise again against Margarito?
I had to put him in my top 10 pound for pound because of his accomplishments and I do believe he is a great boxer but I would like to see him face Manny.
I can't complain much about the list. JMM deserves a high spot, considering his wins over MAB and Casamayor and his near wins against the #1, Manny.
I too had Vazquez on my list, but I am somewhat conflicted about him, since his last three fights were all against the same guy. Granted Marquez is awesome too. I would like to see them fight other fighters for at least one fight to get a good idea of where they stand right now.
Yeah, I want to see Vazquez against someone else, I think he proved he's better than Marquez.
As far as JMM goes, he has won more rounds against Pacquiao then Pacquiao has won against him. JMM is #2 in my books no doubt. Calzaghe to me barely makes #3. He barely beat Hopkins, and Roy has been done for a while now. The only time Joe impressed me was against Lacy.
That Lacy fight was a revelation. At least for me, I knew of Joe just from seeing a lot of clips and reading impressions of him from reporters. I hadn't seen him fight live on TV up to that point, and Lacy had been on TV quite a bit on ESPN on his way up. Lacy had the look of a superman, and a lot of people saw Joe as a phony European fighter who couldn't cut it against a US fighter. Obviously, that was extremely wrong.
I had Bernard above Calzaghe too.
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