07.05.07 – By James Slater, photo by Naoki Fukuda: “The Golden Boy” shone pretty brightly once again this past Saturday, didn’t he? By pushing the man most writers have (had?) at number one in the world’s pound-4-pound ratings all the way to a close and debatable split decision, Oscar more than proved he is far from done as a fighter. If he so chose he could easily reel off another two or three fights – and what’s more he would probably win them. Who would pick either Ricky Hatton or Miguel Cotto as dead-certs over him at 147 pounds, for instance?
So, does Oscar, after his respectable performance in the fight “The World Awaited,” deserve to once again be ranked in the top ten of the world’s absolute elite fighters? And, in another question, does Floyd Mayweather deserve to be lowered a place? Struggling against a guy who is at least five or six years past his peak, in a fight most tipped him to win with ease, is not something that should happen to a guy as good as the experts, and Floyd himself, say he is. Manny Pacquiao and his loyal followers will certainly have something to say about it if “Pretty Boy” retains his lofty position atop all things pound-4-pound, that’s for sure..
And before anyone comes to Mayweather’s defence and states that Floyd moved up in weight so as to tackle De La Hoya, and therefore deserves no such criticism for having had his hands full with the naturally larger man, it should not be forgotten that “Pac-Man” came up to his current weight class of junior lightweight all the way from junior flyweight! That’s a leap of six divisions if you’re counting. And is his fights with men past their best – Erik Morales, for example – the Filipino star got the job done quickly. Something Floyd came nowhere near close to doing against the thirty-four year old Golden Boy.
With all that said, I now list my ten choices for the best pound-4-pound fighters in the world today.
1. Manny Pacquaio. Junior lightweight. Record – 43-3-2 (34) Last fight – KO 8 Jorge Solis.
2. Floyd Mayweather. Junior middleweight. Record – 38-0 (24) Last fight – W12 Oscar De La Hoya.
3. Winky Wright. Middleweight. Record – 51-3-1 (25) Last fight – W12 Ike Quartey.
4. Rafael Marquez. Junior featherweight. Record – 37-3 (33) Last fight – W RTD 7 Israel Vasquez.
5. Jermain Taylor. Middleweight. Record – 26-0-1 (17) Last fight – W12 Kassim Ouma.
6. Juan Manuel Marquez. Junior lightweight. Record – 47-3-1 (35) Last fight – W12 Marco Antonio Barrera.
7. Bernard Hopkins. Light heavyweight. Record – 47-4-1 (32) Last fight – W12 Antonio Tarver.
8. Joe Calzaghe. Super middleweight. Record – 43-0 (32) Last fight – TKO3 Peter Manfredo.
9. Oscar De La Hoya. Junior middleweight. Record – 38-5 (30) Last fight – L12 Floyd Mayweather.
10. Marco Antonio Barrera. Junior lightweight. Record – 63-5 (42) Last Fight – L12 Juan Manuel Marquez.
10. (Tie) Ricky Hatton. Junior welterweight. Record – 42-0 (30) Last fight – W12 Juan Urango.