Saturday Night Boxing: Pound-for-Pound Update 5-27-15

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Pound-for-Pound Update 5-27-15

The one notable change in the Saturday Night Boxing pound-for-pound list is the removal of Juan Manuel Marquez from the rankings on account of inactivity. Over a year since his last fight and with nothing scheduled, Marquez exits the Rankings. All other fighters on the list who were below him move up one spot (I had Marquez at six) and Jamaican featherweight Nicholas Walters enters the Rankings at #20. Walters has made three defenses of his featherweight title including a knockout win over Nonito Donaire, who was in the SNB pound-for-pound list prior to his defeat.

I'd also like to make a quick note about Gennady Golovkin, whom I have ranked at #12. Most outlets have him ranked significantly higher than I do, which is certainly their prerogative. Perhaps I place more emphasis on the quality of opposition than others do. To my eyes, Golovkin still hasn't defeated a fighter at the top of the division. Now, I understand that Golovkin is not necessarily to blame for this reality – fighters such as Sturm, Martinez (when they mattered), Cotto and Quillin have all avoided fighting him (or failed to get in the ring with him, whichever euphemism you choose). However, I can't jump him over fighters who have better wins. I have placed Golovkin over Cotto, the lineal champ at middleweight, and I'm sure that there are convincing arguments as to why Golovkin, at his present form, deserves to be higher than guys like Stevenson, Froch or Rigondeaux. But on resume, I believe that the others have better wins. Rigondeaux only has Donaire for a notable victory but I had Donaire ranked as number-three at the time of Rigondeaux's win.

Using the resume argument, I also could make the claim that I have Takashi Uchiyama (16) too low and that he should rank higher than Golovkin does. Uchiyama has made 10 defenses of his junior lightweight belt and has stopped two fighters – Juan Carlos Salgado, Takashi Miura – who subsequently went on to win titles at 130 and another, Bryan Vasquez, who has gained an interim title. Golovkin has made 14 defenses of his middleweight title belt but hasn't faced the quality of opposition that Uchiyama has. Choosing between Golovkin and Uchiyama fosters a good debate, as all these lists do. I'm not expecting you to agree with every decision made on my list but hopefully you will understand my thought process a little more clearly.

We all have our biases and although I was an early advocate of Uchiyama as a pound-for-pound level fighter it still may be the case that a pro-Western bias has kept him too low in my Rankings. But as a rule, I will use recent resume as much as present form when evaluating where to rank fighters accordingly.

The complete Saturday Night Boxing pound-for-pound list is below: