If boxing cut down to it's original 8 weight classes, who would you rank top in each of the old school 8 divisions? (assuming that fighters in the weight classes between moved up) For me: Heavyweight- Wladimir Klitschko Only him and Vitali to realistically claim to be top dog, Wladimir has beaten more and better quality opposition though. Light Heavyweight- Andre Ward Easy choice here. Ward has beaten Dawson, Froch and Kessler. Dawsons beaten Hopkins. Hopkins beaten Cloud and Pascal. Froch has beaten Bute, leaqving Ward as the only one you could rank #1. Middleweight- Sergio Martinez Clearly the top ranked middleweight. After Canelo's win he closed the gap a bit last night. Welterweight- Floyd Mayweather Has beaten Marquez, who's beat Pacquiao. Pacquiao beat Bradley to anyone with eyes, Guerrero has only had 2 fights at Welterweight, a few solid 140lbs but not have done as much as Mayweather between Welterweight and Lightweight. Lightweight- Miguel Vazquez A lot of people will say Broner here but I don't think he's accomplished as much as Vazquez yet plus he's moving up. Close though as Burns, Abril and Uchiyama also have considerable achievements at Lightweight/ Jr Lightweight Featherweight- Chris John 4 outstanding candidates are John, Mikey Garcia, Guillermo Rigondeaux and Abner Mares. With only wins over Morel and Moreno, who both regularly campaign at Batamweight, I ruled out Mares. Saldio is the best name on Garica's resume so I ruled out him. Then it was between Rigo and John, Rigondeaux has done more lately, but I just think John has been the featherweight king for a while and nobody has knocked him off his perch. Batamweight- Shinsuke Yamanaka Another close one between Yamanaka, Moreno, Santa Cruz, and Sato, I went for Yamanaka as his last 4 wins (Esquivel, Darchinyan, Rojas and Tunaco) are more impressive than anyone else's to me. Flyweight- Roman Gonzalez Brian Viloria has been beaten by Estrada who Gonzalez beat in his last fight, Wongjamkam aged over night and the lineal 112 pound champion has been passed around betweenaverage fighters, the current Yageshi is good but has been beaten by Ioka, who would probably rank just below Gonzalez and has only had 11 fights, Mthlane is also a top contender.
Good choices but I really think it should be Mikey Garcia. I'm telling you, even as much as hype he's gotten he's underrated; a damn walking boxing bible.
Maybe, I think I agree he'd beat anyone down there, including Rigondeaux and John, I just think Rigondeaux victory over Donaire is better than Garcia's over Salido and John has been the top dog since he beat Marquez and hasn't been knocked off yet. My rankings would be- Champ- Chris John 1. Guillermo Rigondeaux 2. Mikey Garcia 3. Nontio Donaire 4. Orlandio Saldio 5. Abner Mares
I have a question. For example Mares to be ranked at featherweight, would we only consider his resume at 119+ and all before at bantam and before is null? Like a normal ranking system? Because his resume at 122 likely wouldn't warrant him to be in the top 10 of what would be featherweight in this thread, as a guy like Salido off a defeat would still certainly outrank him. As for your rankings, I agree with everything except: Lightweight- Broner, Uchiyama, Burns, Vazquez in that order Bantamweight- Moreno, Uchiyama, Narvaez in that order I agree with everything else, with featherweight being debatable between John, Garcia, and Rigondeaux. I would probably rank Rigo higher, as I value the Donaire win probably more than anyone on this site does (actually, that's not true since some people rank him #3 P4P and literally view him as the messiah). But I rank John higher than Mikey at FW now, so that wouldn't change at all.
If it was the original weightclasses Rigondeaux would be fighting at Bantemweight I believe and would be the champion there
Heavyweight- Vitali Klitschko Light Heavyweight- Andre Ward Middleweight- Sergio Martinez Welterweight- Floyd Mayweather Lightweight- Broner Featherweight-Rigondeaux Batamweight- Leo Santa Cruz Flyweight- Roman Gonzalez
yup. with boxing losing popularity, the corrupt orgs should realize that less divisions would result in better fights and can only help marketability