I think Calzaghe (after PBF retired the first time) and definitely Lewis had good shouts for #1. Obviously Turpin but I doubt there were any such ratings at the time. Unfortunately Brit talent has been diluted as of late, with people like Glass Jaw Khan and Price making the headlines for the wrong reasons. Nothing but media hypejobs.
Anything can happen but I doubt it very seriously. Maybe a fighter from Briton that's trained exclusively in the States can get there but a fighter trained straight outta Briton, long long long shot.
It was always gonna happen after Lewis and Calzaghe hung them up. Froch did an astounding job of carrying the flag while not being on their elite level. But there are no UK fighters around that are anything close to Lewis or Zaggers, and there probably wont be for a long time. Both are argubaly the GOATs in their respective divisions - staggering for a country so small where football is by far the dominant sport
Beating the #1 p4p fighter doesnt automatically make you the #1 p4p fighter unless you were already close to that rank. Tarver didnt become #1 when he knocked out jones. Was turpin the # 1 in that division after he beat SRR? Yes, but not p4p #1. One win will never get you ranked #1 on that list.
If berto would have beat floyd on saturday would he have become your #1 p4p? You need multiple wins against good/great fighters before you can even be considered as #1 p4p. The last few p4p#1 were : Floyd, Manny, Hopkins, Roy Jones. No 1 win got them to that ranking.
the current p4p list features several older fighters some of which are close to retirement or don't really seem interested in fighting, the list will be very different in 18 to 24 months. So there's a chance the likes of brook / khan via beating a few top WW's, and possibly fury and joshia via beating klitscho then each other could make it there. There's a lot of depth in british boxing at the moment imo, probably a record number of belt holders, unfortunately a lot of our boxers, (khan, Frampton, saunders) seem a bit reluctant to get into the ring with a live test even if it means winning a world title and getting loads of money.
http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_Pound_For_Pound--2000s He was on the list from 2006 to 2008. Thats 3 years on the list. He could have been #1 P4P at some point in 2008... JMM should not have ever been ranked at #2. He could be out boxed and Chris John already proved it. Whether you could actually rank him above Pac was hard to know in 2008. I personally think you could have. JCC #1 P4P GOAT
Brook has a chance if he can get wins over Pacquiao and Bradley as there really aren't many fighters who are making a claim for it right now. One day there will be, there is always a special fighter that comes along from a different nation to the likes of USA, Mexico and eastern Europe.