So What on GOD'S EARTH does the Pound-for-Pound list LOOK LIKE?

The only thing I'm sure on is that my top four includes Kovalev, Ward, Lomachenko, and Crawford. As far as the actual order? No clue. Lomachenko is straight-up the best boxer in the world for me. He's an phenom of the highest order, but he doesn't have the wins just yet to show for it. Crawford is incredibly versatile and has beaten some very good opponents, but he doesn't have that single win on his record for me to definitively say he's P4P number one. Ward beat Kovalev on the official cards, so he has a strong case. But Kovalev won that fight on my card (and in the eyes of most boxing fans), so he has just as strong a case - particularly when you factor in he's been much more active than Ward and has more recent solid wins.

I might just settle on:

Kovalev
Ward
Crawford
Lomachenko

After that, it gets even more tricky. Roman won last night for me, and I think you can certainly make a strong case he's absolutely still top five, but he looks to be maxed out at 115, and he's visibly declined from his peak/prime years. Not sure how much he will have left in the tank when he comes back.

 

Very tough to make a list. I'll hazard:
1. Ward and Kovalev (I think Kovalev won close, but Ward is the smaller man. Rematch winner takes #1 clear)
3. Lomachenko (Looks the best, but needs to fight p4p opposition to get to 1)
4. GGG (will give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe it was just a bad night. I rewatched and had GGG winning by 1 pt against a bigger opponent)
5. Crawford
6. Rigondeaux
7. Gonzalez (the loss was controversial, plus he was the smaller guy anyway)
8. Alvarez.
9. Mikey Garcia
10. Thurman

Honourable mentions in no order: Inoue, Jacobs, Yamanaka, Usyk, Cuadras, Estrada, Lara, Frampton, Santa Cruz; might have missed a few.

Pacquaio too close to retirement and Floyd not interested in fighting anyone serious so both omitted.

 

Golovkin - arguably lost.

Arguably lost ? You can argue that anyone who ever won a UD "arguably lost."

No, Gannicus.

Ward wasn't moved up because a good majority of boxing experts and casual fans alike, felt he lost.

The majority of experts and fans alike feel that GGG won. There's a difference.

The TNBR list will probably look something like:

Ward
Kovalev
pac
Crawford
GGG
Loma
Inoue
Gonzalez
SantaCruz
Yamanaka


My personal rankings

Loma
Crawford
Pac
Ward
Kov
GGG
Gonzalez
Inoue
Santa Cruz
Thurman

 

My criteria consist of a combination of what the dude has done recently (one to two years) and the eye test (how does he look, skill wise). I put about twice as much weight on recent resume as I do on 'apparent skill.'

My list, like all such lists, is subjective to some degree, even though I try to remain unbiased.

Why don't you include Santa Cruz and who would you replace him with ?

Being Irish, I would prefer to have Frampton in there, but Santa Cruz recently evened their series.

If he doesn't provide a rubber match within six months, I will swap them.

Same with Ward and Kov.

 

I don't make lists.

(1) So there.

 

A win is a win, who you beat and in some cases lost to is a huge contribution when picking a P4P top 10. Anyone who does not have GGG in the top 3 are bias.

 

If the result is controversial, why should it change the rankings at all?

1.Roman Gonzalez
2.Andre Ward
3.Guillermo Rigondeaux
4.Vasyl Lomachenko
5.Sergey Kovalev
6.Gennady Golovkin
7.Erislandy Lara
8.Canelo Alvarez
9.Terence Crawford
10.Naoya Inoue
11.Oleksandr Usyk
12.Juan Francisco Estrada
13.Shinsuke Yamanaka
14.Manny Pacquiao
15.Anthony Joshua

Something like that seems fair.

 

Mayweather fighting McGregor in a couple of months, guess he's back in the p4p spot. 8)

 

The real question is how many more top fighters does Loma have to beat before we finally say "Okay, I'll put him at #1 now..."

 

He has clearly been the best boxer in the world ever since FM retired. No one is coming anywhere near close to boxing as well as Loma.