ESPN ratings are out...

Everyone on esb should now only refer to Dan Rafael as "fat mess"

 

Dude you have it backwards. Devon was failing at trying to be offensive going backwards throwing combinations onto Kotelnik's gloves in a predictable rhythm while Kotelnik timed him with much cleaner counters. Alexander was the one bleeding worse and having his head snapped back constantly. He didn't do horribly but he was exposed as being more limited than previously thought.

 

nO DOUBT BUT HE WON THE FIGHT AND DID MORE DAMAGE TO THE BODY THAN KOTELNICK DID TO DEVONS FACE!

 

The thing you have to keep in perspective about Dan's rankings are that these things come out like every week. If there's no fight, there's no movement, if you lose you tend to drop a spot or more. If you win you either hold your spot or move up. I'll hilight some things mentioned by posters on here:

Ward has been rated #1 since his domination of Kessler. The reason being? He had Kessler rated #1 at the time and he ripped the title and espn's #1 spot away from him. Overall, Froch's resume is clearly better but I think at the time Pascal might not have been in ESPNs top 10(he wasn't as highly regarded at 168), Dirrell was around 8th, when he messed up Abraham....Abraham was ranked 8th or 9th. Kessler, who beat Froch when Froch was ranked #2...was ranked 4th or 5th(and it dropped Froch a spot or 2) I'm not sure where Taylor was ranked. There are two things I think changes things: If these rankings were put out monthly or once every 6 months or something, I think the rankings might be different, because then it wouldn't be a process of weekly updates and movements but rather a snapshot of the most accomplished.

Tavoris Cloud is ranked above Dawson because the light heavyweight division sucks. Since it sucks so much he was ranked 3rd or 4th. In a matter of 2 weeks he beat Glen Johnson in a close but clear victory and Chad Dawson was thoroughly beaten by Pascal. Since Dawson was 1rst at the time and Pascal thoroughly beat him he took Dawson's spot at the top. And Dawson fell below Cloud. Once again, if this were updated only once every 6 months I think Dawson would be ahead of Cloud simply because Dawson has 2 victories over Johnson, 2 victories over Tarver, a victory over Harding, a victory over Adamek, etc. But since it's updated weekly it works like college football or basketball.

It's about which fighter has the most momentum at the time rather than who's the most accomplished.

It's a mess.

 

1. Jean Pascal (26-1-1)

Pascal faces a dilemma: Either take the WBC-ordered rematch of his controversial Dec. 18 draw with Bernard Hopkins that Showtime wants or get stripped of his belt and honor a rematch clause with Chad Dawson, whom he beat in August on HBO.

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Could be the dumbest thing I've ever heard a "boxing writer" say.