Pound for pound is a concept that people came up with to evaluate the abilities of fighters who cannot compete at the HW division. That's not intended to disrespect lower weight class fighters, as far as I'm concerned fighters in the middle classes deserve as much or even more respect because they generally have the deepest talent pools. With that said, pound for pound is an idea that tries to encapsulate a fighters ability per bodyweight poundage. Because the naturally larger you are (to a certain extent) the better H2H fighter you will be. Anybody who fights in 175 or below cannot possibly hope to compete against the best H2H fighters due to simply being too small. A big reason why Cruiserweight is probably the least respected division is because many perceive them as having the size necessary to compete for the HW championship. Which is essentially the title of best H2H fighter in the world. It's not uncommon to see a 6'4" Cruiserweight rehydrate to around 220. It's pointless to discuss Heavyweights on a pound for pound basis. They are not constrained to weight. All other fighters try to maximize their fighting prowess at weight limit. They are basically saying "I need to be as maximally effective at 154 pounds as possible or if I can't make 154 then 160 lbs, it doesn't matter how good I am at 157, all that matters is how good I am at 154 lbs or 160 lbs". Heavyweights have no use for that logic because the only thing they are concerned about is being the best H2H fighter in the world.
I disagree. I think a p4p list is just meant to show who the ten fighters with the best blending of athleticism and technique are. Ali, Louis, Tyson, and Klitschko all were definitely top ten in the world at their peaks and would have been forces at any weightclass. Also, I think when a cruiserweight like Holyfield moves up to beat great super heavyweights like Bowe, he deserves p4p respect. Likewise, a James Toney type guy who comes up from middleweight and is a top 10 heavy fighting in his fifth weight class, that's amazing. Michael Spinks moving up to beat Holmes might deserve it. There are definite exceptions. Most of the time I don't think there ought to be any heavyweights in the p4p list just because most heavyweights wouldn't be among the top 10 most skilled fighters in boxing. They represent about 1/17th of all boxers and aren't known for their technique. A lot of heavyweights are just big bruisers who can punch hard and maybe take a punch. They have unfair size advantages and bully smaller fighters if they can. Down at welterweight where size disparities are somewhat mitigated, it takes a lot more skill and natural athleticism to dominate people your own size. True, you sometimes have guys who dominate lower divisions through size advantages (Hearns, Foster, Spinks, Saddler, Arguello) but at least it's rarer.
I disagree thrice! 3 posts 3 takes on P4P gotta love it. P4P, as I understand it was meant to evaluate (one) fighter Walker Smith. After decades of American boxing, this dude caused sports writers to ponder if he weighed 147 or higher who could beat him? And as time past fighters who moved up and down with success were blessed with that title. Because there is no way to truly judge it, I can't eliminate HW, no matter how pathethic the division gets. If Wilder or AJ with their skills fought at 147, or 122, how would they perform? If Walker Smith fought at HW with his level of skill, who could beat him?
Same, to an extent. But with the knowledge that, any P4P opinions, there's no right or wrong. Nor any leverage that comes with the title, P4P best. I remember posters saying Floyd should have gotten paid more than Oscar because he was the P4P best. It's a fun topic, but that's all it is. IMHO
Yep, you are more geneous than I would be, but I basically agree. For me, pfp is something people made up to make smaller fighters feel better about themselves. You can no more divorce a fighters size from the rest of their fighting qualities than you can their reflexes, or any other physical trait they rely on in their fight game. You'll get alot of hate for expressing that though.
