I think Bute will be the next man on the list. One observation, outside of Calzaghe no one man has been on top of the division for long.
yes i agree ward would have to be number 1 now, but i dont think froch has ever been number one in the division.
Who had a better resume and or level of performance? He performed better against pascal then hopkins or dawson. He knocked out highly ranked jermain taylor who was coming off a, imo, draw with kelly. In the meantime bute was being battered by andrade and kessler was fighting no marks. I can't think of any real controversy there. Now eubank in 92 ahead of nunn is a very close decision. As is reid in 96 ahead of liles. Those two are much more debatable.
Liles should be ahead of Reid.If for no other reason that one was solid while the other was pretty poor.
I must admit it's one of the picks i'm least sure of. I mean could you confidently say that someone faced a better level of competition during that 12 month than robin reid? Liles, joe c, I wouldn't say it's certain.
I think actually i've overlooked jeff lacey. In the lead up to the unification he'd clearly usurped joe's claim imo.
Kessler's claim by 2006-ish was stronger than Lacy's. Ring rated Kessler #2 from 2004 onwards, while Lacy was never higher than #3. (Lacy) Going into the Calzaghe fight brought the IBF strap to the unification table with wins over Pemberton, Sheika and an *ancient* Reid. Kessler's claim (to have userped JC) is stronger. While JC and Lacy got it on, Kessler continued to be ranked #2 by Ring, while unifying the WBA & WBC titles at the weight, taking the scalps of Mundine, Beyer, Andrade and Lucas. It was the devastating performances of Lacy, rather than WHO he was fighting that made him seem the heir apparent. He never actually did enough to overhaul JC or MK's claims to be 'the man' in the division though IMHO. Sooo.....if anyone should interupt Cazaghe's run atop the 168 pile it should be Kessler, although his own unification with Beyer was after JC's with Lacy, weakening his claim somewhat.
You might want to copy and paste that, to have it on hand for everyone of these threads LUFC does for a while now
Hmmmmm yeah he was the other I was thinking of. However lacy was seen as the top man in the run up to the joe fight being the favourite over everyone. Maybe never cracked the annually but I think the monthly might tell a slightly different story?
Without checking I don't think he ever rose above #3. Neither monthly nor annually. He was definitely seen as the one 'on the up', but never got over the top, if you catch my drift. Never the top, top guy.
It seemed at the time that joe was the one with something to prove in the unification fight, somewhat of a paper champ if you will. Mikel knocking out beyer and mundine is immense. Either way we're only talking about the time from lacey's last victory until the joe fight.