Naming the Tiers of Current Fighters

Spence = avoided
Jacobs = overrated

 

To me elite doesn't have a certain number. I don't just say ok the top 10 or the top 30 guys in the world p4p are elite. To me an elite fighter is somebody who is operating at an extremely high level. One that warrants discussions about how he would fare against classic old school fighters. If you are elite that means you have HOF skills an potential.

Like I would not rate Errol Spence elite yet and maybe never depending how his career goes. But a guy like Terrence Crawford yes I rate him as elite. And for example I don't rate any HW's elite nor an SMW's or any FW's, etc. The term elite is tossed too much around here. It's reserved for the best of the best.

 

I will attempt to rate all the elite guys 126 pounds and above. Below FW and my knowledge gets a little fuzzy.

-Lomachenko
-Garcia
-Crawford
-GGG
-Kovalev

That's really all I can actually think of right now. We had more elite fighters recently, but many have aged out of being elite or they have retired. And I'm not even trying to sound snobbish at all here. It's just that these are the guys that stand out to me as operating on a very high level. The others just don't stack up to the very highest level.

 

I’d put Thurman in there. He’s the only one giving TC a run for his money at 147.

Alvarez too perhaps. He surprised us all against GGG despite the cooked cards.

 

Wilder claims that Sconiers and Nichols belong in the HOF!

Spence does not appear to be as good as he is made up to be, I think Thurman would knock him out!!!

 

Yeah we should distinguish more between world class and elite. But only calling as few as the top 10 p4p elite is a bit too restrictive. Top 50 p4p is the top 3 in a division. Always a grey line, but somewhere between about top 20 to about 50 p4p is elite. More than that, the term 'world class' needs to be cast pretty wide. Sometimes world class is misunderstood to be elite or the very best, but it's broader than that, just means you're close to and can compete with the best. World class is always top 10 in a division, but in deep classes can be more than top 20.

 

All the tiers the op outlined have grey lines, none should have a certain number. There are usually a broad amount of elite or world class so we can try to put a general number to it, but as you say it's about the level the guy performs at. Which is why it doesn't make sense to include HOF as a tier with the others. Pacquiao and RJJ are established HOF, but Pac is no longer elite, and Jones no longer even world class.