Pound for Pound Top 100 Active List

Bouts on 4/4/12:

Koki Kameda remains #22 after his apparently very tight UD over Nouldy Manakane. I must admit that as of now, I have not seen this fight, but have spent a good bit of time reading reviews and recaps. Koki has been one of the most controversial of my placements and I expect the Manakane fight to only continue that trend.

Tepparith Singwancha impresses and appears on virtue of a hot streak over his past three fights (Drian Francisco, Daiki Kameda, Tomonobu Shimizu). Shimizu, previously ranked #93, drops out. Tepparith takes position at #84 after his nice stoppage of Shimizu.

Denis Lebedev moves up a couple of notches from 97 to 95 after his KO of Shawn Cox. The argument could easily be made that Lebedev belongs higher, but I find it equally justifiable for those to say that he probably shouldn't even make a top 100 list. It depends how you view who he has beaten and how you view how he has looked. Even against Cox, call me crazy but Lebedev got tagged by a few big shots in round 1 that shook his legs a couple times. I don't know, I think the 90's is where he belongs for now.
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Also to come on 4/6 from Tokyo, Japan:

#70 Vic Darchinyan (37-4-1)
vs. Shinsuke Yamanaka (15-0-2), WBC bantamweight champion

#74 Takahiro Ao (22-2-1), WBC super featherweight champion
vs. Terdsak Kokietgym (46-3-1)

#92 Hozumi Hasegawa (29-4)
vs. Felipe Felix (18-0)

My predictions are: Darchinyan TKO8, Ao UD, Hasegawa UD

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EDIT- Results:

Yamanaka UD12 Darchinyan
Ao UD12 Kokietgym
Hasegawa TKO7 Felix

Darchinyan exits the top 100.
Yamanaka enters at #70.
Ao rises a few spots to #71.
Hasegawa remains #92.

 

Pavlik was quite high before his defeats to Hopkins (@ 170 lbs.) and to Sergio. Neither of which ever did enough to get him close to falling off the list. Inactivity has allowed for many to pass him, but not for him to disappear. The Jaco win was merely to dust off his gloves and his active streak of fighting once in the calendar 12 months from his last fight.

As for Abraham, I think he quite clearly doesn't deserve to be ranked. He is 3-3 and while the competition in the three wins have been fierce, he has won a total of maybe three rounds over the course of those 30+. His wins include an early injury TKO vs. Bozic, a mid round KO where he looked less than stellar, and the recent decision against Wilzcewski in a competitive fight.

 

In the upcoming days:

4/13
#68 Felix Sturm vs. Sebastian Zbik

4/14
#3 Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Sergei Fedchenko
#26 Brandon Rios vs. Richard Abril
#90 Victor Terrazas vs. Jose Palma

I'm picking all of the favorites to win. The Sturm/Zbik fight is the most competitive in my mind. Sturm has proven his past two times out that he will get credit from judges no matter. Rios won't move too dramatically ahead on the basis that Abril isn't solid enough of an opponent. Same with Terrazas.

 

Results:
Sturm RTD9 Zbik
JMM UD12 Fedchenko
Rios SD12 Abril
Terrazas KO4 Palma

Ranking changes:
Sturm rises from #68 to #49
Marquez remains at #3
Rios drops from #26 to #78
Abril enters at #75
Terrazas rises from #90 to 87
Stieglitz exits to the theoretical #101

Reasoning:
-Sturm dominating and stopping Zbik, who stood up for 12 rounds against the bigger Chavez Jr, was impressive. He did so while showcasing one of the best jabs in MW history and of the past decade plus. While it may seem interesting for him to move up 19 spots on virtue of a Zbik domination, Sturm is also an interesting case when considering his long title reign with the past two fights being, in my opinion and many's, losing efforts.
-Marquez stays at #3 because I think due respect for Pacquiao's career accomplishments give him the slightest edge in the #2 vs. #3 argument. In the end, Fedchenko was just not going to be enough to have JMM stock significantly improve. If Pacquiao were to even take that fight, I would harass him. I too think Pacquiao will justify my keeping him #2 against Bradley in two months' time.
-This is one of the times where I will openly admit I was wrong in my ranking. Brandon Rios never deserved to be #26, where I had him entering the Abril fight. He lost every round, spare for one or maybe two of them against a guy who theoretically didn't deserve to be there at all. Abril was the Ring #10 ranked LW, so it is not as though he lost to a Sonny Boy Jaro in a Wonjongkam sized upset. Missing weight twice consecutively, this time by a whole two pounds, also does not bode well for a P4P list.
-Abril enters a few spots above where Rios settled. Ultimately, the near shutout/shutout performance was a showcase win. He showed great defensive skills and intelligence in defeating a feared and perceived devastating fighter. But, when we look at his career best wins, we are left with a likely always overrated and aging Acosta who just got KO'd by Rios and then his second best official W on down is amongst the worst on the list. I will just go out and say yes, Abril holds the worst official victories in my top 100.
-Terrazas moves up a few spots not on virtue of his opposition he beat on Saturday or for his need of activity for his resume's sake, but by me simply feeling he deserved to leapfrog Mundine, Trout, Macklin, and Roman Martinez. I value Terrazas' resume with notable wins being: UD12 Marlon Aguillar, SD12 Nehomar Cermeno, TKO3 Feider Viloria, and his career highlight of bruising, KD'ing, and ending the elite level of Fernando Montiel, UD12.
-Stieglitz certainly retains the ranking of #101 in my eyes, as Fuentes is still #102. No other rankings have been committed to and bumped out aside from those two. A win over Groves in his next scheduled fight would certainly land him back in.

EDIT: 4/24/12 UPDATE
Anselmo Moreno TKO9 David de la Mora / Moreno remains at #10.
Abner Mares UD12 Eric Morel / Mares advances from #26 to #23.
Omar Narvaez UD12 Jose Cabrera / Narvaez remains at #42.
Erislandy Lara TKO1 Ronald Hearns / Lara advances from #73 to #67.
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4/27 EDIT (trying not to continually bump my thread...)

Saturday, April 28
#11 Chad Dawson vs. #12 Bernard Hopkins
#21 Roman Gonzalez vs. Ramon Garcia
#33 Jhonny Gonzalez vs. Elio Rojas
#76 Juan Carlos Salgado vs. Martin Honorio
Sunday, April 29
#66 Viacheslav Senchenko vs. Paul Malignaggi
Tuesday, May 1
#77 Dmitry Pirog vs. Nobuhiro Ishida

My predictions are: Dawson TKO10, Gonzalez KO2, Gonzalez TKO3, Salgado UD, Senchenko UD, Pirog KO4

 

Dawson MD12 Hopkins, R. Gonzalez TKO4 Ramon Garcia, J. Gonzalez UD12 E. Rojas, Salgado MD12 Honorio, Malignaggi TKO9 Senchenko

Dawson from #11 up to #8.
Hopkins from #12 down to #24.
R. Gonzalez from #21 up to #19.
J. Gonzalez from #33 up to #32.
Salgado from #76 up to #74.
Senchenko exits the list from #66.
Malignaggi enters the list at #70.

-Dawson returns to the top 10. His already strong resume justifies an 8 placement and any lower after his clear victory over Hopkins would be questionable. I scored the fight 117-111 for Dawson. I thought Hopkins fought insanely dirty as usual, but give him credit for being in most of the rounds and taking shots I thought would have more of an effect than did. He slides down, but not too far. His age and his past 12 months in the ring show that he could be ranked lower but there is no way at this point Hopkins goes below the guys I have just below him in Guerrero, Burns, Uchiyama, Pascal, Huck, YPH, etc. That might and is almost certain to change with Huck vs. Afolabi II, Guerrero vs. Aydin, and Pascal vs. Cloud being on the books in the coming months.
-Roman Gonzalez's KO over Ramon Garcia, a respectable opponent for sure, was an impressive one. If a count was administered, it would be amongst the tops for KO of the Year.
-Jhonny and Salgado each had relatively flat performances. While Gonzalez's was impressive with Elio Rojas, albeit on a layoff, it was only enough to further reassure his current position. Salgado's performance could be interpreted several different ways in terms of how it should affect his rankings. Ultimately, Salgado gets a touch of respect and no loss of ranking due to: a) Honorio is a solid opponent, b) Salgado got the win, c) he has KD's to show for it as well, d) activity in the ring.
-Senchenko clearly was overrated by me going into this weekend. His skills sort of eroded overnight and were shown to have been properly matched to showcase. After the stoppage loss to Paulie, he falls out of the rankings. At 35, he would need to do a hell of a lot quick to get back in. Malignaggi roars back on the list up to 70, out of respect to his achievement of becoming a two weight titlist, defeating a legit top 5 ranked WW, while traveling to Ukraine to do so. Taking Senchenko's undefeated record with ease is a very nice feat. His previous achievements including the Diaz and Ndou fights, further boasted by his 4-0 run above JWW with Jose Cotto and Orlando Lora to support the Senchenko W, justify him elevating to this position.

 

Thank you, sir.

I just honestly can't put JMM lower than #3. He was #6 when he was attempting to jump up two weight classes to face the #1/2 fighter in the world. I, and the majority, scored the fight to JMM 8-4. Not a razor close 7-5 where I acknowledge scoring preferences and differences, but a clear-cut 8-4 victory for JMM jumping up two divisions. The fact that I don't have him ahead of Pacquiao is only out of my respect for Pacquiao's career as an entirety. If you happen to check back, I'd like to know your opinion on this, being that you would rank Marquez lower.

 

Dmitry Pirog goes from #77 to #71 after his thorough UD over Nobuhiro Ishida.

Not that the win alone is that great, but in combination with the rest of his undefeated, title holding resume, he deserves higher placement than all those he leapfrogged (including Salgado, Ao, Kirkland, etc.).

 

Please do.

Thanks a lot.

Feel free to drop in some input or raise some questions!

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EDIT on 5/4
(once again, I don't want to continually bump my thread, so I'm just adding to this post)

5/3 - #82 Kompayak Porpramook W TD5 Jonathan Taconing ; The fight should be treated as an evenly fought draw, and Taconing looked very good. I'd probably pick Taconing in a potential rematch, which I doubt happens...
- Porpramook did nothing to show he belonged on the list, let alone the thought of him rising. That said, most had it dead even still, his big win over Adrian Hernandez in a FOTY candidate last December, plus his somewhat gaudy number of victories carries and justifies his ranking of #82. I'll likely have no problem elevating Hernandez ahead of Porpramook on the quality of a decent win should he get one despite the H2H defeat on the basis of this Taconing fight.

There are 4 ranked fighters in action this weekend.
5/5 Fights:
#1 Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. #12 Miguel Cotto
#29 Marco Huck vs. Ola Afolabi II
#56 Saul Alvarez vs. Shane Mosley
Predictions:
Mayweather KO8
Alvarez TKO9
Huck UD

 

Great day of boxing on 5/5!
Results:
Mayweather UD12 Cotto
John UD12 Kimura *despite thinking about it all week, I forgot to properly list it in above post
Huck D12 Afolabi II
Alvarez UD12 Mosley
(I was way off in my predictions, but to give myself credit, called a John UD, Vargas UD, and Quintana KO8.)

Affected Rankings:

Floyd Mayweather retains his position as P4P #1.

Miguel Cotto falls from #12 to #19.

Chris John retains his position, but by virtue of Cotto dropping, he moves from #17 to #16.

Marco Huck falls from #29 to #52.

Alvarez rises from #56 to #39.

Afolabi enters the list at #97.

Mayweather obviously retains his position by way of a hard earned 117-111 or 116-112 Unanimous Decision over one of the top ranked junior middleweights and elite P4P fighter in Cotto. Was it his greatest performance ever? No. Cotto's abilities and gameplan allow the win to be even more impressive than if Cotto got wiped out from the start and showed to be a corpse of a fighter.

Cotto's performance was very spirited, but in the end, he needed to descend down the list past a few of the other guys in the teens. The reality is that he won no more than 4 rounds and there is no case that it was a draw, or that he didn't lose several decisive rounds. Besides, his resume over the past 4 years is still skeptical and has losses. The losses are to elites and include one questionable one, but at the same time, his wins during that span by no means do enough to keep him in his previous spot or to elevate him. Perhaps the performance would elevate his ranking from those who didn't have him properly ranked going into the fight, but I believe I did.

Chris John adds to his undefeated resume by picking up a solid win over Shoji Kimura. This win reassures his spot, but I still can't elevate him higher by virtue of his competition.

Marco Huck likely deserved to lose the decision to Afolabi, but at the same time, the rounds were debatable and a fair amount of folks scored it for Huck. Huck's weaknesses in stamina, technique, and ring smarts showed up in this one. However, Afolabi is a legit enough foe to not completely discredit him. Also, his evenly fought MD loss to Povetkin, the clear 3rd best HW in the world, at HW, also holds merit here. For that, he slots down to one spot behind Povetkin. I still think his resume stands up to that positioning.

Alvarez showed me a lot. Mosley was the best looking I have seen him since the Margarito fight (or, I guess, Mayweather Round 2), and Alvarez used him as a showcase of his skillset. Alvarez showed tremendous patience and intelligence in almost every punch and combination he threw, while also showing off some of his new solid defense. One might argue that Alvarez is a "hypejob" who "has been fed a bunch of guys," but he beat all of them and if you don't think he deserves to be close to where he is, I would ask you to engage in a resume comparison with guys you would rank both below and ahead of him. It is tough not to put him in the general area which I did.

Afolabi certainly showed a good account of himself against Huck. He has picked up some decent wins since their first close fight that he lost. In addition to the close decision loss and now the draw with Huck, his only other loss was in his fourth pro fight at LHW against Allan Green. His top wins are also somewhat respectable, despite being thin for being on the list, in: KO9 Enzo Mac (before Lebedev and Frenkel got in on that), TKO5 Lubos Suda, KO1 Terry Dunstan (in a KO of the Year candidate), and RTD5 Valery Brudov. He slots in one spot below Lebedev, who similarly had a close fight/deserved decision against Huck.