Top Ten P4P Fighters of the 2000's

...Was it in awe of your superior knowledge? atsch

 

Somebody disect the geniuses list! Mosley #4? Hopkins above Mayweather? Pacquaio #1? your so smart addie!:think

 

i guess so

 

Calzaghe
Roy Jones
Tszyu
Mayweather
Joan Guzman
Lennox Lewis
Pacquaio
Andre Ward
Roland Wright
Hopkins

 

Koki Kameda.

 

you are forgettin DLH

 

Although I concede that either Morales or Barrera have cases to be above the other, I'll tell you why I always rank Marco above him in terms of P4P greatness.

We can list the strengths of Erik Morales all day long, and it often happens in the General Forum due to the admiration he's acquired with gutsy performances over the likes of Pacquiao and Barrera. However, for all of his storng points, Erik was never really an efficient operator. Average champions like In Jin Chi, Jesus Chavez, and the strong-willed Wayne McCullough gave a prime Erik Morales all he can handle. He was more concerned with giving the fans a good fight, and lost his composure, which enabled him to be tagged on a consistent basis against all three of them. The final scorecards may have read a decisive Morales victory, but his face told a different story. I couldn't ever imagine In Jin Chi, Wayne McCullough, or Jesus Chavez tagging Marco Antonio Barrera as often.

That all fits into my belief that Marco Antonio Barrera was a more complete fighter at his peak than Morales. Barrera could put his punches together more accurately and in higher numbers, and still maintain a good enough defense to not be beaten up by an In Jin Chi or McCullough level operator. It's true, Morales was exceptional against Paulie Ayala, but how many times did we really get to see him perform that well against decent level competition? Not very often. Marco was consistently putting into wonderfully efficient performances during his peak. Former champions Enrique Sanchez and Jesus Salud barely landed a glove on him, and he even managed to do the same against the best Featherweight in the world, Naseem Hamed.

Marco was defensively a better fighter, he possessed faster hands, and his combination punching to head and body was superior. I'd give Morales the edge in punch resistance, punching power, and stamina. I don't feel like I'm selling anyone short here, either.

The real reason why I rank Barrera ahead of his fiercest rival is because I scored all three fights for Marco, with the 2nd encounter being terribly close to being a draw on my card. The general consensus among Boxing fans is that Barrera certainly won the first and third fight, but there seems to be a misconception about their bout in 02. Nobody was outboxed, it was a boring, reluctant fight, where neither fighter looked impressive. I felt Marco did more work down the stretch and just edged it on my card. Not a fight I revisit to often, it pails in comparison to their other two efforts.

There you have it. I felt Barrera went 3-0 over Erik, and had the better set of skills which enabled to take out good contenders in less exciting, but more efficient fashion.

 

Every fighter besides Pacquiao, Mayweather, Hopkins, Calzaghe has a lot losses.

Some people always seem to underrate Mosley. He definitley belongs in at least everybodies top 7 this decade. While Mosley has losses to Winky and Vernon twice along with a squeker against Cotto he didn't lose to any B level opponents. He beat De La Hoya 2 times, Margarito by KO, Vargas 2 times by KO, and an underrated win over Luis Collazo. Erik Morales for example has terrible losses to David Diaz and Zahir Raheem. Both of those guys are just not that good. That would be like Mosley losing to Antonio Diaz. Everybody gives Morales a lot of credit for his win against against Pacquiao and it was a great win, it gets him in the top 10 of the list but he ended the decade losing 5 in a row. Morales is below Barrera because he lost to him twice, and Morales has more bad losses. Morales has the best win of the two. But Barrera has more good wins, Hamed and Morales twice, while Morales has Pac and the 1st Barrera fight.

To me JMMarquez, Mosley, and Barrera are pretty much interchangable. They would be followed Morales and Winky Wright. They all had losses in the decade, Barrera and Mosley fought better opposition more consistently then Marquez, but Marquez didn't have as many losses. I rate Marquez over Barrera by a smidge just based on their head to head meeting. Also you could add Calzahge to the list of those 4 because while he was undefeated, he didn't fight a real A list fighter until he fought Hopkins ins 2008. That win alone puts him in anybody's top 6. Winky Wright has good wins over Mosley(2) and Trinidad. But he didn't fight a fighter of note until fighting Mosley in 2004, and while beating Mosley is great, it was against a smaller fighter. The Trinidad win was big too, but Trinidad was not the same guy Hopkins beat 4 years before. Winky also did not win fight after 2006(will probably win a few weeks against a mediocre Grady Brewer). So that puts Winky in the bottom of all the top 10 lists.

Pacquiao is definite number 1, anybody who tells you otherwise is biased. He fought the opposition and had the best record against good opposition. You could debate Mayweather or Hopkins for 2. I would go with Mayweather as number 2 on consistency and him moving up in weight. Hopkins fought better opposition, but besides Pavlik(pavlik moved up in weight to fight Hop) and Tarver, all of his big wins came against smaller men, De La Hoya and Trinidad. Also Hopkins lost to Jermain Taylor who we know now as not a great fighter.

The final spot in the top 10 would have to go to a Heavyweight, it would be between the Klits Bros and Lewis. Lewis only fought the beginning of the decade but he was the superior heavyweight of the 3.

Some people try to argue De La Hoya, Trinidad or maybe even Cotto, but none of those guys were consistent this decade. De La hoya and Trinidad were top 10 guys in the 90's but De La Hoya lost every big fight this decade, and so did Trinidad. The Vargas fights would be the exceptions for both. Cotto was close, but he was knocked out in 2 of 3 big fights. His close win over Mosley was puts in the discussion but he had a lot of uneven performances against guys like Clottey, Corley, and Torres puts him down the list.

 

Hopkins at 2?? Surely you meant 22.

 

Should Lennox Lewis not be in that list. Somewhere around 9 or 10.

 

gud list...dam I miss Erik Morales, what a helluva fighter!

 

He`s British so therefore automatically barred from the list. El Capillo typed Joe Calzaghe at #9 by mistake.