Brutal destruction of a fellow champ, on a great streak, was knocking on the door anyway. He should be in the ten I think, what do you think?
after pac, floyd, donaire, ward, marquez and martinez, i have no problem putting him from the 7th spot to the 10th which are bradley, mares, wlad and viloria. 3 successive great performances from brian against top notch opponents. maybe at 10th.
1a. Juan Manuel Marquez. 1b. Floyd Mayweather. 3. Nonito Donaire. 4. Manny Pacquiao. 5. Sergio Martinez. 6. Andre Ward. 7. Wladimir Klitschko. 8. Abner Mares. 9. Brian Viloria. 10. Carl Froch. 11. Timothy Bradley. It's getting very tight to place people in my opinion. We have a very good set of top fighters at the moment, I just have doubts over how good our contenders and paper title holders are however...
Honestly, there is some bias there but it comes down to two underpinning factors for me. Both Mayweather and Marquez do not fight all that frequently (especially Floyd). Now taking that into account, you have Marquez who I thought beat Pacquiao by a good 8-4 or 7-3-1. For me that is the greatest win of this decade, under no circumstances did I think the ailing Marquez who had been troubled by Katsidis and Diaz could step in there and last the distance with Manny Pacquiao at that high of a weight. For him to win so clearly in my opinion is astonishing. Floyd. He is by far and the way the best fighter around today. I don't think he can step in the ring and be beaten by anybody sub 160. That being said his last two fights have been Ortiz and Cotto. Ortiz is a big, powerful guy but that is pretty much it. It was a pretty uninspiring performance against Ortiz, he struggled to completely neutralise a guy who only seems to know how to jump in and throwing looping shots. The Cotto fight...he looked pretty uninspiring again, although it was a very good fight to watch. Cotto is genuinely a very good fighter but he's clearly passed it (as is Floyd). I thought Floyd would have trouble in spots but would for the most part snipe Cotto, make sure he wasn't on the ropes and break that stiff, leaky guard down. He did that, but showed his own weaknesses against a guy I never though would bring them out. Cotto feighted him, pressured him behind the jab and or feights to the ropes knowing Floyd would go in straight lines backwards. The bias comes down to the fact that Floyd has had a healthy reign as number 1 on that list. Marquez hasn't but does kind of deserve it. I recognise it as a poor reason for a guy who doesn't like to apply emotion to his opinions but...alas. I'm finally sold on the brilliance of Juan Manuel Marquez.
Mayweather Ward Pacquiao Marquez Donaire Martinez Wlad Viloria Bradley Froch You could really have Viloria, Bradley and Froch in any order and if you wanted Mares in there over any of those 3 you could have. Viloria is fighter of the year without a doubt, Segura and Marquez are both great wins. The Segura win was especially pleasing as it was like watching a school bully getting his comeuppance.
Obviously I can't condone it, but at least you've thought about it man. I guess i'd have: 1) Floyd 2) Manny 3) Ward 4) Donaire 5) Martinez 6) Marquez 7) Wlad 8) Bradley 9) Viloria 0) Mares Horrific that Froch isn't making it in, really, but those two losses let Mares in IMO.
1. Floyd Mayweather Jr 2. Nonito Donaire 3. Andre Ward 4-6. Manny, Juan and Sergio, i struggle to split them. Sergio is on a great run, JMM outboxed Pacquiao but has had poor competition recently apart from that and Pacquiao cameback well against Bradley, but was comprehensively outboxed in his previous fight. 7. Wladimir Klitschko 8. Carl Froch 9. Abner Mares 10. Brian Viloria