Who were the top five fighters of this decade, 2000-2009?

OK, the Butcher can accept this without debate - unlike the other thread

 

Sound :good

 

As Ive said in a post after that, you dont have to be in full running retreat to take the path of least resistance out of a fight, especially after Barrera established his gameplan, acting as the counterpuncher. If that fight doesnt represent the term "silent agreement" in boxing I dont know what does?? To say that fight was remotely competitive is a big stretch. Those few rounds that Hamed won werent anything special and more from what Barrera didnt do, as he was in total control for pretty much the entire fight.
The Judah fight was the opposite, roles were reversed, only Cotto was pressing much harder and Judah was fighting back (as the usual) counterpuncher. Do you actually think Hamed did all he could do offensively based on what we had seen of him in the past and how easy Barrera was to engage by an opponent?? Going into the fight Hamed was supposed to be the bigger stronger guy, the big puncher, with one punch KO power. Hamed was simply outclassed, as was Judah only Hamed knew it, early in the fight, so he cruised his way right into retirement.
And for the rest of my loyal haters, if you dont see Cotto as a stand out fighter of the decade your crazy. Where he stands on your numerical lists is debateable, but its hard to think of 6 other fighters that took on tougher consecutive challengers in the last 9 years with the majority of them wins, and its certainly not hard to overlook a fighter like Barrera, who hasnt had a meaningful win in three years, IF you consider Rocky Juarez anything more than a solid B leveler, or his last win over a future all timer over five years ago.

 

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
2. Manny Pacquiao
3. Marco Antionio Barerra
4. Erik Morlass
5. Lenox Lewis

 

Manny Pacquiao
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Marco Antonio Barrera
Eriko Morales
Lennox Lewis

 

Koki Kameda

 

I like the four you mention...with the addition of Lennox Lewis.

 

Pacquaio
Mayweather
Barrera
Hopkins
Morrales

 

1. Pac
2. Floyd
3. Hopkins
4. Mosley
5. Barrera

 

Yes you do, because full running retreat is the path of least resistance. No matter how you try to downplay it, a guy who is pressing a fight is still taking risks by moving into his opponent's power - especially if he's lunging in wide open with wild haymakers, as the Prince was. Even late into the fight, Hamed was still lunging in swinging and getting nailed with big counterpunches as a result - hardly the "path of least resistance."

Hamed actually pressed him harder in the next couple of rounds after he first established his gameplan.

Then apparently you don't know, because that was nothing like a "silent agreement" fight. If you want to see a silent agreement, watch something like Tyson-Bonecrusher. This fight was nothing like that.

That's your spin on it, but the fact remains that he did win a few rounds and thus the fight was competitive at least to some degree.

Judah is not "usually" a counterpuncher, he just as often stands his ground or takes the fight to his opponent, and it was by doing that that he scored his biggest and most impressive career win vs. Spinks. That he came out on the back foot and counterpunching from the beginning vs. Cotto was a concession right at the start, and undermines your claim that he fought at his best for the fight.

I don't know, but he did do quite a bit as is. Judah did next to NOTHING to press Cotto and exploit his vulnerability to pressure. He adopted a losing gameplan at the outset and only pursued it even more vigorously as he fell further and further behind on points.

Judah knew it before the fight even began, and fought accordingly.

How does one manage to "overlook" a fighter who has been considered one of the defining fighters among the lower weight classes for most of the decade, and has featured in some of the decade's most memorable battles?

 

Cotto is my favorite active fighter,but I could not agree more with this contribution.Well said,Tommy.:good:good

 

Judah is not usually a counterpuncher??:huh The path of least resistance is exactly that, whatever gets you to the end of the fight the safest. In this case it was pretending to be an offensive fighter.
Tyson Smith wouldnt be fitting. How about Lewis Tua? Wouldnt that be a more realistic comparison? Lets not even suggest Tua was supposed to be as good as Hamed was, yet after trying to mount any type of offense and getting punished, he chose to plod forward just enough to keep Lewis off of him and lose a 12 round decision.
The HBO commentators used words like "exposed" when describing Hamed, but called Judah's performance courageous and showing a lot of heart. Youre right we knew what Judah was before the fight started, same with Tua, some also knew what Hamed was.
Already stated my position on Barrera, dont really care to discuss that further, he is a great fighter, just been out of the winning spot light for a few years.

 

1.Manny Pacquiao
2.Floyd Mayweather
3.Bernard Hopkins
4.Roy Jones Jr
5.Joe Calzaghe

Honrable Mention Vitali Klitschko, Shane Mosley, Tyszu, Barrera, Morales

 

That's right, he also fought like this as well (and usually with better results):

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The safest way for him would've been to stay away altogether and not lunge in wide open with haymakers. He got nailed and hurt a number of times doing that, yet even after that still continued to do it.

They'd already used the word "exposed" to describe Judah in the wake of his loss to Baldomir. They also noted around the 4th or 5th round of the Cotto fight that he had settled into his usual pattern of becoming increasingly tentative and less active/aggressive after taking some hard shots - the same pattern he showed against Baldomir and Mayweather.