MMA vs BOXING

ABOUT BOXING

Boxing is a combat sport and martial art in which two people fight using their fists. Boxing is typically supervised by a referee engaged in during a series of one- to three-minute intervals called rounds, and boxers generally of similar weight. There are three ways to win; if the opponent is knocked out and unable to get up before the referee counts to ten seconds (a Knockout, or KO) or if the opponent is deemed tooinjured to continue (a Technical Knockout, or TKO). If there is no stoppage of the fight before an agreed number of rounds, a winner is determined either by the referee's decision or by judges' scorecards.

Tim Starks started a boxing blog called Seven Punch Combo in 2007 before joining MVN that same year. He joined Bloguin in 2009. He also has contributed toRing magazine, The Sweet Science, East Side Boxing and Bad Left Hook. His boxing writing has been cited by The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, Deadspin and other publications. When not writing about boxing, Tim reports on intelligence agencies for Congressional Quarterly. Tim has been called a "crack head" on national television for no apparent reason and a "baby killer" by commenters on this very blog who disagreed with an April, 2008 decision to bump Manny Pacquiao down from #2 to #3 on his list of today's best fighters. His 10 favorite boxers include, in no particular order, the Marquez brothers, Miguel Cotto, Israel Vazquez, Nonito Donaire, Chad Dawson, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Paul Williams, Juan Manuel Lopez, Tomasz Adamek and... Manny Pacquiao. (Yes, that's technically 11, but he's counting the Marquez brothers as one.) Pound-For-Pound Top 20 Boxers Update, 5/10

Sunday, 02 May 2010 08:01

It was an exceptionally busy two months for some of the pound-for-pound best boxers in the world. Eight of the people on this list were in action since the last update, and four people who used to be on it aren't anymore. I've issued a rare course correction from the last update, convinced by some of you that maybe I'd over-promoted someone last time around. No matter how consistent I try to be with this subjective dark art, it reaches its dark art tentacles into my guts and perverts me, corrupts me. Anyway, the ultimate standard remains how a boxer has fared against quality competition (especially of recent vintage), with activity level and rough estimates of talent figuring into the mix too. But you're probably wondering: Was there a change at the top after the big Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley fight? Wonder no longer. 1. Manny Pacquiao (welterweight) Mayweather’s win over Mosley gives him the best win of his career, and arguably a better win than any of Pacquiao’s, but it doesn’t fully eclipse anything Pacquiao has done for the totality of his career or even over the last couple years. Don’t forget that since around this time in 2009, Pacquiao has beaten two boxers widely ranked in the top 10 pound-for-pound (Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton) and a third ranked in some people’s top 20 (Joshua Clottey in March), plus he claimed record fourth lineal championship at junior welterweight and conquered two big welterweights. And none of that takes into consideration that he beat three boxers earlier in his career that arguably rank among the 50 greatest ever (Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez) and more besides. What Mayweather has done in the last year (and his career) is extremely good too – but for now, it narrows the gap between #1 and #2 rather than closes it. I used to think there wasn’t a debate about whether Pacquiao was the pound-for-pound king. Now there is.  Hopefully, everyone involved takes it personally and decides to settle it in the ring. It’s THE fight in boxing. 2. Floyd Mayweather (welterweight) Except that 2nd round pounding he took, Mayweather turned in perhaps his best performance in a fight against his best opponent. What more could you want? We had a feeling Mayweather's talent would rise to the occasion when presented with an opponent who was this good, and it did. If he did it more often, he'd be my pound-for-pound king. That I think Mayweather would likely beat Pacquiao is secondary -- the best fighters have to prove it. Pacquiao's proven it over and over again against the utmost competition. Mayweather, finally, is getting there. And he needs to get into the ring with Pacquiao to decide it once and for all -- blood tests and purse splits be damned. Find a way to get into the ring with the best opposition, Floyd. For the first time in eight years, you did Saturday. You can do it again. 3. Paul Williams (junior middleweight) If “The Punisher” seems too high to you, I offer you two counterarguments: 1. He was #4 on my list and a few other sensible ones, and he benefits from Mosley’s drop; and 2. On short notice last year, he beat the man who two weekends ago claimed the middleweight championship and debuts in the top 10 of my list, Sergio Martinez. A rematch becomes perhaps the second-most desirable fight in all of boxing, but if Pacquiao and X can’t come to an agreement on a fight, Williams deserves to figure into the mix. I know, I know, nobody believes he can get to 147 at his height. But what do you want to bet he weighs less than 154 this week at the weigh-in for next weekend’s bout against Kermit Cintron? Anyway, I think he’s stuck at #3 until #1 and #2 square off, or he gets a shot at one of those men himself. (P.S., most of the above is clearly contingent on Williams beating Cintron.) 4. Chad Dawson (light heavyweight) Except Bernard Hopkins, who has no interest in battling him, Dawson has cleared out the old guard at light heavyweight. That leaves the young guard, and he’s stepped up to the plate – he’s booked for an August fight against Jean Pascal that will determine the lineal, Ring magazine light heavyweight championship of the world. That might or might not be enough to move him into my #3 spot – but if he wins it, it sure won’t hurt. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned lately that the win over Tomasz Adamek keeps looking better all the time, but it warrants mention again after Adamek got another nice notch on his belt in April. 5. Shane Mosley (welterweight) How much to drop Mosley is a difficult question. I didn't drop Juan Manuel Marquez very much for losing to Mayweather, and Mosley fared better against Mayweather than Mosley did. It's tough to say why Mosley disappeared after that amazing 2nd round, but at least a big part of it was Mayweather, who really turned it up a notch in the 3rd and never let Mosley get back into things. It's at least possible Mosley aged overnight, but it's also possible -- and he said so himself -- that being out of the ring since January of 2009 affected his performance. His stamina wasn't where it usually is. So I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. In part because it's hard to imagine considering putting him beneath the next guy.