source: Cliff Rold - boxingscene.com

AIR PACQUIAO LANDS IN LOS ANGELES

After a three hour delay in Dallas because of a spare part needed by the chartered aircraft from Atlantic Aviation, the Air Pacquiao jet took off from Texas and landed a short while ago in Los Angeles.   Read Full Story

Manny Still the King - BoxingScene’s Pound for Pound Top Ten

With the first man on this list having made his first start of 2010, boxing’s elite are in full swing with some anticipated twists and turns pending.

Manny Pacquiao didn’t add his latest knockout to the ledger on March 13^th, but he did add his second top-ten Welterweight in as many tries and put some distance between himself and his arch-rival for the top spot.  In Joshua Clottey and Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao’s two big wins over Welterweights trump what Floyd Mayweather put together with Carlos Baldomir and Zab Judah in 2006. 

Mayweather can answer back with Shane Mosley in May…if he can lift the scalp.

Contrary to the way it occasionally feels, boxing isn’t all Pacquiao-Mayweather.  Bernard Hopkins will go a long way towards determining where, if at all, he really still belongs.  After a lengthy layoff, he returned late last year with a tune-up and now he’s going Ray Parker Jr., a ghostbusting appointment scheduled in April with what used to be Roy Jones. 

Japan’s Hozumi Hasegawa faces a fellow titlist at Bantamweight in the spring while Light Heavyweight Chad Dawson will have to wait for the summer for his spotlight time, but there’s plenty to look forward to among the game’s best.     

These are the Boxing Scene Pound for Pound ratings. 

1) Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO)
Age: 31
Current Titles: WBO Welterweight (147 lbs.); World Junior Welterweight (140 lbs.)
Career Titles: World Flyweight/112 lb. champion (1998-99); World Featherweight/126 lb. champion (2003-2005); World Jr. Lightweight/130 lb. champion (2008); additional alphabelts at 112, 122, 130, and 135 lbs.
Last Five Opponents: Joshua Clottey, Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, David Diaz  

Next Opponent: TBA

The Take:  This is Pacquiao’s spot to lose and Mayweather’s to take.  Some would say take back, but unlike Pacquiao, Mayweather never made the demands on the top slot Pacquiao has.  Mayweather sort of inherited it based on past accomplishment and visible talent as Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones faded from their peaks, later strengthening his position with a solid 2006-07 campaign.  Conversely, Pacquiao has become nothing short of a phenomenon.  His knockout win over Miguel Cotto on November 14, 2009, gave him a title claim in his record seventh weight class from Flyweight to Welterweight from ages 19-30.  It adds more shine to a resume which featured a record fourth lineal World championship after Pacquiao’s May drubbing of Ricky Hatton.  He skipped two classes, Jr. Bantamweight and Bantamweight, altogether.  In six of seven classes, Lightweight excluded, he defeated either the perceived best man in class or someone with a strong claim to the top, defeating three easy future Hall of Famers in Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez at Featherweight and Jr. Lightweight.  Once upon a time, Jimmy McLarnin and Tony Canzoneri were able to compete with world class talent across a similar scale variance.  That was over seventy years ago.  Roberto Duran did it in more recent vintage and Tommy Hearns started bigger but also played huge spreads.  Only all-time greats have ever done what Pacquiao is doing right now.  Readers may draw what conclusions they will from that. 

2) Floyd Mayweather (40-0, 25 KO)
Age: 32
Current Title: None
Career Titles: World Jr. Lightweight champion (1998-2001); World Lightweight champion (2002-04); World Welterweight/147 lbs. (2007-09); additional alphabelts at 130, 135, 140, 147 & 154 lbs.
Last Five Opponents: Juan Manuel Marquez, Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, Carlos Baldomir, Zab Judah 

Up Next: May 1, 2010 vs. Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO)  

My Take: Mayweather has taken so many lumps for his choices of opposition over the last few years that the general quality has become underrated.  The underwhelming 2003-05 run was a disappointing waste of prime, but most his last five wins have come against good, sometimes very good, if not great opposition.  It’s really the story of his career, even when he was fighting some beasts at 130 and 135 lbs.  There’s a lot of good, even some very good, which make the picture of a great fighter, but Mayweather has lacked most what lays before him.  In Manny Pacquiao, he could have had an undeniably great opponent.  Against a 39-year old Shane Mosley coming off a lengthy layoff, we’ll see.  Being Mosley, an experienced pro who is never out of shape, one can presume he’ll still be one hell of a challenge.  Mayweather’s accomplishments already make him a Hall of Famer, with genuine World championships at 130, 135 and 147 lbs. along with belts at 140 and 154.  Mosley gives him an opponent people have genuinely wanted to see him face for over a decade and, importantly, an opponent who his fans can point as every bit as impressive as those who have made up Pacquiao’s run.

3) Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KO)
Age: 38
Current Title: WBA Welterweight
Career Titles: World Welterweight (2000-02); World Junior Middleweight (2003-04); Additional Alphabelt at Lightweight
Last Five Opponents: Antonio Margarito, Ricardo Mayorga, Miguel Cotto, Luis Collazo, Fernando Vargas (twice)

Next Opponent: May 1, 2010 vs. Floyd Mayweather (40-0, 25 KO)  

The Take:  It was supposed to be a unification contest in January with Andre Berto.  Now, it’s something more.  It’s everything Mosley could have asked for.  On the heels of his mammoth knockout win of Antonio Margarito in early 2009, Mosley was the perceptual man at Welterweight.  Inactivity, the rise of Pacquiao, and the man who briefly retired and vacated the lineal Welterweight crown without losing it, Mayweather, made his position tenuous.  Mosley earned high regard with Margarito and string of mostly solid performances in a 7-1 run since a pair of losses to Winky Wright in 2004.  It wasn’t entirely his fault that the fights he earned couldn’t get made last year.  The Berto fight went away due in part to a natural disaster.  Any other fighter, off for this long, likely falls out of the ratings.  Mosley has a chance to say where he stays or goes of his own accord May 1.     

4) Paul Williams (38-1, 27 KO)
Age: 28
Current Title: None
Career Titles: Two alphabelt reigns at Welterweight
Last Five Opponents: Sergio Martinez, Winky Wright, Verno Phillips, Andy Kolle, Carlos Quintana (twice)

Next Opponent: TBA  

The Take:  Williams continues to find new ways to impress.  In his last outing, he was hurt badly and dropped at the end of the first round and yet found a way, a will, to win by night’s end even if the scoring of the fight left the verdict with a less than ‘official’ feel.  That the fight with Sergio Martinez took place at all is just as impressive.  In a situation like what Williams found himself in, when a crack at World Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik fell apart, many a fighter would have looked for a placeholder opponent until the money fight could be resuscitated.  Williams instead took on one of the elite Jr. Middleweights in the world and wound up in a Fight of the Year candidate.  Few big names have had interest in Martinez just as few, once upon a time, had much interest in Antonio Margarito.  Williams is building a big name by being the interested party and keeps passing tests.  Avenging a loss?  Williams came back from a decision defeat to stop Quintana in one round.  Pushing aside the past?  Williams became the first man to stop Phillips since the Reagan Administration and shut out Winky Wright.  Now we’ve seen just how much heart he has in the Martinez war.  The one-time Welterweight (who still claims he can make it that far down the scale) is poised for a make or break year in terms of just how elite he will be…as soon as he can find an opponent for May.  He’ll look for the winner of April’s Kelly Pavlik-Sergio Martinez Middleweight title fight after that.      

5) Chad Dawson (29-0, 17 KO)
Age: 27
Current Title: Interim WBC Light Heavyweight
Career Titles: Another Alphabelt at 175
Last Five Opponents: Antonio Tarver (twice), Glen Johnson (twice), Epifanio Mendoza, Jesus Ruiz, Tomasz Adamek 

Next Opponent: August 14, 2010 vs. Jean Pascal (25-1, 16 KO) 

The Take: This Light Heavyweight star in the making has put together an impressive run since toppling veteran Eric Harding in 2006.  His win over Adamek was almost bell to bell control; Adamek has since established himself as the best Cruiserweight in the world and is now busting up Heavyweights.  Johnson and Tarver give him wins over two recent, popular choices for Light Heavyweight champion of the World.  Johnson was hell the first time around but Dawson showed his learning curve in a decisive technical victory in their November 2009 rematch.  What Dawson has lacked is a compelling young opponent who can match his speed and play on his willingness to fight, sometimes to his own detriment.  The Johnson rematch victory gave Dawson the interim WBC belt at 175.  The full belt is held by the athletic and exciting Jean Pascal.  The two are headed for a clash and, given the speed and willingness to battle both men have, it should be a circled date on any boxing fan’s calendar. 

6) Bernard Hopkins (50-5-1, 32 KO)
Age: 45 Years Young
Current Title: None
Career Titles: Ring Light Heavyweight/175 lb. titlist (2006-2008); World Middleweight/160 lb. Champion (2001-2005); Alphabelt titles at 160 lbs. from 1995-2005
Last Five Opponents: Enrique Ornelas, Kelly Pavlik, Joe Calzaghe, Winky Wright, Antonio Tarver

Next Opponent: April 3, 2010 vs. Roy Jones Jr. (54-6, 40 KO)  

The Take: After taking over a year off, Hopkins returned in December with a nice workout against the Middleweight Ornelas.  It was supposed to be a shake the rust off moment as he prepared for a ‘generation in the making’ rematch with Roy Jones.  Jones went and got dusted by Danny Green in Australia in the first round. Hopkins is fighting the rematch anyways.  It’s a riskier fight than it looks.  Jones might be a ghost of who he was, but he’s not dead.  If he wins, what is the impact on Hopkins’s legacy in terms of the peaks of his times?  The outcome seems so foregone as to not be worth pondering, but the question is out there.  For now, it’s observed that Hopkins has talked about fighting real fights since his win over Kelly Pavlik in 2008 and hasn’t.  Everyone around him is.  He slid and could slide again shortly but, really, does it matter?  The only real ratings that matter come when a fighter is gone and Hopkins has shored those up.  He’s one of the game’s living legends and he’s earned the right, from a business perspective, to whatever he wants.  Heading into 2010, others have earned the right to move ahead of him until Hopkins (inevitably?) reminds the world again just why he’s so special in the first place.    

  7) Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO)
Age: 36
Current Title: World Lightweight/135 lb. Champion (2008-Present)
Career Titles: Alphabet titles at 126, 130 lbs.
Last Five Opponents: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Juan Diaz, Joel Casamayor, Manny Pacquiao, Rocky Juarez 

Next Opponent: TBA 

The Take:  It may have seemed unfair for Marquez to drop in the ratings after Mayweather.  He made a bold move, challenged the scale, and lost to a man who probably beats him at any weight.  Life, much less boxing, is not fair and the calendar has much to do with his fall on this chart.  The list of men who moved up in middle age, took a bad loss, and returned to be champions is short for a reason.  Shane Mosley has done it but Marquez isn’t quite the same caliber athlete.  History says his best days will be behind him, particularly faced with the speed of young Lightweights or Jr. Welterweights.  He could prove the world wrong but he’ll need to do so to move back to where he was.  As it stands, he is a testament to patience.  A fighter who waited years for his first belt, still more for a chance to be a star, has gone from good fighter to Hall of Famer all since 2004.  The loss to Mayweather cannot change that and a proposed match with former Jr. Welterweight champ Ricky Hatton could be a nice reminder for all.

8) Hozumi Hasegawa (28-2, 12 KO)
Age: 29
Current Title: WBC Bantamweight
Last Five Opponents: Alvaro Perez, Nestor Rocha, Vusi Malinga, Alejandro Valdez, Cristian Faccio 

Next Opponent: April 30, 2010 vs. Fernando Montiel (40-2-2, 30 KO)  

My Take: The old saying goes that punchers are born, not made.  How then to explain the explosions coming from the fists of Japan’s Hasegawa, the world’s premiere 118 lb. warrior?  For the fifth fight in a row, Hasegawa sent his opponent home early.  To Alvaro Perez’s credit, he lasted longer than the four men before him, making it all the way into round four before being flattened.  It’s not that his opponents have been world beaters.  They have merely been good, solid professionals for the most part but two of them (Rocha and Malinga) had never been stopped.  Hasegawa did both challengers in the first round.  It’s an exciting turn for a fighter who looked like a win-by-work rate sort when he defeated the excellent Veeraphol Sahaprom for his belt in 2005.  The way Hasegawa is dispatching of foes speaks to a fighter who, with ten title defenses under his belt, has reached the peak of his powers.  Those powers are set to be tested in a big way with WBO Bantamweight, and three-division total, titlist Montiel headed to Japan in April.  It’s the first showdown between reigning Bantamweight title holders in decades and a chance for Hasegawa to show off what Japan has been privilege to watch for the last few years. 

9) Timothy Bradley (25-0, 11 KO)
Age: 26
Current Title: WBO Jr. Welterweight
Career Titles: Additional alphabelt at Jr. Welterweight
Last Five Opponents: Lamont Peterson, Nate Campbell, Kendall Holt, Edner Cherry, Junior Witter

Next Opponent: June 26, 2010 vs. Luis Abregu (29-0, 23 KO)  

My Take: Bradley is the best active fighter in arguably boxing’s deepest pool of talent today.  There are some divisions which struggle to field more than five real candidates for the top of the class.  Jr. Welterweight has a top ten which isn’t big enough for all of the talent swimming around.  Bradley burst from the pack in 2008 with an upset win, on the road, over the long avoided Brit Junior Witter to win the WBC belt.  Since then, he’s only faced one fighter (Cherry) who would be considered a softer touch and through 2009, Bradley found ways to look better in each outing.  He came off the floor to win a unification battle with Holt and was dominating veteran former Lightweight titlist Nate Campbell before an accidental cut shortened their affair in the third.  Perhaps most impressive, Bradley bested the unbeaten Lamont Peterson while showing off a fully developed toolbox.  Bradley began aggressively, dropping Peterson, and then met him in the trenches for sustained warfare as Peterson willed himself back into the fight.  As Peterson got close, Bradley changed tactics again, moving and boxing to contain the affair.  He has become a genuine jack of all trades, a combination of elite speed, footwork, defense, and offensive activity who reminds that the application of the sweet science need not be dull.  Is the pending Abregu non-title fight a sign of Welterweight risings to come?  If so, maybe the unification at 140 with Devon Alexander really should come as soon as possible.               

10) Ivan Calderon (33-0-1, 6 KO)
Age: 35
Current Title: World Jr. Flyweight/108 lb. Champion (2007-Present)
Career Titles: Additional alphabelts at 105 & 108 lbs.
Last Five Opponents: Rodel Mayol (twice), Hugo Cazares (twice), Nelson Dieppa, Juan Esquer, Ronald Barrera

Next Opponent: TBA