The Pound-for-Pound Top Fifty

One of the easiest ways to get into a debate on boxing is to try and rank the sport’s top practitioners on a pound-for-pound basis. Everyone’s got an opinion and there’s no way to definitely determine who’s right and who’s wrong. Sure Wladimir Klitschko would defeat Floyd Mayweather if they fought each other -- Klitschko outweighs Pretty Boy by 100 pounds! But if - and this is the big if – Klitschko and Mayweather were in the same weight class and were to match their skills against one another in the ring, which fighter would emerge victorious?

Every boxing enthusiast has seen pound-for-pound rankings in various magazines, on the Net and perhaps even on TV. Most of these lists include only ten fighters. Occasionally, you’ll see a pound-for-pound top twenty. So why stop at twenty? In order to provide even more fodder for conversation and debate, here is a pound-for-pound ranking of the top fifty fighters in the world today.

1. Manny Pacquiao (140)
2. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (147)
3. Shane Mosley (147)
4. Paul Williams (154)
5. Juan Manuel Marquez (135)
6. Bernard Hopkins (175)
7. Israel Vazquez (122)
8. Rafael Marquez (126)
9. Arthur Abraham (168)
10. Miguel Cotto (147)
11. Chad Dawson (175)
12. Ivan Calderon (108)
13. Juan Manuel Lopez (122)
14. Nonito Donaire (115)
15. Wladimir Klitschko (Heavy)
16. Timothy Bradley (140)
17. Kelly Pavlik (160)
18. Chris John (126)
19. Vitali Klitschko (Heavy)
20. Sergio Martinez (154)
21. Ricky Hatton (140)
22. Humberto Soto (130)
23. Hozumi Hasegawa (118)
24. Edwin Valero (135)
25. Lucian Bute (168)
26. Andre Berto (147)
27. Andre Ward (168)
28. Koki Kameda (112)
29. Antonio Margarito (147)
30. Juan Diaz (140)
31. Ronald "Winky" Wright (160)
32. Vic Darchinyan (115)
33. Celestino Caballero (122)
34. Joshua Clottey (147)
35. Mikkel Kessler (168)
36. Ali Funeka (135)
37. Steven Luevano (126)
38. Tomasz Adamek (200)
39. Yonnhy Perez (118)
40. Felix Sturm (160)
41. Carl Froch (168)
42. Yuriorkis Gamboa (126)
43. David Haye (Heavy)
44. Zsolt Erdei (200)
45. Fernando Montiel (118)
46. Glen Johnson (175)
47. Sergeii Dzindziruk (154)
48. Joseph Agbeko (118)
49. Steve Cunningham (200)
50. Omar Narvaez (112)

Just outside of the top fifty: Amir Khan (140), Andre Dirrell (168).

Dropping off the list in recent months: Roy Jones Jr. (175), Daisuke Naito (112), Joan Guzman (135), Jermain Taylor (168), Joe Calzaghe (175), Antonio Tarver (175).

No doubt your top fifty would look much different. Maybe entirely different! Share your thoughts on the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world today on the boxing bulletin board.