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. Joe Calzaghe (175)
4. Juan Manuel Marquez (135)
5. Israel Vazquez (122)
6. Bernard Hopkins (175)
7. Shane Mosley (147)
8. Paul Williams (154)
9. Rafael Marquez (122)
10. Miguel Cotto (147)
11. Ivan Calderon (108)
12. Chad Dawson (175)
13. Juan Manuel Lopez (122)
14. Kelly Pavlik (160)
15. Nonito Donaire (112)
16. Wladimir Klitschko (Heavy)
17. Chris John (126)
18. Vic Darchinyan (115)
19. Arthur Abraham (160)
20. Antonio Margarito (147)
21. Timothy Bradley (140)
22. Ricky Hatton (140)
23. Mikkel Kessler (168)
24. Ronald "Winky" Wright (160)
25. Humberto Soto (130)
26. Nate Campbell (140)
27. Juan Diaz (135)
28. Hozumi Hasegawa (118)
29. Daisuke Naito (112)
30. Edwin Valero (135)
31. Vitali Klitschko (Heavy)
32. Celestino Caballero (122)
33. Fernando Montiel (118)
34. Joshua Clottey (147)
35. Joan Guzman (135)
36. Jermain Taylor (168)
37. Andre Berto (147)
38. Jorge Linares (130)
39. Steven Luevano (126)
40. David Haye (Heavy)
41. Tomasz Adamek (200)
42. Felix Sturm (160)
43. Glen Johnson (175)
44. Vernon Forrest (154)
45. Zsolt Erdei (175)
46. Sergeii Dzindziruk (154)
47. Lucian Bute (168)
48. Gerry Penalosa (118)
49. Antonio Tarver (175)
50. Roy Jones Jr. (175)

Dropping off the list in recent months: Ulises Solis (108), Joel Casamayor (135), Cory Spinks (154), Robert Guerrero (130), Oscar De La Hoya (154), Jorge Arce (115), Hugo Cazares (108), Takefumi Sakata (112), Yukata Niida (105), Christian Mijares (118), Marco Antonio Barrera (130), Sergio Mora (154), Zab Judah (147).

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.