Boxing fans are among the most loyal, passionate and knowledgeable of any sport ... when they get what they want ... which is never as frequently as it should be. Team sports all play regular schedules which result in the crowning of a (more-or-less) "true" champion each and every year. Boxing, as an individual sport, has no such predictability. As a result, many highly anticipated bouts never materialize at all and that's a shame.
So, today's task is to forget all about promoters and sanctioning bodies and mandatory challengers and alpha-belts. Nice, right? Instead, let's boil all of the great match-ups that could be made among today's active fighters down to the top twelve. Not an easy task. Plus, there are some ground rules to make the job even more difficult:
1. No rematches. Sure Manny Pacquaio-Juan Manuel Marquez III and Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez IV should - and hopefully will - happen, but not on this list.
2. No fighter can appear on the list twice. So you have to choose between Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley and Paul Williams as possible opponents for Floyd Mayweather Jr..
3. No fights that can't be made in the next 12 months. For purposes of this list, that means the Klitschko brothers are never going to fight each other, Joe Calzaghe really is retired, Mike Tyson is never going to stage a meaningful comeback and Ike Ibeabuchi, James Kirkland and Antonio Margarito are all unavailable due to their misdeeds in and out of the ring.
That's it. Just three simple rules. While each and every fight fan will come up with a different list (which you are encouraged to share!), here's one fight fan's wish list - in descending order of anticipation - of the 12 bouts that must be made:
1. Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
2. Israel Vazquez vs. Vic Darchinyan
3. Shane Mosley vs. Paul Williams
4. Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Edwin Valero
5. Vitali Klitschko vs. Chris Arreola
6. Rafael Marquez vs. Juan Manuel Lopez
7. Miguel Cotto vs. Andre Berto
8. Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye
9. Chris John vs. Yuriorkis Gamboa
10. Kelly Pavlik vs. Arthur Abraham
11. Nonito Donaire vs. Ivan Calderon
12. Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson
Up next: Fearless predictions for each of the above dream fights!
