PACQUIAO STILL AMONG THE POUND-FOR-POUND BEST
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 08 Feb 2016
Don't count Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao out.
Not yet, anyway.
All pound-for-pound ranking bodies, particularly ESPN and RING MAGAZINE, in fact, continue to include him in their recent top 10 best fighters list with the former placing him fourth and the latter seventh.
Meaning those award-giving entities still acknowledge the eight-division champ a force to reckon with in the prize fighting business until the time he decides to finally call it quits.
Prior to his unanimous decision loss to the 49-0 Floyd Mayweather, the Sarangani Congressman had been consistently logging the top 5 spots. He was, for many years, at the top of the totem pole on the strength of his string of stoppage victories over boxing greats Oscar DeLa Hoya, Miguel Cotto and Ricky Hatton, among others.
True, the likes of flyweight kingpin Ramon Gonzales, middleweight titlist Gennaddy Golovkin and light-heavyweight belt owner Sergey Kovalev, all undefeated so far, have overshadowed him, but an expected impressive win over WBO welterweight crown owner Timothy Bradley, whom he faces off for the third time on April 9, cold easily restore him to where he belong in the P4P list.
This is because with his injury completely healed, Pacquiao is again expected to show to all and sundry that he is still the most exciting fighter on the planet, with blinding handspeed and footwork as well as thunderous power, which were absent in his record-breaking showdown against Mayweather.
Although a year has been added to his age, the Filipino fighter is still considered as one of boxing?s most dangerous combatants and it takes a fighter of Mayweather?s calibre to beat him.
Incidentally, the Filipino "Fighter of the Decade" of the Boxing Writer Association of America outranked Bradley in both the ESPN and RING ranking. The Palm Spring, California-based fighter is ranked fifth by ESPN and l0th by boxing's bible.
Three of the next in line following Bradley in the ESPN ranking are all unbeaten -- Andre Ward, 6th, 28-0; Guillermo Rigondeaux, 8th, 16-0; and Terence Crawford, 27-0, 9th. Canelo Alvarez, who will be fighting Briton Amir Khan next is ranked 7th and Miguel Cotto, 10th.
The top three preceding Pacquiao in the ESPN ranking -- Gozales, 44-0; Golovkin, 34-0; and Kovalev, 24-0 -- likewise, own unblemished win-loss records.
Golovkin and Kovalev no. 2 and no. 3 in the ESPN ranking swapped positions in the RING list with the former dislodging the latter as ranked next to Gonzales. Ward is fourth in The RING, Rigondeaux fifth, Crawford sixth, Alvarez eighth, Sanzuki Yamanaka ninth and Bradley 10th.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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