Pacquiao Back in Ring Pound for Pound But...
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 27 Aug 2019
At the heels of Manny Pacquiao's rousing Fight of the Year candidate victory over erstwhile undefeated and highly touted American Keith "One Time" Thurman, the Ring Magazine has found no other recourse but to bring him back in its elite pound for pound listing.
In its latest all weight rating, the fighting Senator rated 10th among the top ten pound for pound fighters in the world in a list headed by Ukrainian speedster Vasyl Lomachenko, American multi division champion Terrence Crawford and Mexico's current toast Saul Canelo Alvarez.
But on a sad note, to give way to Pacquiao, the Ring chose to drop another Filipino Donnie "Ahas" Nietes from the list. The reason is that Nietes has been inactive since late last year and has no scheduled fight in the immediate horizon. That of course is questionable as the Ring has had past records of keeping certain inactive fighters on its pound for pound list to cite the cases of Andre Ward and Tyson Fury in the recent past.
Nietes (R) beats Ioka in Nietes last outing.
Note that before his unexplained inactivity, Nietes has fought continuously since his debut and has remained unbeaten over the last fifteen years while collecting world titles across four weight divisions.
We cannot do anything about this as it was collegial decision on the part of the Ring editorial staff and they run the publication now owned by Oscar de la Hoya with Douglas Fischer, not a known Pacquiao admirer, as editor in chief.
There was a time back when Nigel Collins was still Ring editor in chief that aside from Pacquiao two other Pinoy fighters were included at one time or the other in the pound for pound list namely Brian Viloria and Nonito Donaire.
Collins would also go out of his way to fly to the Philippines to personally present Ring championship belts to Pacquiao including the featherweight and junior welterweight belts won by Manny over Marco Antonio Barrera and Ricky Hatton respectively.
Time has changed since then and apparently with the change of Ring Magazine's ownership and editorial leadership, the time honored policies governing the selection and ranking in the pound for pound list have also been changed.
Where before, the accent was on track record, today the accent has been on currency---recent performance and current record although that accent has burned the Magazine in the recent past with its inclusion of Adrien Broner and top ranking of Chocolatito Gonzalez its elite list.
That accent in fact had enabled the Ring to unceremoniously and suddenly drop Pacquiao from its pound for pound listing in the aftermath of his fight versus Floyd Mayweather, Jr., his long layoff to recuperate from shoulder surgery and loss to Jeff Horn.
But now Pacquiao is back where he truly belongs and it will be interesting to follow where he will rank in the future with the forthcoming fights and performance of fighters rated above him, including Japan's Naoya Inoue, currently rated at top five.
I wonder if they will be forced to also bring back Donaire if Nonito beats Inoue?
The author Teodoro Medina?Reynoso?is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines.?? He can be reached at?teddyreynoso@yahoo.com?and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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