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. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (147)
2. Manny Pacquiao (130)
3. Joe Calzaghe (168)
4. Juan Manuel Marquez (130)
5. Israel Vazquez (122)
6. Kelly Pavlik (160)
7. Antonio Margarito (147)
8. Rafael Marquez (122)
9. Miguel Cotto (147)
10. Bernard Hopkins (175)
11. Ivan Calderon (108)
12. Shane Mosley (147)
13. Christian Mijares (115)
14. Ronald "Winky" Wright (160)
15. Oscar De La Hoya (154)
16. Ricky Hatton (140)
17. Chris John (126)
18. Wladimir Klitschko (Heavy)
19. Paul Williams (147)
20. Jermain Taylor (168)
21. Nate Campbell (135)
22. Joan Guzman (135)
23. Marco Antonio Barrera (130)
24. Chad Dawson (175)
25. Nonito Donaire (112)
26. Mikkel Kessler (168)
27. Juan Diaz (135)
28. Fernando Montiel (115)
29. Arthur Abraham (160)
30. David Haye (200)
31. Jorge Linares (126)
32. Joel Casamayor (135)
33. Roy Jones Jr. (175)
34. Ulises Solis (108)
35. Zsolt Erdei (175)
36. Antonio Tarver (175)
37. Hugo Cazares (108)
38. Juan Manuel Lopez (122)
39. Robert Guerrero (130)
40. Takefumi Sakata (112)
41. Sergeii Dzindziruk (154)
42. Yukata Niida (105)
43. Joshua Clottey (147)
44. Gerry Penalosa (118)
45. Lucian Bute (168)
46. Sergio Mora (154)
47. Vernon Forrest (154)
48. Jorge Arce (115)
49. Timothy Bradley (140)
50. Cory Spinks (154)

Closing in on Top Fifty: Vic Darchinyan (115), Andre Berto (147), Anselmo Moreno (118), Amir Khan (135), Daisuke Naito (112), Steven Luevano (126), Hozumi Hasegawa (118).

Dropping off the list in recent months: Zab Judah (147), Joachim Alcine (154), Edison Miranda (168), Carlos Quintana (147), Daniel Ponce De Leon (122), Wladimir Sidorenko (118), Junior Witter (140), Clinton Woods (175), Jose Luis Castillo (140), Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (112).

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.