IWF's Updated Pound For Pound Boxing Rankings

As we continue to bring you the most comprehensive coverage in the world of combat sports, we put together the latest pound for pound rankings for professional boxing. For those of you who have missed out on some of the great fights that have gone in the last year or so we have included recent highlights for every boxer on our list. By Doug MacEwan

Top Ten

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (38-0, 24 KOs) Welterweight Champion
Plus: After a laughable retirement Floyd decided to lace them up one more time for a megafight with Ricky Hatton. Both champions come in with undefeated records and even if most see it as a one sided boxing clinic, expect it to be another huge PPV event.
Minus: The Hatton fight is huge but if Floyd wants to cement his legacy he needs to fight someone that presents at least a minor risk. Matches against Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Paul Williams or Antonio Margarito would all be more competitive.

2. Manny Pacquiao (44-3-2, 34 KOs) Junior Lightweight
Plus: Now that the contract feud between Top Ranked and Golden Boy is over expect to see Manny being Manny....which is putting opponents to sleep. With nothing but important fights for Pacquiao and boxing fans around the world for as long as we can see. Pacquiao starts Oct. 6 with his rematch against Marco Antonio Barrera. Presumably, that will be followed next year with a rematch against Juan Manuel Marquez, then hopefully matches with the likes of the Joan Guzman-Humberto Soto winner, Edwin Valero and eventually Juan Diaz at lightweight. Pacquiao has more significant fights available to him than just about any fighter in the world.
Minus: Unlike most normal people, Pacquiao has a difficult time making his scheduled flights. He "missed" at least two flights and postponed two others from the Philippines to the United States, forcing Top Rank and Golden Boy to delay once again the formal news conference to announce the rematch with Barrera. He finally made it to Los Angeles on Aug. 7, but please, someone get the man an alarm clock and a driver. If they wanted an assurance that he would arrive when originally scheduled, Oscar De La Hoya would have to promise to meet him at LAX with another sack of cash.

3. Juan Manuel Marquez (47-3-1, 35 KOs) Junior Lightweight Champion
Plus: Although Jorge Barrios, Marquez's scheduled opponent in a Sept. 15 HBO PPV main event, fell out of the match because of torn retinas, Marquez didn't hesitate to accept tough Rocky Juarez -- who gave Barrera a life-and-death fight in May 2006 -- as the substitute opponent.
Minus: It's not Marquez's fault, but why are we getting Pacquiao-Barrera II (when Pacquiao already crushed him the first time around) in October instead of Marquez-Pacquiao II? That fight is by far the more fan-friendly match when you consider that they have much unfinished business after their incredibly action-packed draw in 2004.

4. Bernard Hopkins (48-4-1, 32 KOs) Light Heavyweight Champion
Plus: The old man can still get it done, winning a well-deserved close decision against Winky Wright at age 42 after a year out of the ring and brief retirement. It might not always be pretty with Hopkins, but he is effective, knows how to win, and has proven over and over that he is a great fighter.
Minus: Next time he wants to promote a fight by giving his opponent a purposeful shove in the face at the weigh-in, as he did to Wright the day before their fight, Hopkins might want to warn a few of us who are on the stage so we don't end up getting hurt. His own trainer, Freddie Roach, was caught up in the scuffle and fell off the stage, injuring his ribs. That is just not cool. Hopkins deserves to be fined by the Nevada commission.

5. Winky Wright (51-4-1, 25 KOs) Middleweight
Plus: Wright's loss to Hopkins was a very close, highly competitive fight. Wright must be given credit for going up to a most unnatural 170 pounds for the match. He is at his best at middleweight, so you can't hold the defeat against him too much.
Minus: The pool of potential major fights is not deep for Wright. His best bet is to hope Jermain Taylor beats Kelly Pavlik on Sept. 29 so he can try to line up a rematch of their controversial 2006 draw. A more remote possibility, but one Wright desperately wants, is that De La Hoya will call his name for a meeting at junior middleweight.

6. Joe Calzaghe (43-0, 32 KOs) Super Middleweight Champion
Plus: It took a lot of compromise on both sides, but it got done -- Calzaghe against Mikkel Kessler this fall in a showdown of undefeated champions. The winner of the fight (which ought to be highly entertaining) will be the clear, undisputed, no-questions-asked, No. 1-by-acclamation, best super middleweight in the world. It's probably the most significant fight in the 168-pound division since Roy Jones moved up from middleweight to challenge then-champion James Toney in 1994.
Minus: Can't you just see it now -- brittle Calzaghe injuring his hand in early September and the fight being called off?

7. Israel Vazquez (42-4, 32 KOs) Junior Featherweight Champion
Plus: Vazquez regained the title by showing enormous toughness to battle through two horrible cuts -- one over each eye -- to knock out Rafael Marquez in their dramatic and bloody rematch, which is the leader in the clubhouse for fight of the year honors. All credit to Vazquez, whom few gave a serious chance to win after he suffered a badly broken nose and quit on his stool in their first all-action fight in March.
Minus: He's been in so many grueling fights the past few years that you wonder just how long he can keep it up. He's only 29, but the wars he's been in have to have taken their toll.

8. Rafael Marquez (37-4, 33 KOs) Junior Featherweight
Plus: The two-division champion was stopped in the sixth round and lost his 122-pound crown in the thrilling rematch with Vazquez, but it was a sensational fight. Obviously, there figures to be a rubber match early next year.
Minus: Although we won't argue vehemently about it, we thought the stoppage of the fight was just a tad premature as Marquez not only lost his title but also saw an impressive seven-year, 16-fight winning streak (with 13 of the wins by knockout) come to an end.

9. Jermain Taylor (27-0-1, 17 KOs) Middleweight Champion
Plus: You can complain all you want about how bad Taylor has looked in recent fights. You can complain that he has fought a pair of junior middleweights in Cory Spinks and Kassim Ouma in his past two fights. You can even complain that he hasn't had a knockout since February 2005. What you can't complain about when it comes to the true middleweight world champion is that he is taking on an extremely dangerous, legitimate middleweight contender in power-punching Pavlik. It should be a terrific fight.
Minus: Complaining about his difficulties making 160 pounds before the ink on the contract with Pavlik was even dry sort of sounded like Taylor was trying to set up an excuse in case he loses. He ought to remember that Pavlik struggles to make weight just as much as he does (if not more so). The difference is you don't hear Pavlik's team complaining about it.

10. Marco Antonio Barrera (63-5, 42 KOs) Junior Lightweight
Plus: Barrera thinks he has one more big fight left in him when he faces Pacquiao in a rematch of his 2003 knockout loss. Give Barrera credit for wanting to fight the best available opponent in what he says probably will be his last fight. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise, though. Barrera has spent his entire career fighting top-notch opponents.
Minus: With Erik Morales going down to David Diaz and announcing his retirement, it means there won't be a fourth chapter of boxing's greatest recent rivalry. Had Morales won, or continued to fight, there had been discussions between Top Rank and Golden Boy about a fourth fight next year.
Second 10

11. Sugar Shane Mosley
12. Ricky Hatton
13. Miguel Cotto
14. Oscar De La Hoya
15. Joel Casamayor
16. Ivan "Iron Boy" Calderon
17. Chris John
18. Cory Spinks
19. Mikkel Kessler
20. Juan Diaz