Career defining victories
With the talk of a possible Cotto vs Martinez fight and what it would mean to both fighters careers, I started thinking of other elite fighters and popular fighters and their best career victories. When it's written out and reviewed unbiasedly its interesting to me to see that a lot of popular fighters are not actually elite fighters based on their resumes. It's very objective as it depends on how you rate each opponent, here's my list:
Andre Ward
Best wins: Chad Dawson, Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler
Rating: Not so popular elite fighter
Canelo Alvarez
Best wins: Austin Trout, Shane Mosley (old), Josesito Lopez (way too small),
Rating: very popular above average fighter
Julio Cesar Chavez jr
Best wins: Sebastian zbik, Andy Lee, Marco Antonio Rubio,
Rating: very popular slightly above average fighter
Adrian Broner
Best wins, Antonio Demarco, Paulie malignaggi, Daniel ponce Deleon (highly disputed)
Rating: higher popularity, above average fighter
Miguel Cotto
Best wins: Shane Mosley (few years past prime), Ricardo Torres, Zab Judah, Joshua clottey, Antonio margarito, Ricardo Mayorga, Paulie malignaggi, a lot more notable opponents.
Rating: this is a difficult one as it really comes down to how you rate Shane Mosley at the time he fought Cotto as mosley is the best fighter on that list and how you rate the fact that Cotto has beat many above average and one fighter who at one point was elite but was probably an above average level fighter at the time they fought. Ultimately I rate Cotto as a very popular, higher than above average but below elite level f fighter.
Manny pacquiao
Best wins: Eric morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, Juan manuel Marquez, that's just the elite list...
Rating: highest level of popularity, elite fighter
Juan manuel Marquez
Best wins: manny pacquiao, Marco Antonio Barrera (after many wars), rocky Juarez, Joel casamayor (depends where you rate him at this fight), Michael katsidis, Juan Diaz
Rating: depends on how you rate the one win vs two loses and draw against pacquiao. I rate him the same as Cotto.
Danny Garcia
Best wins: Amir khan, Lucas matheysee, Eric morales (way past his prime), Zab Judah (after many wars), Nate Campbell (past prime), Kendall holt
Rating: rising popularity, higher than above average and on his way to just under elite level.
Abner mares
Best wins: Vic darchinyan, Joseph agbeko (twice), anselmo moreno, Daniel ponce Deleon, Eric morel
Rating: I've felt mares was top ten pound for pound back during the agbeko fight, even with the recent loss which I think he'll avenge I consider him to be a higher than average popularity elite level fighter.
Floyd Mayweather Jr
Best wins: pick any of them, Cotto, Mosley (past his prime) Chico corralles, Jose luis Castillo (twice) Genaro Hernandez, Zab Judah (at his best) Ricky Hatton (at his best), Arturo gatti, Oscar dela Hoya (few years past his best), Canelo Alvarez , Juan manuel Marquez (undersized)
Rating: highest level popularity, highest level fighter
There are many more fighters to comment on. What are your thoughts on these rating? Post your rating on these or other popular and elite level fighters. I'm really curious to see if someone can come up with more elite level unpopular fighters or fighters that should be rated higher than the general consensus based on their resumes.
Cheers!