Even if it only till the outcome of Pac/Hatton JMM is PFP#1

[rjj tszyu]

Juan Diaz was and is the #1 Ring rated contender in the weight class that JMM now occupies.

JMM fought the Lineal ring champ Casamayor in the fight before that.

There can be no question he fought the best in the division according to the ring, AKA the best opposition available to him.

I don't dispute that and would unhesitatingly put Marquez as THE man in the lightweight division but how does he leapfrog the man who just beat him three fights ago and who has since won another world title at a different weight class and then jumped 3 weight classes to fight a 6 weight world champ and legend in the next fight?

Yes Marquez did fantastically well and has destroyed the two best fighters at lightweight (well Nate Campbell was the best but he's moved up now) but he can't leapfrog Pacquiao who he lost to off the back of that.

And if were going to get all subjective I think there are as many questionmarks over Casamayor and Juan Diaz as there are over David Diaz and Oscar.

Certainly Oscar had looked much better in recent outings than both Casa (who had looked awful against Santa Cruz and Katsidis) and Juan Diaz, who was totally beaten up by Nate Campbell.

There's simply no way a justification can be made for dropping Manny down a place on the back of three outstanding wins against JMM, David Diaz and Oscar De La Hoya each one progressively more dominant than the last.

And if Marquez had got the decision against Manny, I'd be arguing the same for him, that Marquez won the fight and hence was p4p number 1 regardless whether people though Manny won or not.

Only a fool would consider Pacquiao a former Lightweight champion. David Diaz won a vacant title by beating a non-champion. He's was a 3rd tier, paper champion. The fact that Pac decided to face him instead of Joel Casamayor, Nate Campbell, Juan Diaz or even a Julio Diaz is not something that should be bragged about

Maybe not but the way he totally whupped him from the opening bell was!