Did this in another thread, but have re-evaluated a bit since.


1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
2. Bernard Hopkins
3. Manny Pacquiao
4. Juan Manuel Marquez
5. Shane Mosley
6. Marco Antonio Barrera
7. Joe Calzaghe
8. Winky Wright
9. Erik Morales
10. Kostya Tszyu

Combination of ability & what they've done.

Narrowly missing out based on records:

Wlad & Vital Klitschko: the division has stagnated in their time & Vitali took too much time off.

Vernon Forrest: had some great wins but the KO against Mayorga hurt him how the Sanders fight hurt Wlad. But has been around the top most of the decade & beaten some top fighters.

Jose Luis Castillo: was very close, but the way he has faded in the last few years means I had to leave him out. However, was involved in my choice for the best fight of the decade against Corrales.

Diego Corrales: lost some big fights, but was never in a bad one. If I did this again he might well get in there. Certainly contributed more to the sport in way of entertainment that Wright.

Roy Jones Jr, Lennox Lewis, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad: Felt all these guys did their best work in the previous decade & have not been dominant enough throughout for me, whilst Lennox & Tito effectively were both done by 2002. Jones would be in there but for the fact that he has carried on long past the point where it could be said he'd lost it. This is why Tszyu is in there & he isn't.

Israel Vazquez & Rafael Marquez: Have simply not done enough comparatively with the other guys, despite being in great fights.

Probably still left someone out.

On a side note, whilst I can definitely understand having Pacquiao as #1, using Merchant, who very clearly flat out hates Mayweather to support the idea, isn't a great choice. Also Mayweather didn't call Hatton his toughest opponent, he was simply complimentary post-fight. He in fact named Emmanuel Augustus as toughest guy he'd ever fought, and if you've seen the punishment Augustus took in that fight you'd understand why. The guy who gave him the hardest fight is clearly Castillo. Not saying Pac doesn't deserve to be #1, I can definitely see strong arguments why, I just think the writer could have picked better people to support the argument.