Dan Rafael's Welterweight Rankings

[JT Rock]

ESPN.com's division-by-division rankings - ESPN

3. Floyd Mayweather (40-0)

The former champ ended a 21-month layoff by whitewashing lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. All credit to Mayweather's tremendous talent, but it would be nice to see him use it against men his own size.

I can appreciate what Dan is saying here, my only question is why rank Floyd so high if you sincerely believe that? Surely he has full autonomy of his columns, blogs and rankings to write how he personally feels.

Personally I have Floyd ranked #5 for 2 reasons

1) He holds no title

2) All the other guys ahead of him are upper echelon fighters who have a better body of work at Welter

Mosely
Cotto
Berto
Clottey
Mayweather

[oakleyno1]

id say floyd beats them all with fair ease though ( as much as i wish they would knock him the fuck out lol)
excerpt clotty who would never get the fight which is a shame - also collazo would take bertos place or at least be alongside him them being number 5 and 6 after suich a close fight. Mosely again would be after cotto imo so mine would go

mayweather
clotty (i think he beat cotto)
cotto
mosely
collazo & berto


not thinking about anyone else except those 6

[JT Rock]

id say floyd beats them all with fair ease though ( as much as i wish they would knock him the fuck out lol)
excerpt clotty who would never get the fight which is a shame - also collazo would take bertos place or at least be alongside him them being number 5 and 6 after suich a close fight. Mosely again would be after cotto imo so mine would go

mayweather
clotty (i think he beat cotto)
cotto
mosely
collazo & berto


not thinking about anyone else except those 6

I think Floyd would beat them all too, but he hasnt fought a real Welter since Baldomir, I believe his wins in that stretch have all been great and galvanized his PFP status, but the fact is he hasnt fought any of top ranked Welters that are listed, couple that with the other guys track record at Welter and there lies my rational

[oakleyno1]

yeah thats completely fair enough. I really wish Winky Wright fought Mayweather at 154 - cant decide who id pick.

I dont think Berto will ever come to what we thought he would a couple years ago, he fights like a fighter with raw talent and despite having ALOT of it dont get me rong he doesnt have the amount of someone like mayweather.

Clotty v Mayweather would be interesting as well, again a pick em fight, i havent really ever seen clotty outboxed when fully fit - those first 4 rounds against margarito were AMAZING - but obv that was against a slow starter and nothing in the class of mayweather.

[holmcall]

Here are mine as of 10-5-09:

Welterweight (147 lbs)

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
2. Shane Mosley
3. Miguel Cotto
4. Joshua Clottey
5. Antonio Margarito
6. Andre Berto
7. Carlos Quintana
8. Luis Collazo
9. Kermit Cintron10
10. Isaac Hlatswayo
10. Vitaliy Demyanenko
11. Delvin Rodriguez
12. Zab Judah
13. Selcuk Aydin
14. Vyacheslav Senchenko
15. Yuriy Nuzhnenko

[oakleyno1]

Cintron is someone who should have been up there but has been broken by one man (margarito) Whether he was cheating or not he walked through cintrons punches and took away his belief - firstly when he was up and coming undefeated believed he was invincible - second when he had matured believed he was invincible again because he had learned from his defeat, again though margarito walked through his punches and imo limited his career massively

[JonnyFolds]

yeah thats completely fair enough. I really wish Winky Wright fought Mayweather at 154 - cant decide who id pick.

I dont think Berto will ever come to what we thought he would a couple years ago, he fights like a fighter with raw talent and despite having ALOT of it dont get me rong he doesnt have the amount of someone like mayweather.


Clotty v Mayweather would be interesting as well, again a pick em fight, i havent really ever seen clotty outboxed when fully fit - those first 4 rounds against margarito were AMAZING - but obv that was against a slow starter and nothing in the class of mayweather.

I think I would fall asleep so fast at Mayweather - Twinky. This two guys do way too much thinking in the ring. Neither have a killer instinct. I think they would have to start counting blocked punches or something. I'd see punch stats...

Twinky (70 of 350, 300 jabs)
Mayweather (80 of 400)

I think Berto has stepped up his opposition level and is not going to get a string of KOs against these guys. WW division is packed.

Clottey Mayweather a pick em? Not really sure about that one.. And I don't think I have ever seen Clottey with an ounce of fat on him. Fit doesn't begin to describe what kind of shape that guy gets in. I'm pretty sure he dumps around 16 pounds fight night.

[Majesty]

ESPN.com's division-by-division rankings - ESPN

3. Floyd Mayweather (40-0)

The former champ ended a 21-month layoff by whitewashing lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. All credit to Mayweather's tremendous talent, but it would be nice to see him use it against men his own size.

I can appreciate what Dan is saying here, my only question is why rank Floyd so high if you sincerely believe that? Surely he has full autonomy of his columns, blogs and rankings to write how he personally feels.

Personally I have Floyd ranked #5 for 2 reasons

1) He holds no title

2) All the other guys ahead of him are upper echelon fighters who have a better body of work at Welter

Mosely
Cotto
Berto
Clottey
Mayweather

Funny how he doesn't call out Berto for not fighting people his own size and has him ranked above Mayweather when he fought Urango last time out.

[JT Rock]

ESPN.com's division-by-division rankings - ESPN

3. Floyd Mayweather (40-0)

The former champ ended a 21-month layoff by whitewashing lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. All credit to Mayweather's tremendous talent, but it would be nice to see him use it against men his own size.

I can appreciate what Dan is saying here, my only question is why rank Floyd so high if you sincerely believe that? Surely he has full autonomy of his columns, blogs and rankings to write how he personally feels.

Personally I have Floyd ranked #5 for 2 reasons

1) He holds no title

2) All the other guys ahead of him are upper echelon fighters who have a better body of work at Welter

Mosely
Cotto
Berto
Clottey
Mayweather

Funny how he doesn't call out Berto for not fighting people his own size and has him ranked above Mayweather when he fought Urango last time out.

I ranked Berto higher than Mayweather at Welter, Rafael has Mayweather #3 behind Mosely, Cotto

[jdonaher1]

I think people get bent out of shape unnecessarily because they don't realise the purpose of ranking. Rankings are not based on who could be who (unless your doing a pound-4-pound list). What boxing ranking are about is ACHEIVEMENT IN THAT DIVISION over a certain period!!! Of course Floyd would be favoured over all the boxers ranked above him but that doesn't mean he should automatically be ranked number one. He hasn't fought in almost 2 years.

Same with the Pound-4-Pound ranking. Floyd easily beat the #2 guy therefore he gets ranked no lower than 2nd.

[JonnyFolds]

ESPN.com's division-by-division rankings - ESPN

3. Floyd Mayweather (40-0)

The former champ ended a 21-month layoff by whitewashing lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. All credit to Mayweather's tremendous talent, but it would be nice to see him use it against men his own size.

I can appreciate what Dan is saying here, my only question is why rank Floyd so high if you sincerely believe that? Surely he has full autonomy of his columns, blogs and rankings to write how he personally feels.

Personally I have Floyd ranked #5 for 2 reasons

1) He holds no title

2) All the other guys ahead of him are upper echelon fighters who have a better body of work at Welter

Mosely
Cotto
Berto
Clottey
Mayweather

Funny how he doesn't call out Berto for not fighting people his own size and has him ranked above Mayweather when he fought Urango last time out.

Urango is a HUGE 140. Marquez is a TINY 135!!! LOL! Hardly a comparison. As far as PPV fights go.. I think this was the most lopsided matchup since Gatti-Mayweather.

Urango will have a short career dropping all that weight between fights. Berto handled a big puncher that night. Berto is still young, but such a solid prospect (even though he is technically World champ). What I saw him do in the last round versus Callazo is what sold me on him again. And I thought Callazo won the fight!

[:::PSL:::]

Shane is the man to beat at welter.

[Taeth]

ESPN.com's division-by-division rankings - ESPN

3. Floyd Mayweather (40-0)

The former champ ended a 21-month layoff by whitewashing lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. All credit to Mayweather's tremendous talent, but it would be nice to see him use it against men his own size.

I can appreciate what Dan is saying here, my only question is why rank Floyd so high if you sincerely believe that? Surely he has full autonomy of his columns, blogs and rankings to write how he personally feels.

Personally I have Floyd ranked #5 for 2 reasons

1) He holds no title

2) All the other guys ahead of him are upper echelon fighters who have a better body of work at Welter

Mosely
Cotto
Berto
Clottey
Mayweather

As welterweight Mayweather beat both the linear lightweight, junior lightweight, and welterweight champion at that 147. He's done way more than Clottey or Berto at WW, and is clearly better than any of the guys up there. I think him being third is just fine.

[Spicoli]

Just cannot rank Berto in the top 5.Too me he looks one tough match up vs.top tier away from a very bad night.