Rankings: Heavyweight Isn’t Deadweight at LinesMaker.com

Rankings: Heavyweight Isn’t Deadweight

If there was one magic for­mula that would cure what­ever ails box­ing, it would be for the best fight­ers in the world to com­pete reg­u­larly in mean­ing­ful bouts on net­work tele­vi­sion. Do that and box­ing will quickly be one of the so-called “Big 4″ sports once again.

A close sec­ond, though, would be the pres­ence of a thriv­ing heavy­weight division.

And while it’s prob­a­bly not fair to refer to the cur­rent state of the heavy­weights as thriv­ing, it’s also prob­a­bly not as bad as you might think. For the first time since the Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound rank­ings began in 2007, there are two heavy­weights in the Top 10 in the May rankings.

Wladimir Klitschko, the Inter­na­tional Box­ing Federation/World Box­ing Orga­ni­za­tion heavy­weight cham­pion, checks in at No. 6. His older brother, Vitali, makes his debut in the by edg­ing Bernard Hop­kins for the 10th spot.

Also for the first time in the his­tory of the poll, four active heavy­weights received at least one vote. Nei­ther Tomasz Adamek nor World Box­ing Asso­ci­a­tion cham­pion David Haye were a threat to make the Top 10, but each earned mention.

In all, the 43 vot­ers in the May poll tabbed 25 dif­fer­ent box­ers. Adamek, who fights Vitali Klitschko on Sept. 10 in Poland, got six points, while Haye, who meets Wladimir Klitschko on July 2 in Ger­many, received one point.

It’s a mod­est accom­plish­ment, but it’s an accom­plish­ment that shouldn’t be ignored. If Haye and/or Adamek per­form well in their bouts against the Klitschko broth­ers, the heavy­weight divi­sion would sud­denly become very interesting.

As good as Adamek is — he’s a for­mer light heavy­weight and cruis­er­weight cham­pion who is 44–1 with 28 knock­outs — he’s very unlikely to defeat Vitali Klitschko. Adamek couldn’t stop Chris Arreola when they met last year, though he repeat­edly clocked Arreola with clean, hard shots. And if he can’t knock Klitschko out, the chances of him out­box­ing him and win­ning a deci­sion are remote. Get­ting inside Klitschko’s pow­er­ful jab would be a feat in and of itself.

Haye is a more inter­est­ing propo­si­tion, though. He’s a puncher and will undoubt­edly have the capac­ity to hurt Wladimir Klitschko when they meet. The key there will be for him to con­tend with Klitschko’s range and his pow­er­ful 1–2 com­bi­na­tions. Haye, though, is very quick and ath­letic, along with his power, and it’s not out of the ques­tion that he could win.

Whether Haye or Adamek wins, though, is beside the point. For the first time in a long time, there are heavy­weight fights on the hori­zon worth talk­ing about. And that’s not bad.

Before we get to the newest top 10, please note that Floyd May­weather Jr. has been removed from the rank­ings for inac­tiv­ity. The poll requires fight­ers to have com­peted at least once in a cal­en­dar year. May­weather hasn’t fought since a May 1, 2010, win over Shane Mosley, mean­ing he’s no longer eli­gi­ble for con­sid­er­a­tion until after he fights again.

And with that, here’s the new Top 10 …

1. Manny Pac­quiao
Points: 430 (43 of 43 first-place votes)
Record: 53–3–2 (38 KOs)
Title: WBO wel­ter­weight cham­pion
Last out­ing: W12 over Shane Mosley on May 7
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing: 1
Up next: Likely Nov. 12 vs. No. 4 Juan Manuel Mar­quez
Analy­sis: Per­haps also boxing’s pound-for-pound hard­est puncher

2. Ser­gio Mar­tinez
Points: 376
Record: 47–2–2 (26 KOs)
Title: WBC mid­dleweight cham­pion emer­i­tus
Last out­ing: TKO8 Sergiy Dzinziruk on March 12
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing: 2
Up next: TBA
Analy­sis: Would love a shot at Pac­quiao, how­ever unlikely it may be

3. Non­ito Don­aire Jr.
Points: 304
Record: 26–1 (18 KOs)
Title: WBC, WBO ban­tamweight cham­pion
Last out­ing: TKO2 over Fer­nando Mon­tiel on Feb. 19
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing: 4
Up next:TBA
Analy­sis: Shoot­ing pho­tos at fights, but not boxing

4. Juan Manuel Mar­quez
Points: 267
Record: 52–5–1 (38 KOs)
Title: WBA, WBO light­weight cham­pion
Last out­ing: TKO9 over Michael Kat­sidis on Nov. 27
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing: 5
Up next: Likely Nov. 12 vs. No. 1 Manny Pac­quiao
Analy­sis: Size is biggest ques­tion mark against Pacquiao

5. Andre Ward
Points: 216
Record: 24–0 (13 KOs)
Title: WBA super mid­dleweight cham­pion
Last out­ing: W12 over Arthur Abra­ham on May 14
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing: 7
Up next: TBA vs. Carl Froch-Glen John­son win­ner
Analy­sis: 2004 Gold Medal­ist hasn’t lost fight in 13 years

6. Wladimir Klitschko
Points: 120
Record: 55–3 (49 KOs)
Title: IBF, WBO heavy­weight cham­pion
Last out­ing: TKO10 over Samuel Peter on Sept. 11
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing: 6
Up next:July 2 vs. WBA cham­pion David Haye
Analy­sis: Only ques­tion sur­round­ing him is his qual­ity of his chin

7. Tim­o­thy Bradley
Points: 172
Record: 27–0 (11 KOs)
Title: WBO super light­weight cham­pion
Last out­ing: TD10 over Devon Alexan­der in Pon­tiac, Mich., on Jan. 29
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing:8
Up next:TBA
Analy­sis:Could be squeezed out of big fight mix for time being

8. Lucian Bute
Points: 87
Record: 28–0 (23 KOs)
Title: IBF super mid­dleweight cham­pion
Last out­ing: TKO10 Brian Magee on March 19
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing: 9
Up next: July 9 vs. Jean Paul Mendy
Analy­sis:A show­down with Super Six win­ner awaits if he keeps winning

9. Yuri­orkis Gam­boa
Points: 30
Record: 20–0 (16 KOs)
Title: IBF/WBA feath­er­weight cham­pion
Last out­ing: TKO4 Jorge Solis on March 26
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing: 10
Up next: TBA
Analy­sis: The bet­ter his defense gets the more dan­ger­ous he becomes

10. Vitali Klitschko
Points: 53
Record: 42–2 (39 KOs)
Title: WBC heavy­weight cham­pion
Last out­ing: KO1 over Odlanier Solis on March 19
Pre­vi­ous rank­ing: NR
Up next:Sept. 10 vs. Tomasz Adamek
Analy­sis:With size and power, may be most dif­fi­cult man in world to beat

Oth­ers receiv­ing votes: Bernard Hop­kins, 51; Pongsak­lek Won­jongkam, 42; Miguel Cotto, 23; Amir Khan, 20; Paul Williams, 19; Chris John, 15; Gio­vani Segura, 13; Vic­tor Ortiz, 8; Juan Manuel Lopez, 7; Tomasz Adamek, 6; Carl Froch, 5; Marco Huck, 3; Steve Cun­ning­ham, 2; David Haye, 1; Anselmo Moreno, 1.

Vot­ing panel:Al Bern­stein, Show­time; Ron Borges, Boston Her­ald; Damian Cal­houn, Orange County Reg­is­ter; Steve Cofield, Yahoo! Sports; Dave Cokin, ESPN Radio 1100, Las Vegas; Mike Cop­pinger, free­lance; Gareth A. Davies, Lon­don Tele­graph; Tris Dixon, Box­ing News; Andrew Eisele, About.com; Corey Erd­man, Sirius/XM; Steve Far­hood, Show­time; Doug Fis­cher, RingTV.com; Scott Fyfe, Sun­day Post, Scot­land; Thomas Ger­basi, BoxingScene.com; Nick Giongco, Manila Bul­letin; Car­los Gon­za­lez, Primera Hora; Randy Gor­don, Sirius/XM; Lee Groves, Ring Mag­a­zine; Thomas Hauser, Sec­onds Out; Keith Idec, The Record; Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports; Michael Katz, Gam­ing Today; Max Keller­man, HBO; Scott Mal­lon, Box­ing Digest; Rich Marotta, Fox Sports; David Mayo, Grand Rapids Press; Franklin McNeil, ESPN.com; Gun­nar Mein­hardt, Die Welt; Robert Morales, Los Ange­les Daily News; Marty Mulc­a­hey, MaxBoxing.com; Kieran Mul­vaney, ; Peter O. Nel­son, free­lance; San­tos Perez, Miami Her­ald; Mar­tin Rogers, Yahoo! Sports; Cliff Rold, BoxingScene.com; Michael Rosen­thal, RingTV.com; Lem Sat­ter­field, BoxingScene.com; Tim Smith, New York Daily News; Tim Starks, The Queens­bury Rules; Don Stein­berg, Wall Street Journal/Philadelphia Inquirer; T.K. Stew­art, BoxingScene.com; Dave Wein­berg, Press of Atlantic City; George Willis, New York Post.

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