Should Manny Pacquiao be ranked below Floyd Mayweather as the greatest boxer of all time?
- Retired US superstar tops the BoxRec list by a long way but Philippines icon is hot on his heels
- Muhammad Ali is ranked fourth with ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson ranked a lowly 70 in controversial list
Who is the greatest boxer of all time? BoxRec, the respected boxing website that updates all professional records by the minute, this week came up with an all-time greatest boxers list and it has already stirred controversy by putting Floyd Mayweather Jnr in top spot.
No one can question Mayweather’s achievements with a magnificent 50-0-0 record, 27 of those bouts coming by way of knockout, but this was an “all-time” pound-for-pound list and whether the retired American superstar is heads and shoulders above the rest is debatable.
His rival, Manny Pacquiao, is No 2 on the list ahead of Argentine middleweight great Carlos Monzon and Muhammad Ali, surprisingly, only took fourth place.
Sugar Ray Robinson, the boxer who transcended race and sport and went unbeaten for 91 consecutive bouts, was fifth ahead of “ageless” Bernard Hopkins and the “Brown Bomber” – heavyweight champion Joe Louis, who landed in seventh place.
How did BoxRec come up with its list? Win and loss record and quality of opponents plus reign as world champion probably came into consideration. We are not sure what other criteria was used that helped calculate the tennis-like rankings.
We do know that BoxRec is a useful tool. If anybody wanted to look at a fighter’s professional record, they would turn to BoxRec. Any information on a boxer’s past fights, future bouts and things related to their professional careers, even down to which round they were knocked down or knocked out, is a click away.
The website uses a “star” system for active fighters, with Pacquiao, unsurprisingly, earning five stars for being a top-class professional.
The Filipino icon’s recent split decision victory against previously unbeaten American Keith Thurman for the WBA “super” welterweight title impressed the website, no doubt.
But BoxRec probably didn’t take into consideration that a 40-year-old fighter beat a 30-year-old top-three welterweight ranked fighter. It’s not counted that way.
Drawing my own conclusions, BoxRec doesn’t give fighters bonus points for “doing the impossible”.
So how did Mayweather get to the top of the list? And why was he ranked miles ahead of Pacquiao (2,255 points to Pacman’s 1,633)?
As we all know, Mayweather and Pacquiao fought, with “Money” coming out on top in their 2015 megafight in Las Vegas.
And if BoxRec was using his ring record (win/loss) as a method to calculate who’s the greatest of all time, Mayweather makes a strong case.
Mayweather hasn’t lost in his 21-year professional career and is a five-time weight division champion.
He has made the most money of any boxer in any era, his reputed US$400 million from the Pacquiao fight in 2015 making him one of the richest athletes ever.
The braggadocious American is, without doubt, one of the greatest defensive boxers ever, with his accurate punching helping him reach the top.
He has never been hurt in a fight. He’s never been knocked out and his defence is so far ahead of his peers, he has to be considered a genius.
We wonder whether BoxRec used a computer programme to calculate all the punches thrown by Mayweather via CompuBox stats to come up with its top man.
In my book, Ali should have been on top of the list, but BoxRec probably thought Ali’s 56-5-0 record – although incredible – wasn’t good enough to crack the top three.
Then again if you had to take achievements outside the ring, and whether Mayweather made the same impact as Ali did – culturally, socially and politically – no one comes close to “The Greatest”.
BoxRec also leaves itself open to criticism. How is it that “Iron” Mike Tyson didn’t even make the top 25? And why weren’t George Foreman, Thomas Hearns or Jack Dempsey on the first page of the list? Imagine, Tyson sits in 70th place overall despite a stunning record (50-6-0, 44 KOs). 70th place! You have got to be kidding.
So at the moment, the only boxer who can knock Mayweather off his perch is Pacquiao and the 42-year-old American was well pleased with his newly acquired status, but he has to look over his shoulder as Pacman continues to rack up the points.
“Numbers don’t lie and Boxrec told the truth. It is what it is,” Mayweather bragged on his social medial accounts.
If the list was judged by a win-loss record being the most basic criterion, why wasn’t Welsh legend Joe Calzaghe ranked in the top 25 with his unbeaten 46-0-0, 32 KOs?
Calzaghe was ranked No 3 on The Ring magazine’s pound-for-pound list at the time of his retirement in 2009, yet he sits in 32nd spot. It’s all subjective. Some boxers might make a better case than others. Does Mayweather deserve to be right at the top? Probably not.
BoxRec’s list is a website’s opinion that might not sit well with a lot of boxing fans who were hoping their favourite fighters might be ranked higher. Someone should compile a complete list that takes everything into account – both inside and outside the ring – from his humanitarian side and how big an impact he had on fans; to his contribution to society and his charity work. Fans should decide for themselves. Now that would be some list.
