I learned a couple things last week.
First, who knew there was a difference between the ending point of decades and centuries?
OK, I guess I knew. But I was a little loose with the definitions while writing the piece on the best American fighters since 2000, and more than a few people took the time to call me out.
Point made. Message received. Your checks are in the mail.
And second, I learned if Gerry Cooney asks you for something, it’s best that you provide it.
I was invited to go on Sirius XM for a show hosted by journalism hero/mentor Randy Gordon and the “Gentleman” from Long Island, who was both a principal in the first closed-circuit telecast my Dad ever paid for and my Mom’s co-favorite fighter, along with Ray Mancini, until the day she died.
The idea was to take a few minutes to chat up last week’s list, but the affable Mr. Cooney suggested it’d be a better overall project if he had a “World” list with which to compare the U.S. list. I hadn’t originally considered compiling one, but not wanting to risk my 54-year-old cruiserweight self if he decided to make an issue of it, it became this week’s project.
The qualification guidelines are the same as last week. We’re talking about performances from 2000 and beyond. For example, though Julio Cesar Chavez did fight six times after January 1, 2000, he’s not recognized as an all-time great because of the 4-2 record he posted in those fights. So he’s not included.
Got it? Good.
Anyway, without further ado… and with no interest in testing the patience of a two-time heavyweight title challenger who’s already KO’d a guy named (Ron) Lyle, here’s one man’s international opinion.
10. NAOYA INOUE – Last week’s list had two active fighters in Crawford and Spence. This week, it’s three. And man, the first one is a good one. Inoue is barely 30 years old but already a veteran of 19 title fights, having won all of them – and all but two by KO. As Mr. Gordon said upon previewing the names I’d come up with, “Inoue will climb higher” when it comes to all-time compilations. Make that much higher.
9. GENNADIY GOLOVKIN – Many love the guy. Some aren’t quite as impressed with the resume. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, but there’s no argument that Triple-G dominated nearly everyone put in front of him during his run of title defenses at middleweight. He’s officially 0-2-1 against the best opponent he ever had but he was a must-watch talent in the final years of HBO’s coverage.
8. WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO – Speaking of guys who had a seemingly endless run of title defenses but still get mixed reviews, Klitschko is the heavyweight version. He seemed just a big guy with a balky chin and cardio early on, but Emanuel Steward accentuated his offensive positives and engineered the run of 19 straight wins on the championship stage – with 14 KOs – from 2006 to 2015.
7. MARCO ANTONIO BARRERA – Some in the crowd may have forgotten about him because his last title-fight win was 17 years ago, but the “Baby Faced Assassin” was a fixture in Ring Magazine’s annual rankings. His first fight of 2000 was a loss to Erik Morales, but he rebounded with eight straight wins, including a rematch and a memorable schooling of a then-pristine Naseem Hamed.
6. ERIK MORALES – Yes, he was 1-2 against the guy listed a spot below him, but Morales gets the upper hand because of his clear defeat of Manny Pacquiao in 2005 – which set Pacquiao off on a 15-fight win streak over the subsequent seven years. Morales was 13-2 in his first 15 fights of the 2000s before a surprise loss to Zahir Raheem took the air out of the balloon and started a career-ending 4-7 tailspin.
5. VASILY LOMACHENKO – Few have ever been so good so soon as the Ukrainian dance master, who was a title challenger in his second fight, a champion in his third, and a three-weight claimant by his 12th. He gets by largely on smarts and muscle memory these days at 135 pounds but was at his physical peak at 126 and 130, breaking opponents mentally long before referees or corner men intervened.
4. JOE CALZAGHE – Calzaghe may be as much responsible for the WBO becoming a major sanctioning body as anyone. He’d racked up 17 defenses of its title at 168 before competitively ruining a then-unbeaten and largely favored IBF champ Jeff Lacy over 12 remarkable rounds in 2006. Stardom followed and wins over Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins left him 46-0 and made his inclusion here academic.
3. JUAN MANUEL MARQUEZ – The author of one of the most shocking one-punch KOs in the sport’s recent history in his fourth go-round with Pacquiao in 2012, people may forget Marquez was a three-weight champ who also beat the likes of Barrera, Orlando Salido, Joel Casamayor and Juan Diaz (twice). And let’s face it, he certainly deserved at least one of the first three fights with Manny, too.
2. CANELO ALVAREZ – People I take seriously — like former HBO mic man Jim Lampley – assure me that Canelo is a serious guy when it comes to all-time discussions. And you should believe it, too. After all, the cinnamon-haired Mexican has beaten nearly everyone they’ve put in front of him while he’s grown up on big stages across four weight classes. It’s not easy to maintain that level for that long, but he has.
1. MANNY PACQUIAO – I’ll go to my grave insisting Mayweather beats him at his best weight on his best day, but that doesn’t make what Pacquiao did from flyweight to 154 any less remarkable. I never envisioned anyone who fought at flyweight beating welterweights. It didn’t seem possible. But he did it and he usually made it look pretty easy. The guy changed the modern game. Simply amazing.
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This week’s title-fight schedule:
No title fights scheduled.
Last week’s picks: None
2023 picks record: 23-9 (71.9 percent)
Overall picks record: 1,273-417 (75.3 percent)
NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body’s full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA “world championships” are only included if no “super champion” exists in the weight class.
Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.