1. Manny Pacquiao 49-3-2 (37 KOs) – born December 17, 1978, known as “Pac-Man” is a Filipino professional boxer, part-time actor and recording artist. He is the former WBC Lightweight world champion, WBC Super Featherweight world champion, IBF Superbantamweight world champion, and WBC Flyweight world champion. He has also held the Ring Magazine titles for Featherweight, Super Featherweight, and Light Welterweight divisions. For his achievements, he became the first Filipino and Asian boxer to win five world titles in five different weight divisions. He is currently the IBO and Ring Magazine Light Welterweight champion and is rated by the Ring Magazine as the number one pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He is also the first boxer to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes.
2. Juan Manuel Marquez 50-4-1 (37 KOs) – born August 23, 1973, in Mexico City. the current WBA, WBO, and IBO Lightweight world champion as well as the current Ring Magazine Lightweight champion. He has also held the IBF, WBA, and WBO Featherweight titles, and the WBC Superfeatherweight title. He is the fourth Mexican boxer to become a world champion in three different weight classes after Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, and Julio Cezar Chavez. On February 28, 2009, Márquez defeated IBO champion, and former WBA, IBF, and WBO Lightweight champion Juan Diaz by knockout. With the victory, Márquez defended his Ring Lightweight title, and claimed the WBO, the WBA, and the IBO Lightweight championship titles. After the fight Márquez expressed an interest in fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr.
3. Bernard Hopkins 49-5-1 (32 KOs) – born January 15, 1965, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known as “The Executioner”. He is best known for his ten year reign as middleweight world champion in which he successfully defended his title a record 20 times. He is the first fighter to retain all 4 major boxing governing body belts including the Ring Magazine belt in the same fight. He is the oldest man to ever hold the middleweight championship in professional boxing. On October 18, 2008, Hopkins met middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik at a catch-weight of 170 lbs, with Hopkins defeating the then-undefeated Pavlik via unanimous decision.
4. Shane Mosley 46-5-0 (39 KOs) - “Sugar” Shane Mosley (born September 7, 1971) is a boxer from Pomona, California. He has won world titles in three weight divisions. He is the current WBA Welterweight champion. Sugar Shane started his pro career in 1993, By 2000 he had fought 38 fights to a 38–0 (36KOs) record, beating undefeated Phillip Holiday to win the IBF lightweight title. He made 9 title defenses and moved up 2 divisions to face Oscar De La Hoya for his welterweight title. Mosley and the undefeated WBA welterweight Champion Miguel Cotto met on Nov. 10 in a fight broadcast on HBO Pay-Per-View. In one of the very best fights of the year Cotto beat Mosley by way of close but unanimous decision. Mosley regained the WBA welterweight championship from Antonio Margarito on January 24, 2009. Having age of 37, he came in to the fight as a 4-1 underdog with the bookies after Margarito had spectacularly stopped Cotto 6 months earlier. Prior to the bout nobody gave Mosley a chance of prevailing, everybody believing that Margarito was too strong and that Mosley was too old. But it turned out to a massive upset as Mosley TKO’d Margarito in the ninth round. -Now who want to say “Old dogs can’t learn new tricks”? Better think twice coz Mosley might shut you out.
5. Israel Vazquez 43-4-0 (31 KOs) – born Devember 25, 1977 in Mexico City . He is the current Ring Superbantamweight (Junior Featherweight) champion (122 lbs) after being stripped of his WBC Super Bantamweight championship for being inactive after a retina surgery. His trilogy fight with Rafael Marquez made him earn the #5 spot.
6. Rafael Marquez 38-5-0 (34 KOs) – born 25 March 1975 in Mexico City. He is a former world champion at the IBF / IBO Bantamweight(118 lb) and WBC Superbantamweight (122 lb) divisions. Márquez was ranked by the Ring Magazine’s number one Bantamweight boxer. He later became the top ranked boxer in the Super Bantamweight division before his loss to Vazquez. Márquez was inactive for over a year as he recuperated from the trilogy with Vazquez. On May 23, 2009, he returned to the ring by scoring a 3rd round TKO over Jose Francisco Mendoza (21-2-2) in the featherweight division.
7. Nonito Donaire 21-1-0 (14 KOs) -Donaire was born on November 16, 1982, Talibon, Bohol, raised in General Santos City in the Philippines and moved to the United States at the age of ten. Current IBF and IBO world champion in the flyweight category. On April 19, 2009, Donaire faced flyweight Raul Martinez for his third defense of his IBF Flyweight title at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippines. Donaire scored the TKO after 2:42 into the 4th round. Because of his victory over Martinez, Donaire was included for the first time in the Ring Magazine pound for pound rankings. Donaire has expressed interest in moving up to the junior bantamweight/super flyweight division at 115 pounds and is set to face Hugo Cazares for the WBA Superflyweight interim title on August 15, 2009
8. Vic Darchinyan 32-1-1 (26 KOs) – born January 7, 1976 in Vanadzor, Armenia, the current WBA, WBC and IBF Undisputed Super Flyweight World Champion. Darchinyan was formerly the IBF and IBO champion of the flyweight division and briefly reigned as the IBO’s super flyweight champion also. He is a southpaw boxer, who currently trains under Billy Hussein, brother of boxers Nedal and Hussein Hussein. He lost both IBF and IBO titles to American-based Filipino Nonito Donaire via a 5th round knockout on 7 July 2007 in Connecticut, the fight ended with a single left hook to the face of Darchinyan. On February 7, 2009, Darchinyan successfully defended his Super Flyweight belt against Jorge Arce, winning by TKO in the 11th round.
9. Miguel Cotto 34-1-0 (27 KOs) – born October 29, 1980 in Caguas, Puerto Rico. On July 26, 2008, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cotto suffered his first loss as a professional boxer to Antonio Margarito in an unsuccessful title defense. Cotto returned to action on February 21, 2009 and won the vacant WBO welterweight title against Michael Jennings. On June 13, 2009, Cotto successfully defended this championship belt against Joshua Clottey via twelve round split decision. Immediately after this fight, negotiations began to pursue a contest against Manny Pacquiao, establishing a tentative date of November 14, 2009. Before Pacquiao defeated Ricky Hatton, Bob Arum stated that he was interested in this matchup. Subsequently, Pacquiao expressed interest in fighting Cotto. During the negotiations, it was published that both camps had agreed on a catchweight of 145 pounds, while the share of the income was still being discussed.
10. Ivan Calderon 32-0-0 (6 KOs) – born January 27, 1975 in Puerto Rico. Known as the best pure boxer in the sport. Calderon can do it all in the ring short of knock opponents dead, making his inability to lose thus far all the more remarkable. His game is all skill with just enough thrill to make his fights worth watching. After years as the uncrowned king at 105 lbs., Calderon outboxed and outgutted a much larger Cazares in August 2007 to cement his foothold among the game’s elite by capturing the World title at 108 lbs. Over the last year, it appeared his biggest challenge could come from Ulises Solis but the rousing upset of Solis by former titlist and U.S. Olympian Brian Viloria for the WBC belt has changed the state of the class, Calderon-Viloria is now the biggest money fight at 108 lbs.
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