The Filipino is both the world's most exciting fighter and the world's best fighter. He's expected to fight again this fall against an as-yet unnamed opponent, and his next goal could be to unify the lightweight belts, which would make him boxing's only unified champ.
2. Joe Calzaghe, light heavyweight
The Welshman will likely retire after fighting Roy Jones in November; if he does he would be the second undefeated Ring Magazine champ to retire this year.
3. Juan Manuel Marquez, lightweight
He's gone 24 rounds with Pacquiao and emerged with a draw and a narrow split decision. If Marquez beats Joel Casamayor in September, a third fight between the two can't be far off.
4. Kelly Pavlik, middleweightThe undefeated Pavlik, the Ring Magazine champion, was methodical and efficient in dispatching Gary Lockett. Next up is perhaps his toughest test, against Bernard Hopkins. If he dominates Hopkins, he might be the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.
5. Chris John, featherweight
The 41-0-1 John isn't well known in the United States, but with a win over Marquez on his record, it's impossible for me to keep him out of the top 5.
6. Paul Williams, welterweight
The combination of his victory over Margarito last year and his first-round TKO of Carlos Quintana this year makes Williams the best welterweight in the world.
7. Israel Vazquez, junior featherweight
His trilogy against Rafael Marquez, in which Vazquez lost the first fight but then won the next two, has taken a lot out of both fighters, but it also did a lot to cement both fighters' legacies. Vazquez is the Ring Magazine champion; it's not clear when he'll defend his title.
8. Rafael Marquez, junior featherweight
He's basically the equal of Vazquez, but since Vazquez did win the last two times they fought, we have to give Vazquez the slight edge. I actually wouldn't be opposed to a fourth fight between them, but the way things have gone, Marquez would probably get a narrow win, and then everyone would clamor for a fifth bout. So it's probably not a bad idea that they both find some new opponents.
9. Ricky Hatton, junior welterweight
The only blemish on Hatton's record is his loss last year to Mayweather. Hatton is scheduled to defend his Ring Magazine championship against No. 1 contender Paul Malignaggi in Las Vegas in November.
10. Joel Casamayor, lightweight
For now, Casamayor is the Ring Magazine lightweight champion, but to stay the champ he'll have to win a tough test against Juan Manuel Marquez. If he were to win that, every boxing fan would love to see a superfight with Pacquiao.
11. Bernard Hopkins, light heavyweight
The 43-year-old Hopkins may finally be slowing down, and he wasn't able to keep up with Calzaghe. But he fights Pavlik in October, and if he can win that fight, he'll have to move back into the Top 10.
12. Arthur Abraham, middleweightThe undefeated Abraham knocked out Edison Miranda in his first fight on American soil, and he has said he'd like to face Oscar De La Hoya or Kelly Pavlik next.
13. Antonio Margarito, welterweight
The way he turned it on late in the Cotto fight was extremely impressive, although I do worry that I have Margarito ranked just a bit too highly, considering that he did lose to Paul Williams a year ago and to Daniel Santos four years ago. The bottom line, though, is that Margarito won what might have been the fight of the year against a guy many considered the best in the world.
14. David Haye, heavyweight
After clearing out the cruiserweight division, Haye is planning to move up to heavyweight. I'm not sure if he'll be able to beat the enormous heavyweights like the Klitschko brothers, but I am sure that Haye has the kind of exciting style that could get people interested in heavyweight boxing again.
15. Ivan Calderon, junior flyweight
Calderon is an undefeated Ring Magazine champion. It's too bad more people haven't seen him fight. I expect him to keep his perfect record unblemished against Hugo Cazares in August.
16. Cristian Mijares, junior bamtamweight
Mijares hasn't been extremely impressive lately, needing split decisions to win both of his fights in 2008. But I think he'll knock out Chatchai Sasakul in August.
17. Miguel Cotto, welterweight
If he had dominated Margarito I might have considered putting Cotto near the top of this list. But the way Margarito battered him late in the fight shows that while Cotto is great, he isn't quite the complete boxer everyone thought he was.
18. Wladimir Klitschko, heavyweightI like Klitschko, a smart, well-spoken man who's a good ambassador for his sport and dominated America's best heavyweight this month. But with all due respect, the fact that he's the world's No. 1-ranked heavyweight says more about the heavyweight division than it does about Klitschko. The two Klitschko brothers may soon own all the heavyweight title belts, but I'll be rooting for Haye to make the division more interesting.
19. Verno Phillips, junior middleweight
A few years ago Phillips appeared to be on the down side of his career, with back-to-back losses against Kassim Ouma and Ike Quartey. But he's now on a four-fight winning streak, and his split decision win over Cory Spinks in March gave him the IBF light middleweight title.
20. Mikkel Kessler, super middleweight
Kessler's loss to Calzaghe in November took a lot of the wind out of his sails, and he's now a bit overlooked, with his domination of Dimitri Sartison hardly even being noticed beyond hard-core boxing fans. Kessler needs to fight a top-notch opponent to get his name back into the Top 10 pound-for-pound conversation, and unfortunately he's not doing that, instead taking on the overmatched Danilo Haussler.
21. Oscar De La Hoya, junior middleweight The world's most popular boxer and the sport's best businessman will fight one more time, in December, before retiring. It's not clear who he'll take on, but I hope it's one of the people listed above. De La Hoya has been willing to take on top competition throughout his career, and he should do it one more time.
22. Juan Manuel Lopez, super bantamweight
After the way he dominated Daniel Ponce De Leon, the 22-0 Lopez has to be considered among the most exciting young fighters in the sport. The 25-year-old is expected to fight again in October.
23. Yutaka Niida, strawweight
Niida is an extremely difficult boxer to judge because he's never fought outside Japan. But his fight in September against the undefeated Roman Gonzalez should be a reasonably tough test.
24. Nonito Donaire, flyweight
The 25-year-old Donaire lost his second professional fight but is unbeaten since then.
25. Hozumi Hasegawa, bantamweight
Like Niida, Hasegawa has never fought outside Japan. But Hasegawa is the world's top-ranked bantamweight and has won 21 straight fights. It would be great to see him fight Niida.
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