Modern Pound-For-Pound Fighters Ranked From ‘GOAT’ To ‘Not A Boxer’

Boxing's pound-for-pound kings have been ranked, with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao named GOATs of the modern era, while Oscar De La Hoya is classed as 'Overrated'.

SPORTbible's Tiermaker ranking involves boxers who've all starred in the top five of pound-for-pound lists over the last 20 years, rating fighters from 'All-Time Great' to 'Not A Boxer'.

He may hold a win over the naturally smaller Pacquaio, but Mayweather joins the Pac Man plus Roy Jones - often called the best athlete boxing has ever seen - as the three stand-out greats of their era.

One level below are bitter rivals Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin, who sit in 'Elite' status with the man currently viewed as the best fighter in the sport: lightweight genius Vasyl Lomachenko.

However in the 'Overrated' tier sits De La Hoya, the man Mayweather surpassed as boxing's biggest box-office draw. A multi-weight champ, De La Hoya nonetheless lost more than he won against his fellow greats and often underwhelmed on the biggest stage.

Mikey Garcia and Guillermo Rigondeaux, fine boxers whose reputations are arguably overblown, join 'The Golden Boy'. On the other side of the coin, charismatic ex-cruiserweight king Oleksandr Usyk, exceptional welterweight Terrence Crawford and retired but undefeated Joe Calzaghe are labelled 'Underrated'.

Joe's fellow Brit Ricky 'The Hitman' Hatton falls down into the 'Average' category - simply because pound-for-pound competition is so strong: all of these boxers are still of a very high standard.

Except, perhaps, Adrien Broner. 'The Problem' was once ranked as high as fifth in Ring magazine's pound-for-pound list, but his career has nose-dived as he's been arrested for drink driving, filmed himself flushing dollar bills down a toilet and failed to win any of his last three fights. Garbage.

The full SPORTbible rankings are below.

All-Time Great: Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Roy Jones

Elite: Canelo Alvarez, Vasyl Lomachenko, Gennady Golovkin, Bernard Hopkins, Marco Antonio Barrera, Andre Ward

Underrated: Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk, Joe Calzaghe, Chocolatito Gonzalez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Winky Wright

Good: Naoya Inoue, Errol Spence, Felix Trinidad, Erik Morales, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Sergio Martinez, Nonito Donaire, Kostya Tszyu

Overrated: Oscar De La Hoya, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Mikey Garcia, Antonio Margarito

Average: Ricky Hatton, Jermain Taylor, Tim Bradley, Israel Vazquez, Vernon Forrest

Not A Boxer: Adrien Broner

Fair or unfair? Tell us what you think of our modern pound-for-pound ranking in the comments.