I am here, once and for all, to give all you boxing fanatics the true definition of what "Pound for Pound (P4P)" is and how it is to be used to determine who is the P4P champion based on the original and correct definition.

Here is the original definition of P4P used to show respect to Sugar Ray Robinson and his talents: "If of equal weight, who would be the best fighter/boxer using an equal combination of career resume and talent."

Now remember P4P is a fictitious title except if two fighters are of about equivalent weight, then you look at who you think would win (that is where the discretionary part comes in) and they should ranked higher P4P. (Example if Roy Jones Jr. and Felix Trinidad were to get into the ring, then whoever you think is going to win, would be higher P4P in your rankings and whoever wins has to be ranked higher than the other P4P, since they just proved it in the ring)

Felix Trinidad is in the top echelon of the Pound for Pound argument.

Let's now break down the definition. The first part reads: "If of equal weight..." Now obviously trying to compare Ricardo Lopez to Lennox Lewis is hard, but you need to look at their styles, not weight. Remember, styles make fights!! Try to picture all the fighters at a catch weight of about 160 pounds. Look at their styles: defense, power, heart, stamina, etc. and analyze using those elements.

The rest of the definition reads, "...using an equal combination of career resume and skill". So it is 50% skill and 50% career resume (not the last 2 or 3 fights).

Let's first look at skill. What is meant by skill is talent level, which includes: speed, power, chin, heart, stamina, charisma, ring generalship, defense, etc. All attributes that one could think of that would make up a fighters skill.

Speed: How fast are his hands and feet?

Chin: Can he take a good punch? Can he get off the canvas and still win?

Heart: If he is behind in the fight, can he dig deep down and pull the fight out?

Stamina: Can he go the distance?

Ring Generalship: Can he move well in the ring and control the tempo of the fight?

Defense: Can he block and dodge punches and counter punch well?

Now these skills along with others need to be taken into account when coming up with the 50% talent to make up P4P.

The other 50% is made up of career resume, not what a fighter has done in his last 2 or 3 fights. To look at only their last couple fights is like looking at how a football team has done in the past 3 games. You need to look at the entire picture when determining who is the best P4P fighter.

Shane Mosely has an impressive resume.

So you ask where do you start determining who has the better career resume? Well you must start by looking at a fighters record. Evander Holyfield has a great resume, but he is also 37-5-1. That is an important factor since a fighter can have a great resume, but if he loses a lot, then obviously he isn't that top P4P since there are many fighters better than him. One loss or maybe even two does not eliminate a fighter from the top spot, but makes it very difficult to justify him being there. Of course there are always special circumstances based on losses or draws if they were unjustified.

A good starting point when looking at records is to look at champions. Almost always does a P4P champion have a title, if he does not, either he has given it up or was stripped of his belt for some reason. There are exceptions like "Prince" Naseem Hamed, but he given up his belts and has fought good top class fighters.

There are currently about 40 different champions and about 10 other fighters who even deserve to be talked about when mentioning P4P. So now we narrowed it down considerably. Go through and check out their records and anyone with 3 losses or more can be eliminated from the top 10 without question.

The next step is to look at the remaining fighters on your list and see whom they have fought. Have they fought the best in their division and unified the titles? How many past champions have they fought? How many weight classes have they dominated? All those are questions that need to be answered to cut you list to the top 10. At this point you just need to compare the fighters left and determine who you think has more talent or a better resume. If two fighters have similar resumes, then go with the one you think has more talent and vice versa.

I am now going to attempt to break down the top 3 P4P (using the original definition) and use the 3 fighters that most writers and fans believe deserves to be #1: Roy Jones Jr., Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad.

First lets start with talent. Even Jones haters agree that he is most talented boxer in all of boxing and most people agree Trinidad is skilled, but relies on his heart and big punch more than Mosley and Jones. So in a fair analysis of talent I would say the order would be: Roy Jones, Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad. Now all three are very skilled and have tons of talent, but there is a slight difference in the three when compared to each other.

Next we must look at career resume. Let's start with the youngest, Shane Mosley 37-0 (34 KO) with a 12-0 (10 KO) championship record. Mosley is a two-time world champion in two different weight classes (IBF Lightweight Title and WBC Welterweight Title). As you will see, Mosley level of competition is not very comparable to Jones and Trinidad's. Some people say Mosley has fought everyone he can, which might be true, but he has yet to attempt to unify either division he has been champion in. And Jones Jr. is in the same situation in his division, but he has gone ahead and won and defended all three major titles. Mosley has beaten 4 former world champions [Philip Holiday (W 12), John John Molina (TKO 8), Jesse James Leija (KO 7) and Oscar De La Hoya (W 12)] and 0 current world champions. There are no other wins of importance to talk about on Mosley's resume.

Let's keep going up in age, and look at Felix Trinidad next. Trinidad is 39-0 (32 KO) with a 19-0 (15 KO) championship record. Trinidad is a 4-time world champion in two different weight classes (IBF & WBC Welterweight Titles and IBF & WBA Junior Middleweight Titles). Trinidad has taken on all comers and is now currently in the midst of a 4-fighter Middleweight tournament with the 3 champions. Trinidad has beaten 8 former world champions [Maurice Blocker (KO 2), Hector Camacho (W 12), Yori Boy Campas (TKO 4), Freddie Pendleton (KO 5), Pernell Whitaker (W 12), Oscar De La Hoya (W 12), David Reid (W 12) and Fernando Vargas (TKO 12)] and 0 current world champions. The Oscar De La Hoya fight was a very close fight, but De La Hoya was considered to be top 3 P4P at the time. There are no other wins of importance to talk about on Trinidad's resume.

Lastly let's take a look at Roy Jones' resume. Jones is 43-1 (35 KO) with an 18-1 (12 KO) championship record. Jones is a 5-time world champion in three different weight classes (IBF Middleweight Title, IBF Super Middleweight Title and IBF, WBA & WBC Light Heavyweight Titles). Jones' only loss was a disqualification to Montell Griffin after Jones had knocked Griffin down and hit him while he had gone to a knee. Jones revenged that loss a few months later with a 1st round knock out. Jones, like Mosley, has very little competition in his weight class (minus Dariusz Michalczewski). Jones has beaten 9 former world champions [Jorge Castro (W 10), Thulane Malinga (KO 6), James Toney (W 12), Vinny Paz (TKO 6), Mike McCallum (W 12), Montell Griffin (KO 1), Lou Del Valle (W 12), Otis Grant (TKO 10) and Reggie Johnson (W 12)] and 2 current world champions [Bernard Hopkins - IBF Middleweight Champion (W 12) and Virgil Hill - WBA Cruiserweight Champion (TKO 4)]. James Toney was considered to be the universally known P4P champion at the time Jones beat him in 1994. There are no other wins of importance to talk about on Jones' resume.

So there you have it. Jones has fought more former and current world champions, but Trinidad has fought tougher former champions. So this is how I would rank the 3 on their resumes: Felix Trinidad and Roy Jones are tied and then Shane Mosley would be third.

So now you know why I think Roy Jones Jr. is the P4P champion right now. He has the best talent of the big 3 and tied for the best resume. I would put Trinidad second because his resume is way stronger than Mosley's and their talents are not that far apart. Here is my current top 10:

1. Roy Jones Jr.

2. Felix Trinidad

3. Shane Mosley

4. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

5. Naseem Hamed

6. Lennox Lewis

7. Zab Judah

8. Ricardo Lopez

9. Oscar De La Hoya

10. Kostya Tszyu

Again, remember that P4P is a mythical title and there is some discretion on each fans and journalists list, so there still can be some differences. But this is the truest and fairest way of determining things.

If you have any questions or comments, please email me at tscott@boxinggurus.com

Thanks!!!