St. Pierre Gets Biggest Victory of his Career Against Penn

Although this is a boxing site, I like to comment on MMA every now and then - especially an event of this magnitude. Georges St. Pierre cemented his place as the top welterweight in MMA by beating the top lightweight and (probably) the second best welterweight in the sport, BJ Penn. Georges displayed superior strength and tenacity in holding Penn to the ground and consistently breaking his guard. Penn is still the best lightweight in the world and was clearly the naturally smaller fighter in the octagon tonight. Overall, it was a great fight and a great event for MMA. Congrats Georges on an amazing fight! Penn, you're still the man at lightweight and still one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world.

Prediction: Manny Pacquiao versus Ricky Hatton

Hi folks, it's prediction time as 2009 gets off to a great start after the action packed Mosley-Margarito fight. Manny Pacqiao versus Ricky Hatton is finally signed and on for May 2nd. I see this fight going into the late rounds with Hatton trying to make it more of a brawl and Manny trying to keep his distance from Hatton's dangerous attack. Manny will box carefully and try to wear Ricky down. If Ricky can not get inside or trap Manny against the ropes during the fight he will have a hard time winning. I don't see Manny allowing that consistently enough for Ricky to pull out the victory. I have this fight going the distance with a unanimous decision win for Pacquiao. Don't rule out a late round TKO victory for Manny Pacquiao either ...

Stay tuned for more exciting predictions in future posts. Including the next stop on Marco Antonio Barrera's comeback trail against prospect Amir Khan (March 14th), Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz (February 28th) and Roy Jones Jr. vs. Omar Sheika (March 21st).

Premier Boxing's February Pound for Pound List

Here it is - my pound for pound list for the month of February:

1. Manny Pacquiao

Can't argue much with Manny being number one. He soundly beat Oscar De La Hoya. He has fairly recent wins over legends of the ring Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Eric Morales.

Up Next: Ricky Hatton

2. Bernard Hopkins

Bernard completed a recent destruction of Kelly Pavlik and close split decision loss to Joe Calzaghe. B-Hop has fought an unbelievable number of figters that were top 10 pound for pounders when he fought them. By comparison, Joe Calzaghe has only ever done that once in his career - when he fought Bernard Hopkins.

3. Juan Manuel Marquez

Two scintillatingly close fights with Manny Pacquiao - what else can I say? His solid victory over Joel Casamayor was pretty awesome too!

4. Shane Mosley

Close fight with Cotto and destruction of Margarito makes him the top welterweight and puts him 4th on our list.

5. Joe Calzaghe

Undefeated career with a recent close win against Bernard Hopkins is enough to allow Joe to squeeze into the top 5. He needs to beat fighters that are in their prime (top ten pound for pound) - only having his fight with Bernard in that category is not enough to make him an all time great. However, he is definitely a top 5 pound for pound fighter at the moment.

Thanks for checking in. Stay tuned for more commentary on your favorite events and fighters.