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By Earl E: There are countless writings published of people’s opinions on the pound-for-pound best boxers in the sport today. Instead, I give you the best pound-for-pound paper champions that presently the sport has to offer. What we expect from great boxers, such as toughness, perseverance, and challenging themselves against the best boxers, these boxers have none or want no part of. These boxers are the total opposite, they are tough nor are they willing to challenge themselves against the very best. First to the podium:

1. Adonis Stevenson

Stevenson presently is the WBC champion and recently retained his belt by winning Andre Fonfara. Fonfara through his corner quit. Sounds like a great glorified win for Stevenson and his fanbase. Sounds entertaining to write that Steven beat his opponent to submission, beat the fight out of Fonfara, which caused Fonfara’s corner to throw in the towel. In reality, this fight should have never happened again. Mr. Stevenson already had beat Fonfara in 2014 by unanimous decision. Furthermore, Mr. Fonfara’s best win was against Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. Should I say anything more about Mr. Fonfara’s skill set? His claim to fame was beating Chavez, Jr. I will give Stevenson one credit, that is, he is incredibly skilled in ducking competitive opponents, such as Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev. Stevenson did however put on a show by entering the ring after Kovalev beat Jean Pascal in 2016. Yeah, it was great acting, and scripted like the WWE. Stevenson didn’t want none of Kovalev, it was a show, and he himself is a show. All smoke and mirror. I see him for what he truly is and hence the reason he mainly fights only in Montreal, Canada, where is the only place that he can sell tickets. Don’t expect him to come out of his comfort zone anytime soon and actually challenge himself against a worthy opponent. Of course not, that’s not what paper champions do. If you have those expectations, you will severely be disappointed.

2. Deontay Wilder

Americans love and need a great heavyweight to bring boxing back as relevant entertainment. Trust me, I’m American. However. Americans that believe Wilder is the great hope, will be disappointed, because he is merely the great hype. This is a guy who obtained the WBC heavyweight title by winning Bermane Stiverne. Who? Again, let me say the name, Bermane Stiverne. Who in turn, won the title previously held by Chris Arreola. Come on man. Again, let me say the name of the fighter Wilder won it against, Bermane Stiverne. If you watched Wilder’s post-reaction after the fight you would think he beat a fighter with skill level as Muhammad Ali, Vitali Klitschko, or Lennon Lewis. Dude, get your head on right. You won a fighter who himself was a paper champion, but unfortunately for Stiverne not heavily promoted like you. You had a 5-inch height advantage, a 3-inch reach advantage, and is more athletic than he is, but yet Stiverne went the distance. Wilder has not fought anyone credible. I won’t even dare to suffer from carpal tunnel by writing about his title defenses. Furthermore, I don’t think his management wants him to fight anyone credible until they milk him for all he his worth. Eventually they will throw him for slaughter against Anthony Joshua, so his management and promoters can cash in on the great hype.

3. Zou Shiming

China is an emerging superpower and boasting probably the world’s largest population. Hence, the reason soccer federations want to see them succeed in the sport, because of the money that comes with such a huge population. Boxing is no different, and so last to the podium of paper champions, is Zou Shiming. Yeah, he won gold in the Olympics twice, but this is professional fighting and the skill set doesn’t necessarily mean success. Professional boxing is 10-12 rounds of no headgear boxing; good fighters will hit you with body shots unlike amateur boxing where any type of punch regardless of how clean scores. Boxing is entertainment, boxing is politics, and because of those two fundamentals Shiming is well protected getting a WBO championship fight at his fifth professional fight only, then losing, and then getting a chance to win the WBO belt he lost at his seventh professional fight. What a joke!!! You can say Vasyl Lomachenko got this kind of service too, but you can’t question how legit he is. Shiming is nothing like Lomachenko. The best boxer in flyweight is Donnie Nietes from the Philippines, who has credible 40-1 record. I know this, don’t expect, Shiming to be in the ring against Nietes anytime soon, because he will lose.