The five best pound for pound fighters of all time

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  AP Photo / JR

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  Steve Marcus / Reuters

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  John Rooney / AP

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  Andrew Coulridge / Action Images

As Steve Luckings details the "pound for pound" implications of the Floyd Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao May 2 superfight, he names below who he thinks are the best five all-time. Click the arrows in the bottom right-hand corner below to scroll through his selections.

See more: All of The National's coverage at our Floyd Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao page

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1 – “Sugar” Ray Leonard

31 wins, 3 losses, 1 draw

The epitome of style and grace; it could be said Mayweather Jr is Leonard, version 2.0. Leonard ranked with the sport’s greatest ring technicians. Effective jab: check; knockout power in both hands: check; sublime defence and counter-punch technique: check and check. He thrived in an era that contained Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran and beat them all.

2 – “Sugar” Ray Robinson

173-19-6

The original “Sugar” and the reason pound-for-pound rankings were concocted. His six-fight rivalry with Jake LaMotta is the stuff of legend; the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre was one of the most brutal beatings the fight game has witnessed. Robinson not only won world titles at welterweight and middleweight but overwhelmed everyone in those divisions with speed combinations and a heavy right hand.

3 – Floyd Mayweather Jr

47, 0

Boxing is in this boy’s blood. His father fought the legendary “Sugar” Ray Leonard and his uncle was also a world champion. Mayweather is the very definition of the cliché “box clever”. He works impeccably behind a peek-a-boo jab and perfect defence and has lived by the mantra of the less you get hit the longer you last. Fancy footwork that Fred Astaire would be proud of and elusive enough to keep out of range of bigger punchers. No sportsman has made as much money for shedding as little sweat as Mayweather has. He also knows when to catch the judges eye, visibly upping his punch output during the latter rounds of fights.

4 – Muhammad Ali

56-5-0

He would rate higher if he held to the mantra of “protect yourself at all times”. That is not to suggest he had no defensive skills; his speed and footwork limited how often he was hit, especially early in his career. His “rope-a-dope” tactics, however, led to him absorbing hundreds of punches. An outstanding jab; he could aim for the nose of an opponent and put a spin of his wrist on it at the last moment for maximum impact. His powers of resolve and recovery are legendary: he took on and defeated brutes like Sonny Liston and he beat them mercifully. Ali was involved in boxing’s two greatest bouts: The Fight of the Century, a defeat to Joe Frazier in 1971, and The Rumble in the Jungle in 1974, knocking out George Foreman.

5 – Joe Calzaghe

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If Ali at fourth had your blood boiling then Calzaghe ahead of Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis and Julio Cesar Chavez will have you pelting eggs at me. But as the one fighter I covered extensively during an unbeaten career, the Welshman is the one boxer whose attributes I can truly attest to. Calzaghe’s hand speed was simply phenomenal for a super middleweight. His style was all action and to heck with the consequences, resulting in him tasting the mat more than few times. But that only adds to his quality as a fighter who could dust himself down and throw himself right back in the thick of it. His title fight against Jeff Lacey was a clinic in six-seven-punch combinations. Slick and as hard as a coffin nail.