Oleksandr Usyk gave the performance of a lifetime on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, rallying to defeat gigantic Tyson Fury by a split decision to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion in a quarter century.
But was it enough to catapult No. 3-ranked Usyk past Nos. 1 and 2 Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue on the Boxing Junkie pound-for-pound list?
No.
Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) deserves consideration for the top spot after taking down Anthony Joshua in back-to-back fights in 2021 and 2022, stopping Daniel Dubois in nine rounds in August and now handing Fury the first loss of his career.
That’s a hell of a run by any standard. And the former cruiserweight champ has done it against naturally larger men, who would have trouble competing with him if he were their size. That obviously works in his favor in the pound-for-pound debate.
So why isn’t he No. 1?
Let’s start with Crawford and Inoue. The gifted lower-weight stars don’t have quite the resume Usyk has but they’ve dominated one contender after another to climb to the top of the list and have shown no signs of weakness.
Remember: We were as amazed when Crawford demolished fellow pound-for-pounder Errol Spence Jr. and Inoue got up from a knockdown to destroy Luis Nery as we are now following Usyk’s historic victory over Fury.
And while we must keep in mind the size difference between Usyk and his heavyweight rivals, he dominated neither Joshua nor Fury and benefitted from a controversial call by the referee – a clean body shot that was ruled a low blow — against Dubois to maintain his perfect record.
Fury believes he did enough against Usyk to get the decision, which isn’t far fetched given the tight, back-and-forth war. Had it gone Fury’s way, we wouldn’t even be talking about Usyk as a potential No. 1.
None of the above is meant to denigrate Usyk’s accomplishments. He has demonstrated over the past two years that he not only is the top heavyweight at the moment but also an all-time great, which is the highest praise in boxing.
He just hasn’t done quite enough to leap frog two other future Hall of Famers, Crawford and Inoue.
Of course, we must add one thing: If Usyk fights and beats Fury again — particularly if it’s more convincing the second time — we’ll have to revisit our decision to leave him at No. 3.
What about Fury, who entered Saturday at No. 9? He drops to No. 11 — below Bam Rodriguez and Artur Beterbiev — after his disastrous performance against Francis Ngannou in October and his setback against Usyk on Saturday.
And, obviously, Fury also can change his fortunes if he can turn the tables on Usyk in a rematch.
Next pound-for-pounder up: No. 8 Gervonta Davis will face Frank Martin and No. 15 David Benavidez will take on Oleksandr Gvozdyk on the same card June 15 in Las Vegas.
Here’s what the list looks like at the moment:
BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND
- Terence Crawford – Scheduled to challenge 154-pound titleholder
Israil Madrimov on Aug. 3 in Los Angeles.
- Naoya Inoue – No fight scheduled.
- Oleksandr Usyk – No fight scheduled.
- Dmitry Bivol – Fight against No. 12 Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed 175-pound championship, originally scheduled for June 1, was postponed after Beterbiev injured his knee.
- Juan Francisco Estrada – Scheduled to defend his 115-pound title against No. 11 Jesse Rodriguez on June 29 in Phoenix.
- Canelo Alvarez – No fight scheduled.
- Jermell Charlo – No fight scheduled.
- Gervonta Davis – Scheduled to defend his 135-pound title against Frank Martin on June 15 in Las Vegas.
- Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez – Scheduled to face No. 5 Juan Francisco Estrada for Estrada’s 115-pound title on June 29 in Phoenix.
- Artur Beterbiev – Fight against No. 4 Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed 175-pound championship, originally scheduled for June 1, was postponed after Beterbiev injured his knee.
- Tyson Fury – No fight scheduled.
- Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
- Vasiliy Lomachenko – No fight scheduled.
- Shakur Stevenson – No fight scheduled.
- David Benavidez – Scheduled to fight 175-pounder Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15 in Las Vegas.
Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Jermall Charlo (no fight scheduled); Roman Gonzalez (no fight scheduled); Kazuto Ioka (scheduled to face Fernando Martinez in a 115-pound title-unification bout in on July 7 in Tokyo); Teofimo Lopez (scheduled to defend his 140-pound title against Steve Claggett on June 29 in Miami); Junto Nakatani (scheduled to defend his 118-pound title against Vincent Astrolabio on July 20 in Tokyo).
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