Pound for pound: Down goes Canelo, down goes Canelo

Pound for pound: Canelo Alvarez, No. 2 going into his fight with Dmitry Bivol, takes a tumble down the list while Bivol joins the club.

Canelo Alvarez can no longer argue that he’s the No. 1 fighter in the world.

The Mexican superstar, the consensus pound-for-pound king but No. 2 in Boxing Junkie’s rankings going into this past Saturday, lost a close, but clear decision to light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

One unavoidable price he must pay is a fall from his lofty perch.

The question is, how far should he drop? And at what number should the previously unranked Bivol enter Boxing Junkie’s rankings after his monumental upset?

First, Alvarez.

On one hand, some might argue that the undisputed 168-pound champion shouldn’t be punished too severely because he took a significant risk by moving up in weight to face a top 175-pounder. Also, the scores were close (115-113 on all three cards).

And, of course, we can’t dismiss everything Alvarez has accomplished over a dominating run the past several years.

On the other hand, Alvarez had fought at 175 in the past, stopping capable, but aging Sergey Kovalev. And many observers believe Bivol’s victory was decisive in spite of the official scores. Even the judges gave him seven of the final eight rounds.

In the end, Boxing Junkie decided to drop Alvarez from No. 2 to No. 7, which reflects what we saw on Saturday night but keeps him among the best handful of boxers.

Now Bivol.

One could argue that the Russian shouldn’t enter the list above Alvarez because of one victory, as significant as it was.

The problem with that argument is that Bivol had a number of important successes going into the fight with Alvarez, including one-sided victories over Sullivan Barrera, Isaac Chilemba, Jean Pascal and Joe Smith Jr. in succession.

Another factor working against Bivol is that he wasn’t ranked going into the fight, which could make a huge leap seem awkward.

However, after consideration, it was decided that Bivol’s strong resume and convincing victory over the reigning No. 2 fighter – a man many believed to be all but unbeatable – merits placement above Alvarez on the pound-for-pound list.

He comes in at No. 6, behind only No. 1 Terence Crawford, No. 2 Naoya Inoue, No. 3. Oleksandr Usyk, No. 4 Errol Spence Jr. and No. 5 Tyson Fury.

Next up on the pound-for-pound list: No. 10 Jermell Charlo and unranked Brian Castano are scheduled to meet on Saturday to unify all the 154-pound titles.

The addition of Bivol drops Kazuto Ioka from No. 15 to Honorable Mention. And it pushes HM Mairis Briedis out of the rankings.

Here is what the list looks like at the moment:

BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND

  1. Terence Crawford – No fight scheduled.
  2. Naoya Inoue – Scheduled to face Nonito Donaire in a bantamweight title-unification rematch on June 7 in Japan.
  3. Oleksandr Usyk – Reportedly set to face Anthony Joshua a second time on July 23 but no official announcement has been made.
  4. Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
  5. Tyson Fury – No fight scheduled.
  6. Dmitry Bivol – No fight scheduled.
  7. Canelo Alvarez– No fight scheduled.
  8. Vasiliy Lomachenko – Career on hold because of the war in Ukraine.
  9. Juan Francisco Estrada – In talks to defend his WBC junior bantamweight title against Joshua Franco in June.
  10. Gennadiy Golovkin – Had been expected to face Canelo Alvarez a third time in September but that matchup is now up in the air.
  11. Jermell Charlo – Scheduled to face Brian Castano for the undisputed junior middleweight championship on May 14 in Carson, California.
  12. Artur Beterbiev – Scheduled to face Joe Smith Jr. in a light heavyweight title-unification fight on June 18 in New York.
  13. Gervonta Davis – Scheduled to face Rolando Romero on May 28 in Brooklyn, New York.
  14. Jermall Charlo – Scheduled to defend his middleweight title against Maciej Sulecki on June 18 in Houston.
  15. Shakur Stevenson – No fight scheduled,

Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Nonito Donaire (scheduled to face Naoya Inoue on June 7); Roman Gonzalez (no fight scheduled); Kazuto Ioka (scheduled to defend junior bantamweight title against Donnie Nietes on July 13); George Kambosos (scheduled to defend his lightweight titles against Devin Haney on June 5); Josh Taylor (no fight scheduled).

[lawrence-related id=29934,29864]

[vertical-gallery id=29873]