Boxing Junkie decided to wait until after the recent Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford fights to update its pound-for-pound list.
Alvarez delivered another impressive performance, stopping Caleb Plant to become the first undisputed super middleweight champion on Nov. 6. And Crawford, facing the biggest test of his career, took out Shawn Porter in 10 rounds this past Saturday.
So how did those performances impact the ranking? It didn’t.
Crawford, who has been No. 1 since Teofimo Lopez Jr. knocked Vasiliy Lomachenko from his perch in October of last year, retains his position. In fact, he strengthens it. And Alvarez, No. 2 since Lopez-Lomachenko, also stays put.
The one knock against Crawford was that he had never fought anyone at Porter’s level. Now he has. And he performed beautifully, patiently breaking down the former two-time titleholder and then stopping him in 10 rounds.
We can debate who should be No. 1 – Crawford? Alvarez? Naoya Inoue? Oleksandr Usyk? – but everyone must agree that Crawford now has a stronger case.
Here’s how the list looks:
BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND
- Terence Crawford – No fight scheduled.
- Canelo Alvarez– Announced that he plans to challenge WBC cruiserweight titleholder Ilunga Makabu but no date or site is set.
- Naoya Inoue – Scheduled to defend his IBF and WBA bantamweight titles against Alan Dipaen on Dec. 14 in Tokyo.
- Oleksandr Usyk – Expected to fight Anthony Joshua a second time in the spring but no deal is in place.
- Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
- Teofimo Lopez Jr. – Scheduled to defend his lightweight titles against George Kambosos Jr. on Nov. 27 in New York.
- Tyson Fury– No fight scheduled.
- Vasiliy Lomachenko – Scheduled to fight Richard Commey on Dec. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
- Juan Francisco Estrada – In talks to defend his WBA and WBA junior bantamweight titles in what would be a third fight against Roman Gonzalez in November.
- Gennadiy Golovkin – Scheduled to fight Ryota Murata in a middleweight title-unification fight on Dec. 29 in Japan.
- Jermell Charlo – Expected to face Brian Castano a second time in February but no deal is in place.
- Josh Taylor – Scheduled to defend his undisputed junior welterweight championship against mandatory challenger Jack Catterall on Feb. 26 in Glasgow, Scotland.
- Artur Beterbiev – Scheduled to defend his light heavyweight titles against Marcus Browne on Dec. 17 in Montreal.
- Gervonta Davis – Scheduled to face Isaac Cruz in a lightweight bout on Dec. 5 in Los Angeles.
- Jermall Charlo – No fight scheduled.
Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Mairis Briedis (scheduled to fight Artur Mann on Oct. 16 in Riga, Latvia); Kazuto Ioka (in talks with Jerwin Ancajas for a junior bantamweight title-unification bout); Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (expected to meet Carlos Cuadras as part of a junior bantamweight tournament but nothing is official); Yordenis Ugas (no fight scheduled); and Oscar Valdez (no fight scheduled).
*-Because of an editing error, Kazuto Ioka was removed from the list when he shouldn’t have been. He returns in this version.
