Pound for pound: Nonito Donaire has to be on the list

Pound for pound: Nonito Donaire has to be on Boxing Junkie’s list after another sensational knockout.

Nonito Donaire, 39, has demonstrated repeatedly that he won’t succumb to age.

“The Filipino Flash” gave 118-pound titleholder Naoya Inoue all kinds of trouble after some had written him off before stopping Nordine Oubaali in four rounds to win a major belt and then doing the exact same against Reymart Gaballo in his first defense last Saturday.

It should be noted that both Oubaali and Gaballo were unbeaten going into their fights with the future Hall of Famer.

Of course, Donaire (42-6, 28 KOs) deserves any accolade that comes his way. That includes a place on pound-for-pound lists years after he fell off of them, including Boxing Junkie’s.

Donaire enters our list as an Honorable Mention, pushing Thai veteran Srisaket Sor Rungvisai out in the process.

Donaire has set his sights on become undisputed bantamweight champion, which means he could face Inoue again. A victory over the Japanese star, who is No. 3 here, or possibly fellow titleholder John Riel Casimero would catapult Donaire much higher on the list.

And Sor Rungvisai has been in talks to face Carlos Cuadras as part of a junior bantamweight tournament also involving Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman Gonalez.

If Sor Rungvisai is the last man standing in that competition, he too would climb back onto the pound-for-pound ladder.

Here’s how the list looks:

BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND

  1. Terence Crawford – No fight scheduled.
  2. Canelo Alvarez– Announced that he plans to challenge WBC cruiserweight titleholder Ilunga Makabu (if Makabu beats Thabiso Mchunu on Jan. 29) but no date or site is set.
  3. Naoya Inoue – No fight scheduled.
  4. Oleksandr Usyk – Expected to fight Anthony Joshua a second time in the spring but date or site is set.
  5. Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
  6. Tyson Fury– The WBC has ordered Fury to defend his title against Dillian Whyte but no deal is in place.
  7. Vasiliy Lomachenko – No fight scheduled.
  8. Juan Francisco Estrada – In talks to defend his WBA and WBA junior bantamweight titles in what would be a third fight against Roman Gonzalez but no date or site is set.
  9. Gennadiy Golovkin – Scheduled to fight Ryota Murata in a middleweight title-unification fight on Dec. 29 in Japan.
  10. Jermell Charlo – Expected to face Brian Castano a second time on Feb. 26 but the deal hasn’t been finalized.
  11. Josh Taylor – Scheduled to defend his undisputed junior welterweight championship against mandatory challenger Jack Catterall on Feb. 26 in Glasgow, Scotland.
  12. Artur Beterbiev – Scheduled to defend his light heavyweight titles against Marcus Browne on Friday (Dec. 17) in Montreal.
  13. Gervonta Davis – No fight scheduled.
  14. Jermall Charlo – No fight scheduled.
  15. Kazuto Ioka – Scheduled to face Jerwin Ancajas in a junior bantamweight title-unification bout on Dec. 31 in Tokyo.

Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Mairis Briedis (no fight scheduled); Nonito Donaire (no fight scheduled); George Kambosos (no fight scheduled); Teofimo Lopez (no fight scheduled); and Yordenis Ugas (expected to defend his welterweight title against Eimantas Stanionis in the spring but no date or site is set).

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