Pound for pound: Shakur Stevenson ascends the list

Pound for pound: Shakur Stevenson ascends the list after his victory over Oscar Valdez on Saturday.

Sometimes fighters make it impossible to keep them off pound-for-pound lists.

Shakur Stevenson did that this past Saturday in Las Vegas, outclassing previously unbeaten and respected Oscar Valdez to unify two 130-pound titles by a unanimous decision and leave no doubt that he’s among the best in the business.

Stevenson not only won handily, he embarrassed an elite opponent with his sublime skill. That’s a rarity. It’s Mayweather-esque.

Thus, the pride of Newark, New Jersey, ascends from Honorable Mention to No. 14 on the Boxing Junkie list, pushing Kazuto Ioka (No. 14 last week) to No. 15 and Josh Taylor (No. 15 last week) to Honorable Mention.

And stay tuned. We expect the 24-year-old to climb much higher over the next year or two.

Next up on the pound-for-pound list: No. 2 Canelo Alvarez challenges light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol on pay-per-view Saturday in Las Vegas..

Here is what the list looks like at the moment:

BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND

  1. Terence Crawford – No fight scheduled.
  2. Canelo Alvarez– Scheduled to challenge WBA light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol on May 7.
  3. Naoya Inoue – Scheduled to face Nonito Donaire in a bantamweight title-unification rematch on June 7 in Japan.
  4. Oleksandr Usyk – In talks to defend his heavyweight titles against Anthony Joshua in a rematch this summer.
  5. Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
  6. Tyson Fury– No fight scheduled.
  7. Vasiliy Lomachenko – Career on hold because of the war in Ukraine.
  8. Juan Francisco Estrada – In talks to defend his WBC junior bantamweight title against Joshua Franco in June.
  9. Gennadiy Golovkin – No fight scheduled but expected to face Canelo Alvarez a third time in September.
  10. Jermell Charlo – Scheduled to face Brian Castano for the undisputed junior middleweight championship on May 14 in Carson, California.
  11. Artur Beterbiev – In talks to face Joe Smith Jr. in a light heavyweight title-unification fight on June 18 in New York.
  12. Gervonta Davis – Scheduled to face Rolando Romero on May 28 in Brookly, New York.
  13. Jermall Charlo – Scheduled to defend his middleweight title against Maciej Sulecki on June 18 in Houston.
  14. Shakur Stevenson – No fight scheduled.
  15. Kazuto Ioka – The WBO has ordered a rematch between Ioka and Donnie Nietes for Ioka’s junior bantamweight belt but no deal is in place.

Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Mairis Briedis (expected to defend his IBF cruiserweight title against Jai Opetaia in June or July); Nonito Donaire (scheduled to face Naoya Inoue on June 7); Roman Gonzalez (no fight scheduled); George Kambosos (scheduled to defend his lightweight titles against Devin Haney on June 5); Josh Taylor (no fight scheduled).

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