Pound for pound: Where do Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos land in shake-up?

Pound for pound: Where do Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos land in shake-up?

Another pound-for-pounder has fallen.

George Kambosos turned in one of the biggest upsets in recent years Saturday in New York, taking down previously unbeaten Teofimo Lopez (ranked No. 6 going into the fight) by a split decision to become undisputed lightweight champion.

Lopez (16-1, 12 KOs) must drop down or off the list, right? And what do we do with Kambosos?

After careful consideration, this is what was decided:

Lopez has several strong victories, including his own upset of then-No. 1 Vasiliy Lomachenko in October of last year. And he narrowly lost to Kambosos, who outworked his American counterpart in the end.

Thus, Lopez will fall out of the Top 15 but remain on this list as an Honorable Mention. In other words, he barely hung on.

And Kambosos, who now has beaten in succession in hostile territory Mickey Bey, Lee Selby and the No. 6 fighter in the world, joins Lopez in the Honorable Mention category.

Kazuto Ioka moves up from Honorable Mention to No. 15 to replace Lopez. And Oscar Valdez, Honorable Mention on the last list, drops out to make room for Kambosos.

The list could change further before the end of the year. No. 3 Naoya Inoue, No. 8 Lomachenko, No. 10 Gennadiy Golovkin, No. 13 Artur Beterbiev and No. 14 Gervonta Davis are set to fight before the start of 2022.

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 but no date or site is set.
  3. Naoya Inoue – Scheduled to defend his IBF and WBA bantamweight titles against Alan Dipaen on Dec. 14 in Tokyo.
  4. Oleksandr Usyk – Expected to fight Anthony Joshua a second time in the spring but no deal is in place.
  5. Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
  6. Tyson Fury– No fight scheduled.
  7. Vasiliy Lomachenko – Scheduled to fight Richard Commey on Dec. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
  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 no deal is in place.
  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 Dec. 17 in Montreal.
  13. Gervonta Davis – Scheduled to face Isaac Cruz in a lightweight bout on Dec. 5 in Los Angeles.
  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); George Kambosos (no fight scheduled); Teofimo Lopez (no fight scheduled); Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (expected to meet Carlos Cuadras as part of a junior bantamweight tournament but nothing is official); and Yordenis Ugas (expected to defend his welterweight title against Eimantas Stanionis but no date or site is set).

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