Pound-for-pound: Does David Benavidez crack Top 15 after sensational KO?

Pound-for-pound: Does David Benavidez crack the Top 15 on Boxing Junkie’s pound-for-pound list after his brutal KO of Demetrius Andrade?

This one is tricky.

David Benavidez couldn’t have looked much better than he did against Demetrius Andrade on Saturday in Las Vegas, where he put the former two-division titleholder down and pummeled him until the fight was stopped after the sixth round.

Benavidez’s stock certainly went up. However, was it enough for the Honorable Mention (going into the fight) to crack our Top 15?

Yes.

The question was how he would fit in. This is what we did:

  • No. 14 Roman Gonzalez, who has lost twice to Juan Francisco Estrada in his last three fights, drops to Honorable Mention. The 36-year-old future Hall of Famer has no fight scheduled.
  • No. 15 Devin Haney, coming off a victory over No. 11 Vasiliy Lomachenko in a close fight, moves up to No. 14. The 135-pound titleholder will challenge 140-pound champ Regis Prograis on Dec. 9, meaning his position here could change.
  • And Benavidez enters at No. 15, the highest position he has attained.

Honorable Mention Jermall Charlo, a 160-pound titleholder, held his position by outpointing smaller, but determined Jose Benavidez Jr. on the David Benavidez-Andrade card after a 2½-year layoff.

Next pound-for-pounder up: No. 14 Haney faces Prograis on Dec. 9 in San Francisco.

Here’s 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 fellow titleholder Marlon Tapales for the undisputed 122-pound championship on Dec. 26 in Japan.
  3. Oleksandr Usyk – Scheduled to face fellow titleholder and No. 9 Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight championship on Feb. 17 in Saudi Arabia.
  4. Dmitry Bivol – Scheduled to defend his 175-pound title against Lyndon Arthur on Dec. 23 in Saudi Arabia.
  5. Juan Francisco Estrada – No fight scheduled.
  6. Canelo Alvarez– No fight scheduled.
  7. Jermell Charlo – No fight scheduled.
  8. Gervonta Davis – No fight scheduled.
  9. Tyson Fury – Scheduled to face fellow titleholder and No. 3 Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship on Feb. 17 in Saudi Arabia.
  10. Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
  11. Vasiliy Lomachenko – No fight scheduled.
  12. Artur Beterbiev – Scheduled to defend his 175-pound titles against Callum Smith on Jan. 13 in Quebec City, Canada.
  13. Shakur Stevenson – No fight scheduled.
  14. Devin Haney – Scheduled to challenge 140-pound titleholder Regis Prograis on Dec. 9 in San Francisco.
  15. David Benavidez – No fight scheduled.

Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Jermall Charlo (no fight scheduled); Sunny Edwards (scheduled to face Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez in a 112-pound title-unification bout on Dec. 16 in Glendale, Arizona); Roman Gonzalez (no fight scheduled);  Kazuto Ioka (scheduled to defend his 115-pound title against Josber Perez on New Year’s Eve in Japan); Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (scheduled to face Sunny Edwards in a 112-pound title-unification bout on Dec. 16 in Glendale, Arizona).

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