Pound-for-pound: Most of top fighters in world on hold

Pound-for-pound: Most of the top fighters in world have no fights scheduled.

The best boxers in the world aren’t very active.

Of the 20 fighters on the Boxing Junkie pound-for-pound list — the Top 15 and five Honorable Mentions — only two have fights that are definitively scheduled.

No. 2 Canelo Alvarez is set to face Billy Joe Saunders in a 168-pound title-unification bout on May 8 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and Honorable Mention Josh Taylor will meet Jose Ramirez on May 22 in Las Vegas.

Also, No. 3 Naoya Inoue is scheduled to defend his bantamweight title against Filipino Michael Dasmarinas on June 19, according to one report. The event hasn’t been officially announced.

Otherwise, a handful of those on the list are in serious talks with prospective opponents while the rest have nothing going on.

One wonders how the powers that be in the sport keep fans interested.

Here is where the pound-for-pounders stand.

BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND

  1. Terence Crawford — No fight scheduled.
  2. Canelo Alvarez – Scheduled to face Billy Joe Saunders in a title-unification fight on May 8.
  3. Naoya Inoue — Reportedly scheduled to fight Michael Dasmarinas on June 19.
  4. Errol Spence Jr. – Reportedly in talks to face Yordenis Ugas in a 147-pound title-unification bout.
  5. Oleksandr Usyk – Reportedly in talks to face Joe Joyce for the WBO “interim” heavyweight title.
  6. Teofimo Lopez — No fight scheduled.
  7. Vasiliy Lomachenko — Reportedly in talks to face Masayoshi Nakatani this summer.
  8. Tyson Fury – In talks to face Anthony Joshua in a heavyweight title-unification bout.
  9. Gennadiy Golovkin — No fight scheduled.
  10. Juan Francisco Estrada — The WBC announced that Estrada will meet Roman Gonzalez in a third fight as part of a junior bantamweight tournament but nothing is official.
  11. Mikey Garcia — No fight scheduled.
  12. Artur Beterbiev — No fight scheduled.
  13. Manny Pacquiao — No fight scheduled
  14. Jermell Charlo — No fight scheduled.
  15. Gervonta Davis — No fight scheduled.

Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Mairis Briedis (no fight scheduled), Jermall Charlo (no fight scheduled), Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (The WBC announced that Sor Rungvisai will meet Carlos Cuadras as part of a junior bantamweight tournament but nothing is official), Josh Taylor (scheduled to fight Jose Ramirez on May 22) and Oscar Valdez (no fight scheduled).