For many years, there were two mainstays on boxing pound-for-pound rankings. Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez were untouchable on those lists, and for good reasons. But following their September fight, the landscape is changing. Crawford is now retired, while Alvarez has fallen out of favor with many fans and analysts who believe he’s way past his prime.
Over the past couple of years, Crawford was frequently contending for the top pound-for-pound spot with two other unbeaten, legendary fighters. Nothing has changed in that regard, as Oleksandr Usyk and Naoya Inoue continue to rank first and second on almost every ranking you can find on the Internet. But after those two, there are plenty of variations. Two familiar faces are making another surge as of late: Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez.
Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez are starting to make a name for themselves once again
ESPN recently published their Top 10 pound-for-pound rankings. Usyk and Inoue come in at the top, as expected. Haney and Lopez bring up the rear, with Lopez climbing up into the list after having been unranked previously. While Alvarez did get some votes, there was no place on the list for him. The rest of the list is somewhat unsurprising, featuring truly elite boxers.
- Oleksandr Usyk
- Naoya Inoue
- Dmitry Bivol
- Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez
- Artur Beterbiev
- David Benavidez
- Shakur Stevenson
- Junto Nakatani
- Devin Haney
- Teofimo Lopez
There’s bound to be some movement on this list before too long. Shakur Stevenson will fight Lopez on January 31. As for the rest, only David Benavidez‘s next fight is known. He will take on Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez on May 2.
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