The Ring released their updated pound-for-pound top 10 list today, and the order must be completely overhauled. They’ve got the right guy at the #1 spot with Oleksandr Usyk, but after him, the list falls into chaos.
Rebuilding P4P
The list falls apart at the #2 and #3 spots, with Naoya Inoue and Terence Crawford occupying those positions. Neither of those guys has the resumes of quality wins to back them being positioned so highly. I’ll fix it for The Ring by eliminating Inoue Crawford because they lack the quality wins to rate being on the list.
Inoue’s best win is against a washed-up 36-year-old Nonito Donaire, and he almost lost to him. All the wins in Inoue’s career have come against guys like TJ Doheny and Ye Joon Kim.
The Ring’s New updated pound-for-pound
- Oleksandr Usyk
- Naoya Inoue
- Terence Crawford
- Dmitry Bivol
- Artur Beterbiev
- Jesse Rodriguez
- Canelo Alvarez
- Gervonta Davis
- Junto Nakatani
- Devin Haney
Crawford, Inoue, Dmitry Bivol, and Devin Haney need to be subtracted from the list entirely. Unified light heavyweight champion Bivol is too boring a fighter to be on the list as well. Also, his win over Artur Beterbiev last Saturday was questionable, with many believing he was gifted.
Haney hasn’t won a fight in two years and is coming off a loss to Ryan. He shouldn’t be on the pound-for-pound list unless failure is what is essential. Devin has that controversial win over Vasily Lomachenko, and some feel he got away with murder with the holding he did when he was repeatedly hurt in his fight against Jorge Linares.
My List
- Oleksandr Usyk
- Canelo Alvarez
- David Benavidez
- Jesse Rodriguez
- Jai Opetaia
- Janibek Alimkhanuly
- Gervonta Davis
- Ryan Garcia
- Rafael Espinoza
- Jaron Ennis
Benavidez deserves to be rated highly because of his recent win over David Morrell and his courage. He’s more worthy of a fight against Canelo than Crawford, who has never fought at 168
Last Updated on 02/26/2025
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