Boxing’s pound-for-pound list has been hotly contested in 2024.
There are at least three boxing icons that can lay claim to the top spot right now in their own right.
Naoya Inoue finished 2023 on top of the pile after beating Marlon Tapales to join Terence Crawford on an illustrious list of two-weight undisputed champions.
Oleksandr Usyk then shot to the top of the rankings in May of this year by beating Tyson Fury in a war of attrition to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four-belt era.
Three months later, Crawford made a case for himself to be re-crowned as pound-for-pound king when he defeated Israil Madrimov to become a four-weight world champion.
The pound-for-pound argument is probably one of the most contentious in the sport and every supporter seems to have a unique opinion on it.
Some rank the best fighters in the world based purely on the manner of their performances – how they look.
Some rank them based purely on their résumés and weigh up who has the best-recorded wins.
Some take other factors such as activity and official results into account, too, meaning the whole thing becomes confusing.
Therefore, talkSPORT.com is going to lay out its criteria (based roughly on Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound criteria) for this list right now:
CRITERIA
- Result – The official result always stands and ultimately trumps the other factors. The other three are all equally important.
- Performance – The manner in which a fighter wins or loses.
- Resume – The opponents beaten/titles won.
- Activity – How often a fighter is fighting against top level opposition
#10 – Junto Nakatani
Age: 26
Record: 29-0 (22KOs)
Nakatani is one of boxing’s fastest-rising stars. At 26 years old he is already a three-weight world champion, having won world titles from flyweight to bantamweight. His crowning win came against Andrew Maloney.
#9 – Teofimo Lopez
Age: 27
Record: 21-1 (13 KOs)
Lopez stunned the boxing world by jumping straight in with Vasyl Lomachenko in his first fight after winning a world title and beating him at age 23. He was then stunned himself by George Kambosos but has since bounced back with a dominant win over Josh Taylor to claim the WBO crown at super-lightweight followed by a couple of routine victories over Jamaine Ortiz and Steve Claggett.
#8 – Gervonta Davis
Age: 30
Record: 30-0 (28 KOs)
Davis burst onto the scene winning the IBF super-featherweight world title aged just 21. He has since become a major star, knocking out respected opponents also at lightweight and super-lightweight. His win over Ryan Garcia last year was his biggest to date. Since then, he has been very inactive with only one win over Frank Martin.
#7 – Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez
Age: 24
Record: 21-0 (14 KOs)
Rodriguez became WBC super-flyweight world champion at the age of just 22, and impressively stopped Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in his first defence. He then moved down to flyweight to become the unified IBF and WBO world titles by stopping Sunny Edwards before moving back up again to score a statement KO over divisional great Juan Francisco Estrada.
#6 – Canelo Alvarez
Age: 34
Record: 62-2-2 (39 KOs)
Canelo is a four-weight world champion from super-welterweight to light-heavyweight. His astonishing record includes wins over Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, Liam Smith, Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Sergey Kovalev, Callum Smith, Billy Joe Sauders, Caleb Plant and Jermell Charlo.
#5 – Dmitry Bivol
Age: 34
Record: 23-1 (12 KOs)
Bivol first became WBA light-heavyweight world champion in 2017 and has made several defences since the most notable being his victory over Canelo Alvarez in 2022. This made him only the second fighter ever to beat the great Mexican after Floyd Mayweather did it in 2013. In October, he narrowly missed out on becoming undisputed light heavyweight champion in a nip-and-tuck affair with Artur Beterbiev.
#4 Artur Beterbiev
Age: 39
Record: 21-0 (20KOs)
Beterbiev collected all four major world titles one by one over the course of seven years, leaving several former champions in his wake. In October, he beat Dmitry Bivol in a long-awaited all-Russian clash to be crowned the first undisputed light heavyweight champion of the four-belt era.
#3 – Terence Crawford
Age: 36
Record: 40-0 (31 KOs)
Crawford is a three-weight world champion and a two-weight undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO king. His dominant win over Errol Spence to become the welterweight top dog had him in pole position of many 2023 lists while a follow-up victory over Israil Madrimov helped his case further.
#2 – Naoya Inoue
Age: 30
Record: 28-0 (25 KOs)
Inoue became WBC light-flyweight world champion at 6-0 aged just 20. In the ten years since, he’s beaten several top opponents in multiple divisions and stands today as a four-weight world champion and two-weight undisputed champion having stopped Marlon Tapales last year. In 2024, he beat Luis Nery and TJ Doheny.
#1 – Oleksandr Usyk
Age: 37
Record: 22-0 (14 KOs)
Usyk became undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO cruiserweight world champion in just 16 fights, beating Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev and Tony Bellew all in their home countries. He’s since repeated the feat at heavyweight by clearing out the division and beating lineal champion Tyson Fury.
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