Super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez proved that he remains one of the best in the business by easily outpointing challenger Jermell Charlo on Saturday in Las Vegas.
But did the Mexican star, ranked No. 7 going into the fight, do enough to rise on the pound-for-pound list?
And what about Charlo? Did the 154-pound titleholder, ranked No. 8, take a tumble based on his disappointing performance in his unanimous-decision setback?
No and yes.
We couldn’t justify elevating Alvarez based on a victory over an opponent who moved up two weight classes for the fight, even one as talented and experienced as Charlo. Thus, Alvarez remains at No. 7 for now.
For the record: No. 6 Juan Francisco Estrada hasn’t lost since 2018 and defeated future Hall of Famer Roman Gonzalez twice in his last three fights.
And while we didn’t want to penalize Charlo too harshly after he came up short on a difficult assignment, we felt his inability to make the fight competitive merited a slight demotion.
Charlo swaps places with unbeaten Gervonta Davis, who was No. 8 going into the weekend.
Next pound-for-pounder up: Tyson Fury is scheduled to face MMA star Francis Ngannou in a boxing match on Oct. 28 in Saudi Arabia.
Here’s what the list looks like at the moment:
BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND
- Terence Crawford – No fight scheduled.
- Naoya Inoue – No fight scheduled.
- Oleksandr Usyk – No fight scheduled.
- Dmitry Bivol – No fight scheduled.
- Tyson Fury – Scheduled to face MMA star Francis Ngannou in a boxing match on Oct. 28 in Saudi Arabia.
- Juan Francisco Estrada – Reportedly in talks with Honorable Mention Kazuto Ioka for a title-unification New Year’s Eve bout in Japan.
- Canelo Alvarez– No fight scheduled.
- Jermell Charlo – No fight scheduled.
- Gervonta Davis – No fight scheduled.
- Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
- Vasiliy Lomachenko – No fight scheduled.
- Artur Beterbiev – Scheduled to defend his 175-pound titles against Callum Smit on Jan. 13 in Quebec City, Canada.
- Shakur Stevenson – No fight scheduled.
- Roman Gonzalez – No fight scheduled.
- Devin Haney – Scheduled to challenge 140-pound titleholder Regis Prograis on Dec. 9 in San Francisco.
Honorable mention (alphabetical order): David Benavidez (no fight scheduled); Jermall Charlo (no fight scheduled); Sunny Edwards (scheduled to face Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez in a 112-pound title-unification bout on Dec. 16); Kazuto Ioka (reportedly in talks with No. 6 Juan Francisco Estrada for a title-unification New Year’s Eve bout in Japan); Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (scheduled to face Sunny Edwards in a 112-pound title-unification bout on Dec. 16).
