By Elliot Worsell
Perhaps the only thing more pointless than making a pound-for-pound top 10 list is arguing about a pound-for-pound top 10 list. After all, doing so creates no winners, offers no rewards, and ultimately only highlights the impossibility of understanding what a weight list actually represents.
As for what it is supposed to represent, it, like most things, means different things to different people. In the end, however, a pound-for-pound list is only good for wasting time and creating debate. It has no greater purpose than that and certainly has nothing to do with the legacy of any particular fighter or even their status in the sport.
That said, for those interested in such things, here are the top three pound-for-pound according to Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez: “For me, (Oleksandr) Usyk is number one, (Naoya) Inoue is number two, and (Terence) ) Crawford is three. Usyk is the undisputed heavyweight champion; There is nothing that comes out on top.” As for the overall value of the list in pounds, Rodriguez, 19-0 (12), said Boxing News: “At first, to be honest, I didn’t really care (about the list). But when I was actually included in the pound-for-pound rankings, it was more of a shock than anything. Since then, I’ve always wanted to stay on that list and be mentioned among the great fighters in that top 10. Being on the roster is what I want and this fight will take me even higher if I win.”
Even without defeating Juan Francisco Estrada, his opponent on Saturday (June 29), Jesse Rodriguez is considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport. Get a win on Saturday, though, and the Texan knows he’ll not only join a very elite group – meaning a move higher up the pound-for-pound list – but also achieve a lot more than most fighters at 24 could ever imagine. Indeed, to even be included in such a list at that age, whether at number 10 or at the top, is a testament to both his talent and the rate of his progress.
Rodriguez taunts and defeats Sunny Edwards in December (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
However, what Actually In the end it’s the wins that count, not the fans’ opinions. That’s what made it a little funny to see the heated reaction of Turki Alalshikh, one of the most powerful men in the sport, after seeing the detailed list of weights last month. Taken from BoxRec.com of all places, Alalshikh, who is new to the game, posted this top 10 list on social media and wrote below it: “(Naoya) Inoue is a great boxer, but (Terence) Crawford is the number one boxer. I don’t know how the rankings work or whether there are clear criteria, but it seems like there is some personal opinion and inaccurate information involved. I believe that boxing needs an entity to judge in a transparent and trustworthy way. Soon, I will be supporting a project on that issue.”
A post too good to ignore, it’s hard to know exactly where to start. First of all, if there’s one place where personal opinion has absolutely no bearing on their pound-for-pound lists – or any of their rankings – it’s BoxRec.com, where everything is of course computer generated and done on a points system. That’s not to say their rankings are perfect, far from it, but any accusation of bias is basically a moot point when it comes to that site.
Second, the idea of a pound-for-pound list on BoxRec.com being the impetus for change in a sport as chaotic as boxing is incredibly bizarre. Furthermore, the idea that the sport needs an “entity to judge with transparency and credibility” becomes absurd when one considers the types of people involved in providing so-called judging, transparency and credibility. Ideally, yes, things would be better managed and more streamlined in the sport, but the idea that anything close to that is in boxing’s future is at least a little bizarre.
Furthermore, despite all the talk of “personal opinion and inaccuracy,” Alalshikh’s response to BoxRec.com’s pound-for-pound list comes from exactly the same place, no doubt inspired by the fact that he is currently working with Terence Crawford, a man he has praised so much. Which is perfectly fine, by the way, because Alalshikh’s view that Crawford is the pound-for-pound number one is neither unreasonable nor his own opinion. In fact, it is a widely held view, one that was further fueled by Crawford’s stunning 2023 win over welterweight contender and pound-for-pound contender Errol Spence.
Terence Crawford stopped Errol Spence in July (Getty Images)
Maybe Alalshikh is just having fun, that’s all. Maybe as a newcomer and a shocker in the sport, he’s testing his power level and seeing how far he can go. Maybe, with Naoya Inoue recently adding to his legacy with a stellar performance against Luis Nery, and Oleksandr Usyk doing the same with a win over Tyson Fury, the weight debate is becoming a topic worth talking about; or at least as much as it deserves. Maybe next month, when Crawford fights Israil Madrimov, we’ll have an even clearer picture of where those three (Crawford, Inoue, and Usyk) stand on a list that really means very little in the grand scheme of things.
Indeed, the best you can say about it is this: the sport, in terms of talent at the highest level, is in a healthy place. That is, in Crawford, Inoue and Usyk, we have three men whose abilities have allowed them to thrive in any previous era in boxing history. These are not just three men who happen to be world champions in their respective weight classes and are currently enjoying extended unbeaten streaks. Instead, they are three of the best talents we have ever seen in the sport, and it just so happens that they reached their respective peaks at the same time.
Usyk defeats Fury (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
In fact, the trio is so good that it’s hard to predict which of them will be the first to slip; that is, give way in a race they don’t even realize they’re competing in. So far, there’s been little sign of that. True, Inoue suffered his first professional knockout to Nery, but the way he turned the fight around only adds credence to his claim to be number one. Likewise, Usyk, despite being somewhat handicapped as a relatively small heavyweight, is now achieving feats that Inoue and Crawford couldn’t achieve because they were fighting opponents who weighed the same as them. That, in a fight for the number one spot, must count for something. anything else.
Of course it does that. Like this list, for Usyk, being a heavyweight means everything and nothing. That means the Ukrainian’s record will always contain the x-factor that Crawford and Inoue’s record lacks, and it also means that the pound-for-pound list becomes even more meaningless when we just rank a class of fighters whose legacy is built against opponents of similar weight to them.
You could argue that all three of them – Usyk, Crawford and Inoue – are pushing it. Usyk, in his pursuit of the big boys of the heavyweight division, is pushing it every time he fights, while Crawford and Inoue, whether for money or pound-for-pound dominance, are always linked to real fights for a certain type of fan. Which means, in this case, Canelo Alvarez vs Crawford and Gervonta Davis vs Inoue, on the one hand, excite you, but on the other, make you question not only the sanity of those involved in the sport but, occasionally, the health of the sport itself.
