SPORTS SHORTS 100: POUND-FOR-POUND RANKINGS BY THE RING, TBRB, BWAA, ESPN AND BOXREC
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 09 Apr 2021
The Ring Magazine released their latest pound-for-pound list that is always subject to comments from the boxing fans. Canelo Alvarez remained at the top spot at No. 1 similar from the previous Ring pound-for-pound rating. There were no adverse reactions to that.
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According to Boxing News 24: "Suspiciously not included in The Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound list is heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. The Charlo brothers, Jermall and Jermell are also missing from the list. Both of those guys could easily replace fighters on Ring Magazine’s list."
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Terence Crawford was moved down from the No. 2 rank to No. 3 spot behind IBF/WBA bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue. IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin was removed from the top 10 P4P list despite an impressive stoppage win over Kamil Szeremeta of Poland last December.
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IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. was ranked at No. 6, which is several notches lower than the No. 3 Crawford. Spence has more titles than Crawford and he fought the tougher foes like Danny Garcia, Mikey Garcia, Lamont Peterson, and Shawn Porter.
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Tyson Fury is included in the pound-for-pound list of the TBRB at No. 6, ESPN at No. 8, BWAA at No. 7 and BoxRec at No. 2.
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Gennady Golovkin is listed in TBRB at No. 8, ESPN at No. 10, BWAA at No. 9 and BoxRec at No. 7.
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Chocolatito Gonzalez is rated No. 10 by TBRB, while BWAA lists Manny Pacquiao at No. 10.
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BoxRec included No. 4 Anthony Joshua, No. 6 Deontay Wilder, No. 9 Jermall Charlo and No. 10 Sergey Kovalev.
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Only ESPN ranked Terence Crawford as No. 1 while all the rest listed Canelo Alvarez at No. 1.
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Pound-for-pound is a ranking used in boxing to rate the better fighters in relation to their weight, which are adjusted to compensate their weight division. Since these boxers do not compete directly because of different weights, ranking the best fighters pound for pound is subjective, and rankings may vary every rating organization.
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They may be based on different criteria including "quality of opposition", the degree of excitement the boxer fights or their fame and popularity, or the ranking would determine who would win if all boxers ranked are of the same weight category.
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The term pound for pound was originally associated with fighters Benny Leonard and Sugar Ray Robinson who were considered by most experts to be the most skilled fighters during their time, to distinguish them from the more popular and richer heavyweight champions.
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Since 1990, The Ring magazine has maintained a pound-for-pound ranking of fighters. Other publications and organizations followed. But the most popular aside from The Ring list are Transnational Boxing Ratings Board, ESPN, Boxing Writers Association of America, and BoxRec.
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RING MAGAZINE’S POUND-FOR-POUND LIST
1. Canelo Alvarez
2. Naoya Inoue
3. Terence Crawford
4. Oleksandr Usyk
5. Errol Spence
6. Teofimo Lopez
7. Juan Francisco Estrada
8. Vasily Lomachenko
9. Josh Taylor
10. Kazuto Ioka
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TRANSNATIONAL BOXING RATINGS BOARD
POUND-FOR-POUND LIST
1. Canelo Alvarez
2. Naoya Inoue
3. Terence Crawford
4. Oleksandr Usyk
5. Errol Spence Jr.
6. Tyson Fury
7. Juan Francisco Estrada
8. Gennady Golovkin
9. Teofimo Lopez
10. Roman Gonzalez
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ESPN POUND-FOR-POUND LIST
1. Terence Crawford
2. Canelo Alvarez
3. Naoya Inoue
4. Errol Spence Jr.
5. Teofimo Lopez Jr.
6. Vasiliy Lomachenko
7. Olekdandr Usyk
8. Tyson Fury
9. Juan Francisco Estrada
10. Gennadiy Golovkin
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BOXING WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
POUND-FOR-POUND LIST
1. Canelo Alvarez
2. Terence Crawford
3. Naoya Inoue
4. Errol Spence Jr.
5. Teófimo López
6. Oleksandr Usyk
7. Tyson Fury
8. Vasiliy Lomachenko
9. Gennady Golovkin
10. Manny Pacquiao
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BOXREC POUND-FOR-POUND LIST
1. Canelo Alvarez
2. Tyson Fury
3. Terence Crawford
4. Anthony Joshua
5. Errol Spence Jr.
6. Deontay Wilder
7. Gennadiy Golovkin
8. Teofimo Lopez
9. Jermall Charlo
10. Sergey Kovalev
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Seven months after winning their 17th title, the Los Angeles Lakers will finally unveil their 2020 NBA championship banner as announced. Lakers CEO and president Jeanie Buss revealed the plans to uncover the banner on May 12 when the Lakers host its last home game of the regular season against the Houston Rockets.
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"There was a couple reasons why we waited," Buss told Spectrum SportsNet. "First of all, on opening night, we didn't have any fans. So now that we've finally gotten the nod that we're allowed to have some fans, we decided that the last regular-season game would be good because we'll have as many fans as we can get and hopefully we'll have a completely healthy team by then and with LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the court. And it's a good sendoff as we prepare to go into the playoffs."
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Michael Phelps is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time, winning a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals with 23, Olympic gold medals in individual events with 13, and Olympic medals in individual events with 16.
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When he won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz's 1972 record in Munich of seven gold medals in any single Olympic Games.
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At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Phelps had already tied the record of eight medals of any color at a single Games by winning six gold and two bronze medals.
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At the 2012 Olympics in London, Phelps won four gold and two silver medals, and at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won five gold medals and one silver. Thus he became the most successful athlete of the Games for the fourth Olympics in a row.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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