Usyk Surges on Top of P4P List
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 27 May 2024
After hovering in the periphery, Ukraine's Oleksandr Usyk has finally zoomed to the top of the list of the best pound for pound fighters in the world per latest ranking of the Ring Magazine.
Usyk recently completed his hold of the major heavyweight belts in the heavyweights by defeating erstwhile undefeated and long reigning WBC champion Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia.
The Ring panel has deemed that Usyk's victory which made him undisputed world champion in his second weight class (his first was at cruiserweight) has greater impact and importance than those achieved earlier by Naoya Inoue and Terrence Crawford who ranked second and third in the latest Ring pound for pound listing.
The www.lefthook.com also conducted a poll recently and has Usyk as the best pound for pound fighter in the world today.
Inoue last December 2023 became undisputed world champion at super bantamweight after attaining the same feat at bantamweight in 2022. Meanwhile Crawford unified all major belts at welterweight by easily defeating erstwhile unbeaten WBC-WBA and IBF titlist Errol Spence in July 2023. Crawford has previously reigned as undisputed world champion at junior welterweight in 2017.
It could be the more currency of Inoue's feat and his better activity that dropped the former no. 1 Crawford to third.
However, Crawford has a fight scheduled this August 3, 2024 where he is challenging Uzbekistan's Israel Madrimov for his WBA world and WBO interim world super welterweight belts in his fourth weight division having also won a world title at lightweight.
ESPN which periodically updates its listing still has Crawford on top as of December 2023 like boxrec which ranks Usyk only #12 but boxrec is using a different algorithm.
Following Usyk, Inoue and Crawford is former number one and undisputed super middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez at fourth.
At fifth is triple belt light heavyweight champion Arthur Beterbiev of Russia followed by countryman and WBA titleholder Dmitry Bivol at sixth.
Errol Spence surprisingly is still listed at number seven despite his defeat to Crawford and inactivity.
At number eight is undefeated three weight division (super featherweight, lightweight and super lightweight) world champion and knockout artist Gervonta Davis.
Undefeated two division (flyweight and super flyweight) world champion Jessie Bam Rodriguez is rated number nine.
Rounding up the list is undefeated three division (flyweight, super flyweight and bantamweight) world champion Junto Nakatani of Japan.
Meanwhile five Filipinos made it to the Ring rankings in the different weight divisions, namely Melvin Jerusalem and Pedro Taduran at minimumweight; Christian Araneta at light flyweight; Nonito Donaire at bantamweight and Marlon Tapales at super bantamweight.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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