The best punch trackers on the market
16th November 2020
By: Max Taylor
It has been a long time coming.
After Terence Crawford’s clinical performance against Kell Brook to defend his WBO crown on Saturday night, fans and publications alike have been making a case for ‘Bud’ to be recognized as the number one best pound-for-pound boxer today. To weigh in on the argument, at Boxing Guru, we have created our first ever pound-for-pound list.
This ranking system considers: Career accomplishments, resume quality, activity, and performance in the most recent fight.
I will also add a name underneath each entrant who, upon beating, would increase their position in the list.
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10. Tyson Fury
The Gypsy King is regarded by The Ring as the true Heavyweight champion as he is by many others, and that is down to his career-defining TKO victory of Deontay Wilder in February of this year. The undefeated WBC champion reigned as a unified heavyweight King 5 years ago after beating Wladimir Klitschko and then proceeded to make a fairy-tale come back to the top of the division. He is 2-0-1 in world title fights, the no-contest coming from controversial scorecards in his first encounter with the ‘Bronze Bomber’.
Even this spot was tightly contested, as the rear end of a P4P Top 10 list is usually Gennadiy Golovkin’s domain. But, beating contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a points decision over a year ago is an underwhelming outing compared to what Fury produced 9 months ago. Therefore, the 38-year-old Kazakh steps aside for the Brit.
Fight to win for higher rank: Anthony Joshua
9. Juan Francisco Estrada
El Gallo is a man who thrives on the big stage. The former unified Flyweight champion is now a Super Flyweight who defended his WBC strap in a barnburner against old foe Carlos Cuadras last month. Estrada rose off the canvas to defeat the challenger via TKO and cement himself in the Boxing Guru P4P rankings.
The Mexican is a common figure in boxing outlet’s P4P lists, with consistent performances that proves he is one of the lighter greats in boxing today.
Vengeance against Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez is where Estrada is likely to be headed now to unify his belt with the Nicaraguan’s WBA title and climb up our list.
Fight to win for higher rank: Chocolatito Gonzalez
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8. Josh Taylor
An infant to the P4P game but deserving, nonetheless. The ‘Tartan Tornado’ has been exactly that at 140lbs, wreaking havoc every time he steps in the ring. No better statistic summarizes the resume of Taylor better than his last five opponents having the combined record of 100-1. The unified Junior Welterweight champion’s last performance was against unknown contender Apinun Khongsong in September, who was disposed of by the Scotsman with an inch perfect body shot in the first round.
The World Boxing Super Series winner will be eyeing up an undisputed clash with fellow 140lb champion Jose Ramirez in the future which will add to the 29-year-old’s already-decorated trophy cabinet.
Fight to win for higher rank: Jose Ramirez
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7. Vasyl Lomachenko
This entry shows how cutthroat this list can be. Lomachenko would enter between 1-5th place had he not suffered the shock loss defeat to Teofimo Lopez.
From one WBSS to another, ‘Hi-Tech’ sees himself still firmly in front of Fury, Estrada, and Taylor but is setback massively from a potentially higher rank due to his disappointing result last time in the ring. That does not discredit the three-weight world champion’s accomplishments though who has challenged for or defended a world title in every single professional fight so far in his career.
Although there is no rematch clause and no salivating interest for a second encounter, defeating Lopez would be much more practical for Loma to re-establish himself in boxing as well as these rankings as opposed to dropping down to lower divisions fragmented with different champions.
Fight to win for higher rank: Teofimo Lopez
6. Errol Spence Jr
The Texan has a huge opportunity to increase his position in 2021 as he will be eyeing up a unification match with Crawford to determine the King of 147lbs.
Quite frankly, I felt bad leaving Spence out of the top 5 especially with the performance he put on previously against Shawn Porter to hold both the IBF and WBC belts. But he has not been active since, despite ending that when he takes on Danny Garcia on the 5th of December.
Unlike those in the top 5, Spence’s success as a unified champion is relatively new therefore his seat as the 6th entrant is suitable for now. This could all change if a super fight with Crawford comes to fruition though and would catapult him to unchartered heights as a Welterweight and P4P figure.
Fight to win for higher rank: Terence Crawford
THE YOUNGEST WORLD CHAMPION OF ALL TIME!
5. Oleksandr Usyk
The decision of who belongs to this spot, along with the 10th and 2nd spot, was the hardest to make when creating this list. Spence of course made it hard, but when considering his past achievements and current activity, I had to give Usyk the nod.
He was the undisputed Cruiserweight champion and is now looking to clean up the limitless weight class of Heavyweight after establishing himself as a mandatory challenger defeating Chazz Witherspoon and Dereck Chisora.
The Ukrainian has faced 5 former/current world champions and breezed past them all, keeping his record unblemished and proving why he is top 5 worthy on the list.
Fight to win for higher rank: Tyson Fury/ Anthony Joshua
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4. Teofimo Lopez
You will not find more of a catapult into a P4P rankings list than Lopez into ours. If I drafted one of these up before his fight with Lomachenko, the New-Yorker would not have got a whiff of the top 10. Now he is an undisputed champion it would be criminal to not include him in the top 5.
Although Lopez’s success is the freshest out of anyone’s in this list, that does not hold him back from being the 4th P4P boxer in the sport today especially as he is currently the only undisputed champion on the list.
Looking large for 135lbs and having conquered the division, the only way is up for the ‘Takeover’ and he should be looking to take over the Junior Welterweight class.
Fight to win for higher rank: Josh Taylor
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3. Naoya Inoue
This man fully lives up to his nickname as the ‘Monster’ and has freakishly punched his way into our top 3 P4P list. A three-weight world champion at just 27 years of age, Inoue is a phenom that needs to be appreciated by boxing today. Otherwise, his one-punch power that has given him an 85% KO record will be greatly missed.
To give insight into the quality of opponents the Japanese pugilist has faced in his 20 successive fights, he has beaten 8 former world champions. There is a current world champion on his radar though who he’ll be begging following his destruction of Jason Moloney on Halloween.
That man is John Riel Casemiro and he holds the WBO title, one of the two that Inoue doesn’t currently hold at Bantamweight. If he wishes to climb even higher up this list he will have to put this opponent away in good fashion and prove nobody at Bantamweight can do it better.
Fight to win for higher rank: John Riel Casemiro
THE MAN WHO NEARLY KO’D FLOYD MAYWEATHER!
2. Terence Crawford
This man is the sole reason as to why our first P4P list is here, I have not seen a top 3 be so closely contested for a while and with the show Crawford put on Saturday night, nobody is making it easier.
I was very torn on who is more deserving of the number 2 spot between this man and our 3rd ranked P4P boxer. It ended up coming down to previous accolades and each other’s very last fight.
While both have been champions across three weights, ‘Bud’ reigned as undisputed in one of them, a feat Inoue is yet to achieve. Furthermore, the ‘Monster’ was as destructive as ever in his last outing, and Moloney is a solid contender but he is no former world champion and a veteran like Kell Brook who was taken out 4 whole rounds before the Aussie was.
Everybody knows who his next fight should be against and I can confidently tell you that the winner of that will be Boxing Guru’s next P4P number 1.
Fight to win for higher rank: Errol Spence Jr
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1. Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez
As for now though, the face of boxing reigns supreme and stays at the number 1 spot. Of course, it has been over a year now since we have seen Alvarez in action but becoming a quadruple weight world champion and the second man in boxing history to hold three other world titles at different weights simultaneously nullifies the argument to have him any lower from inactivity.
‘Canelo’s’ last fight against Sergey Kovalev who he expertly knocked out, also saw him become just the fourth boxer in history to hold titles at Junior Middleweight up to Light Heavyweight.
Alvarez’s only loss of his career coming from Floyd Mayweather should tell you everything you need to know about his star-studded resume which includes 15 wins against former and current world titlists.
The winner of the welterweight unification fight will be gunning for the Mexican’s spot and the only way to stop them is by convincingly beating Golovkin who gave him the closest thing to a loss since 2013. This will take some doing but will tell everybody in boxing that Saul Alvarez right now is unbeatable.
Fight to win to maintain rank: Golovkin via UD/KO
