Top Ten Pound For Pound

The last pound-for-pound list was last December 28. I wanted to get this in before Crawford fights Porter. Porter is top 15, so that fight could change this list.

1. Saul Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) [1]
2. Naoya Inoue (21-0, 18 KOs) [2]
3. Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) [Not Rated]

4. Errol Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) [3]
5. Terence Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) [4]

6. Josh Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) [10]

7. Gennady Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) [5]
8. Teofimo Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) [6]

9. Vasiliy Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs) [7]
10. Juan Francisco Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs) [8]

Exiting the list:

Gervonta Davis (25-0, 24 KOs) [NR]

Top 10 Boxing Nations

Below is a list of the best current boxing nations. The first list was posted on December 7, 2018.

Rank	Nation	Top 10	Champs	5 Star	Div 10	Best
1	United States	4	1	32	49	Spence
2	Mexico	2	2	8	18	Canelo
3	United Kingdom	1	1	14	15	Taylor
4	Japan	1	0	3	15	Inoue
5	Russia	0	1	7	8	Bivol
6	Ukraine	1	0	4	5	Lomachenko
7	Cuba	0	1	2	7	Ugas
8	Philippines	0	0	2	8	Pacquiao
9	Thailand	0	0	1	4	SSR
10	Kazakhstan	1	0	1	1	Golovkin

Key:
Top 10: number of boxers from stated nation that are on my top 10 p4p list (current)
Champs: number of champions recognized by the Transnational Boxing Rankings (7 total)
5 Star: number of boxers who have 5 stars on BoxRec (take with a grain of salt, just meant to show a trend, nothing definitive.)

Div 10: The total number of top 10 fighters from that country in every weight division combined according to Transnational Boxing Rankings.
Best: In my opinion

1. The US. is far and away the number one boxing nation. With minor exceptions, the U.S. has representation in the top 10 from 122 pounds all the way up. The U.S. is strongest in the divisions around and including welterweight.. I have Spence, Crawford, Lopez, and Davis in my top 10 pound-for-pound. Lopez is the lone recognized champ, but there are three other divisions without champs in which and American fighter is #1. Not only does the U.S. have the most depth at the top, but also just outside the top ten in each division from 122 on up as well.

2. Mexico is up from 4th since my last list two years ago. That was a particularly low point for Mexican boxing. Super flyweight to featherweight are the best divisions for Mexico. Canelo is in the top 10 in three divisions and Munguia is the only other fighter who cracks a division's top ten above 140 pounds. Canelo is the #1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He's the middleweight champ. The Ring lists him as the 168 pound champ, although the TBR doesn't. He's #1 at 268 there though. Estrada is the other champ and the other on my top 10 list. The difference between Mexico and the U.K. on this list is pretty close.

3. Last list, I listed England separately, but I listed the UK as one entity this time. No grand reason why the change. England was 3rd last time. The UK tends to be good in certain divisions, such as featherweight, junior welterweight, super middleweight, and heavyweight. Taylor, from Scotland, is the lone UK member of my top 10 pound-for-pound. Fury is the recognized heavyweight champ. If Fury and Joshua fight, the winner would elicit strong consideration in my top 10. BoxRec overrates heavyweights and British fighters, which is why their "5 star" is so out of whack compared to everything else on the chart.

4. Japan was 6th on the list last time. Japan had more than double the 5 star fighters two years ago, that is not indicative of Japanese boxing's standing. The 15 fighters in a division's top ten is more representative. Flyweight and junior flyweight are Japan's best divisions, but Japan is strong in virtually each division lightweight and lower. Murata is the only fighter in a top ten above 135 pounds. Inoue moved up my top ten pound-for-pound in the last two years, which helps move Japan up this list.

5. Russia was 5th two years ago. Light heavyweight continues to be the hottest division for Russian fighters. Russia has some one in the top ten from super middleweight on up. Beterbiev is the recognized light heavyweight champion although I believe Bivol would beat him if they fought. The winner of that fight would likely make my top 10 pound-for-pound list. Both are in my top 20.

6. Ukraine fell from the 2nd spot two years ago. Ukraine's high standing back then was due to the excellence of a few fighters at top and none of them are at the heights they were two years ago. Lomachenko lost recently, though he remains the only Ukrainian on my pound-for-pound list. I have Usyk 11th after a couple of unimpressive heavyweight showings although TBR and the Ring have him 4th on their lists. But Gvozdyk, who was the light heavyweight champ two years ago his now retired. Ukraine doesn't have the same depth as other countries on this list, but the country still produces top quality boxers, just not as good as they were two years ago.

7. Cuba was 8th last time  and basically moved up because Puerto Rico fell off. Their best fighters mostly in their mid 30s or older and there aren't as many prospects coming up, which means Cuba- along with Ukraine- won't be on this list too much longer. Rigondeaux is still the 122 pound champ although the 40 year old has fallen far off my top 10 list. No Cuban boxer is close to my top 10 though I rate Ugas highly and think he would be competitive against the top tier of welterweights if given a chance. Cuba doesn't have a ton of active fighters either.

8. Philippines was 9th last time. Pacquiao is the only Filipino on a division's top ten list over bantamweight. Pacquiao is 42 years old and is still clearly the best from the country. Right now, the Philippines doesn't have any other than Pacquiao who would within sniffing range of my top ten pound-for-pound, but depth is a plus, even if not at the top right now.

9. Thailand was 10th last time. SSR was better two years ago, but he's still the #1 super flyweight behind champion Estrada. Thailand controls the strawweight division. The top 3 fighters in the division are from Thailand. No other country controls the top of any division as convincingly. Otherwise, Thailand doesn't have much depth at the top.

10. Kazakhstan wasn't on this list last time. Golovkin represents all the "1"s in the chart above. he is far and away the best Kazakh fighter, the OTripleG of Kazakh boxing if you will. But there are some good prospects about to burst on the scene such as Yelenussinov, Jukembayev, and Alimkhanuly to name a few.

Others considered

Uzbekistan has only two fighters in a division's top 10, no 5 star fighters, and none I've considered for my top ten, but they have a group of prospects coming up who are about to put Uzbekistan in the top 10, and they're better than Kazakhstan's prospects. It's just too early at this point. Uzbekistan doesn't have the depth, but at the top they could resemble Ukraine from a couple years ago if all goes right.

France has 4 in division's top tens and 3 5 star fighters, but none are even close to my top 10. So the top is quite low compared to the others on the list. France has depth, but most prospects have domestic or European level ceilings.

Australia has 3 in the top 10 in a division and 1 five star fighter. None are anywhere near my top 10. There really aren't world class prospects in Australia at this point, although Tim Tszyu is one and to a lesser degree so is Kambosos.

Latvia wasn't really considered, but Briedis is the other TBR champion. Briedis is not too far from my top ten pound-for-pound, but otherwise, Latvia doesn't have the prospects of the other countries listed here.

Top Ten Pound-for-Pound

 Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on October 20, 2020.

1. Saul Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KOs) [1]
2. Naoya Inoue (20-0, 17 KOs) [2]
3. Errol Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) [4]
4. Terence Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) [3]
5. Gennady Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) [5]
6. Teofimo Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) [6]

7. Vasiliy Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) [7]
8. Juan Francisco Estrada (41-3, 28 KOs) [Not Rated]
9. Gervonta Davis (24-0, 23 KOs) [NR]
10. Josh Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) [9]

Exiting the list:

Olexandr Usyk (18-0, 13 KOs) [8]

Leo Santa Cruz (36-2-1, 19 KOs) [9]

1. Canelo's win over Callum Smith cements his status as the best fighter pound-for-pound. He has far and away the best resume on this list. He has done it at different weight classes. The true middleweight champion, he just beat the best super middleweight in the world. That was coming off a win over a top 3 light heavyweight. He can box, he can stalk, he has a great jab and goes to the body effectively. He has a great chin and a much improved defense. It's hard to argue anyone else should be on top right now.

2. Inoue is a three division beltholder who has beaten some good fighters. He looked impressive against Moloney in his last fight. While his resume is decent, his skill stands out. He has speed, power, and technique. There aren't the names at bantamweight, so hopefully, he'll fight the winner of Estrada-Chocolatito or move up to 122 where there are some good fights.

3. I flipped Crawford and Spence after the latter's win over Garcia. Spence is developing a nice resume with recent wins over Garcia and Porter. He beat Brook when that was worth something. His win over Peterson was solid too. Spence has the better resume, but I also had a change of heart. I had always very slightly favored Spence in a battle with Crawford because of his size, but now I'm solidly favoring Spence to beat Crawford because of skill as well.

4. I really like Crawford, so I don't mean to demean him. But his resume leaves a lot to be desired. He's beaten faded British fighters recently like Amir Khan and Kell Brook. Who's next, Ricky Hatton? Lloyd Honeyghan? It's kind of ridiculous. Crawford's best win by far was against a very credible Viktor Postol... four and a half years ago! Otherwise, he's beaten some decent opponents, but no one close to the top 10. Recently, his opponents aren't even in the top 10 in their own division. Welterweight is stacked; I'd love to see him face a quality foe.

5. Golovkin looked good against a somewhat lesser opponent this month. He still seems high quality, but his skills may have slipped a bit. His resume is certainly better than Crawford's. A win against a better opponent and if Crawford doesn't step up his strength of opposition, I'll switch the two.

6. The lightweight division has a lot of good young fighters with Lopez, Davis, Haney, Garcia, and Campbell to name a few. Lomachenko is still there. Hopefully they all fight each other soon. Lopez looks a little better than last time even though he didn't fight. He beat Nakatani in unimpressive fashion in 2019, but that win looks better after Nakatani just scored an upset knockout.

7. I had Loma's fight with Lopez as a draw. That's why he's still on the list for now.

8. Estrada is back on the list after stopping Carlos Cuadras in an exciting fight. I love BoxRec, but they only gave that fight 3 stars while Usyk-Chisora had 5. BoxRec seems to overrates heavyweights and that might explain it, but Cuadras also seems underrated. His first fight with Estrada only got 4 stars. Transnational Boxing Rankings has Cuadras in the top 10 in his division even after the loss. Estrada has a big fight with Chocolatito coming up. The winner will likely be on this list.

9. Davis's win over Santa Cruz was legit. I had Santa Cruz in the top 10 before the fight. It's Davis's best win by far, but he has a couple of others like the win over Pedrasa. I'd love to see him take on some of the lightweights I mentioned in Lopez's blurb. With a few wins, he could vault up this list.

10. Taylor just hangs on. He has beaten 4 undefeated fighters in his last 4 fights. The win over Prograis, who was a top 15 fighter at the time, is his best win. Before his streak of beating undefeated fighters, he beat Viktor Postol. I rate him higher than Jose Ramirez because of that win over Prograis and he has been better lately. His win over Postol was better than Ramirez's. Ramirez was lucky to get the win. But it's close. Hopefully they fight soon and the winner could go up on this list.

Exiting:

I have Usyk 11th. He beat Chisora recently. I don't want to knock Chisora. He's like the gatekeeper to world class. But Usyk's win was uninspiring. His two fights at heavyweight haven't been anything special. And almost everyone in the top 10 had a much better win more recently than Usyk. Even Loma's loss to Lopez was a better result than Usyk's win over Chisora, because Lopez is so much higher rated than Chisora. If Usyk can get a big win over a heavyweight, it will be hard to keep him off the list.

Santa Cruz has been on my top ten list for a long time. He has been a very good fighter.

Honorable mentions:

After Usyk, I'd put Jose Ramirez 12th. He would obviously make the list if he could beat Taylor.

Dmitry Bivol has beaten all the back half of the top 10 at lightweight, but he has been inactive of late. A fight with Artur Beterbiev would likely catapult one of them onto this list.

The winner of a Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fight could also make the list.

The Charlos, Andrade, and Saunders need to bolster their resumes to gain consideration.

Top Ten Pound-for-Pound

 Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on April 26, 2020.

1. Saul Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) [1]
2. Naoya Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) [3]
3. Terence Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) [4]
4. Errol Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) [5]
5. Gennady Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) [6]
6. Teofimo Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) [Not Rated]

7. Vasiliy Lomachenko (14-2, 10 KOs) [2]
8. Olexandr Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs) [7]
9. Leo Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KOs) [8]
10. Josh Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) [9]

Exit: Jose Ramirez (26-0, 17 KOs) [10]

1. Canelo might not be fighting for a while after a dispute with his promoter and network. It'll be hard to keep the top spot if he's inactive for too long.

2. Inoue has a battle with the credible Jason Maloney at the end of the month.

3. Crawford faces a faded Kell Brook next month. Crawford's best win is still his decision victory over Viktor Postol four years ago. His talent is undeniable, but it's hard to keep him high up the list when he isn't fighting the same level of opponent as the others.

4. Spence fights Danny Garcia in December. While Garcia isn't at the same level as he was a few years ago, Spence could leapfrog Crawford with an impressive win.

5. Golovkin has been inactive for a year, which is understandable given the virus.

6. Lopez makes the list on the strength of his win over Lomachenko and his impressive knockout of Richard Commey. I thought the fight with Lomachenko was a draw, but I could see Lopez winning 8-4. Julie Lederman is the best boxing judge. She's so good that if I disagree with her, I usually just assume that I was wrong. This is the first time when I strongly disagree with her 119-109 card.

7. I thought Lomachenko's fight with Lopez was a draw. I placed him a slot lower than Lopez because I thought the fight could have been between 6-6 and 8-4 Lopez and the official cards were for Lopeza.

8. Usyk faces Derek Chisora on October 31. Chisora is better than a journeyman, but he's not on the championship level.

9. Santa Cruz has a very tough match against Gervonta Davis on october 31. The winner will likely be on this list.

10. Taylor beat an overmatched opponent this fall. He beat Postol better than Jose Ramirez did, so he remains just ahead of Ramirez.

Exit: Ramirez wasn't impressive against Postol this fall. I had him ranked tenth, but with Lopez's ascent, he likely would have fallen off the list anyway. I still have him 11th.

Top Ten Pound-for-Pound

Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on December 28, 2019.

1. Saul Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) [1]
2. Vasiliy Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) [2]
3. Naoya Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) [3]
4. Terence Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) [4]
5. Errol Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) [5]
6. Gennady Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) [6]
7. Olexandr Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs) [7]
8. Leo Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KOs) [8]
9. Josh Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs) [9]
10. Jose Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs) [10]

No changes in the list. January was a relatively slow month and then boxing stopped in early March because of the coronavirus-19.

Top Ten Pound-for-Pound

Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on July 3, 2019.

1. Saul Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) [1]
2. Vasiliy Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) [3]
3. Naoya Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) [2]
4. Terence Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) [4]
5. Errol Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) [8]
6. Gennady Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) [5]
7. Olexandr Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs) [7]
8. Leo Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KOs) [6]
9. Josh Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs) [Not ranked]
10. Jose Ramirez (25-0, 17 KOs) [Not ranked]

Exiting the list:
Mikey Garcia (38-1, 30 KOs) [9]
Olexandr Gvozdyk (17-1, 14 KOs) [10]

1. Only Pacquiao has a better resume than Canelo, but Canelo is in his prime. he just moved up to take a light heavyweight belt against a top 3 fighter in the division. The other guys on the top ten list haven't fought anywhere near the level of competition as the Canelo. Canelo's skills have improved greatly and he has a very tough chin.

2. While Campbell didn't have the pro success to add too much to Loma's resume, he was much bigger and had a great amount of amateur success. He's a featherweight who's cleaning out the lightweight division.

3. Inoue won the World Boxing Super Series with a tough victory over former pound-for-pound veteran Nonito Donaire. It's one of those wins that will probably look better as time goes by. It was a real test for Inoue and he showed his mettle. The problem is I expected him to blast Donaire out of there as Inoue has done to everyone else. Donaire crawled into the final, but impressed, so perhaps Donaire is still that good, or maybe I overrated Inoue.

4. Crawford is undeniably skilled. Good for him and his family for making money feasting on a certain level of competition. But for the pound-for-pound list, he has to start facing top level guys. ESPN embarrassingly tried to promote Amir Khan as an elite opponent. Yeah, maybe in 2010. For now, it's hard to argue Crawford is #1 because even Inoue- in about half the bouts- has fought tougher guys.

5. Spence has been fighting better opponents than Crawford. He won a close decision over Porter, a legit top 20 pound-for-pound fighter. I liek Crawford's ability and multiple dimensions, but Spence's size and strength could carry the day against Crawford. Let's make it happen!

6. Golovkin won a close decision over Derevyanchenko. The latter is a good fighter, but a prime GGG wipes him out. Spence's win over Porter is the better victory and he's had more recent success against better fighters than Golovkin.

7. Usyk moved up to heavyweight and beat a journeymen. The former cruiserweight champ should make some noise at heavyweight despite being undersized.

8. It has been a year and half since he beat Mares and three years since he avenged his lone defeat and beat Carl Frampton. His level of competition has fallen and he might exit the top ten without a good win in 2020.

9. Taylor took a close decision against Regis Prograis, who was a top 15 pound-for-pound fighter. He also has a victory over Viktor Postol, which was Crawford's toughest opponent by far.

10. Ramirez had three wins over good opponents before beating Maurice Hooker impressively in July. I'd love to see Ramirez against Taylor or Prograis. Instead, he's facing Viktor Postol in February.

Exiting: Garcia hasn't fought since his disappointing loss to Spence. He's #11. Gvozdyk lost to Artur Beterbiev, who is a top 20 guy despite his crude style because of his power. I'd like to see Beterbiev face Bivol. The winner would likely make the top 10 list.

Honorable mentions:
In addition to Beterbiev and Bivol, Pacquiao deserves a mention. So do Gervonta Davis, Juan Francisco Estrada, and Gary Russell. I'd also like to see those 122 pound guys (Navarrete, Roman, Rigondeaux, and  Vargas) sort themselves out. A couple wins by those guys would likely put them on the list.

Pound for Pound Best since 2008

I was going to do a top 10 pound for pound for this decade, but I became a hardcore boxing fan in 2008, so I decided to incorporate those two years into my list. Records are for the fighters' entire career.

1. Floyd Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs)
2. Manny Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs)
3. Andre Ward (32-0, 16 KOs)
4. Wladimir Klitschko (64-5, 53 KOs)
5. Canelo Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs)
6. Vasiyl Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs)
7. Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs)
8. Miguel Cotto (41-6, 33 KOs)
9. Gennady Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs)
10. Guillermo Rigondeaux (19-1, 13 KOs)

1. Mayweather is the unquestioned fighter of the last 12 years. He matched both skill and resume in a way no other fighter of his era did. He beat four men on my top ten list; no one comes close to that number. Not every fight was against a top flight opponent, but he beat more top opponents than anyone of the last dozen years.

2. Pacquiao's run, starting with his victory over Oscar De La Hoya, was incredible at the time. Hindsight is less kind. The win over Cotto still holds up, and perhaps has even gained merit after Cotto resurrected his career, but the rest have lost their luster somewhat with time. He deserved all three over Tim Bradley, who would have made this list had it extended to 20 boxers. Officially, he is 2-1 against Marquez since 2008, but I thought Marquez deserved all three. His recent win over Keith Thurman was impressive, though.

3. Ward cleaned out the super middleweight division by dominating the Super Six tournament in the early part of the decade. His wins over Froch and Kessler in the tournament were noteworthy. He then whipped Chad Dawson, who was the true light heavyweight champion at the time. He later became the best light heavyweight in the world after taking two against Kovalev.

4. Until November 2015, Klitschko totally dominated the heavyweight division. He looked unbeatable. He didn't have the stiffest competition, but wins over former true cruiserweight champ David Haye in addition to Povetkin and Pulev are at least worth mentioning. He fought a very boring fight against Tyson Fury, who has since done well for himself, and a very exciting fight against Anthony Joshua. He lost against his two best opponents, but Klitschko was clearly a faded fighter by then.

5. No one has fought the number of quality opponents as has Canelo. He won a couple of questionable decisions (against Trout and Lara), but he's also moved up in weight in a way that is comparable only to Pacquiao. He lost to Mayweather badly, but was very competitive against Golovkin. Officially, he is 1-0-1 against GGG, although I though Golovkin deserved the fight fight. He beat Cotto for the true middleweight championship and recently won a strap at light heavyweight despite starting this era as a welterweight.

6. Lomachenko doesn't have the resume of the guys above him. His best win was against Rignodeaux, who was coming up in weight. He also had good wins against Russell and Walters. But he has moved up from featherweight to lightweight and pretty much dominated world class guys. His ability puts him this high on the list more than his resume.

7. Marquez makes the list almost exclusively on his battles with Pacquiao. He had that huge knockout of the PacMan in 2012, which was a shocker because Pacquiao looked invincible at the time. He deserved the other two fights against Pacquiao since 2008. He fought a close battle with Bradley as well.

8. Cotto's best win since 2008 was over a faded Sergio Martinez, but it was for the true middleweight championship. Cotto fought three of the top 5 guys on this list and was relatively competitive against all three.

9. Golovkin is another guy whose ability outshines his resume. His best opponent has been Canelo, who he officially is 0-1-1 against. I thought he deserved the first fight and both were close. Golovkin was a bit past his prime in those bouts. He also has a nice win over Jacobs and annihilated the world class opponents put in front of him before he fought Jacobs and Canelo.

10. Rigondeaux also makes the list based on ability. He beat Nonito Donaire when the latter was a top 5 pound-for-pound fighter. He didn't stand a chance against Lomachenko, his only defeat, but that was at a much heavier weight. Otherwise, his opponents haven't had a chance against him, his last fight notwithstanding.

Top Ten Pound-For-Pound

Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on April 2, 2019.

1. Saul Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) [2]
2. Naoya Inoue (18-0, 16 KOs) [6]
3. Vasiliy Lomachenko (13-1, 10 KOs) [1]
4. Terence Crawford (35-0, 26 KOs) [4]
5. Gennady Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KOs) [3]
6. Leo Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KOs) [7]
7. Olexandr Usyk (16-0, 12 KOs) [8]
8. Errol Spence (25-0, 21 KOs) [9]
9. Mikey Garcia (38-1, 30 KOs) [10]
10. Olexandr Gvozdyk (17-0, 14 KOs) [Not ranked]

Exiting the list: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (47-5-1, 41 KOs) [5]

1. Canelo has taken on the top opponents in his and around his weight division. No other fighter has had as much experience and as much success against the best. Canelo's win over one of the 3 best middleweights boosts his case for the number 1 spot.

2. Inoue destroyed an undefeated opponent in his last fight in a a weigh class he's only fought in three times. No one is running through the high level competition like Inoue.

3. Lomachenko fought weaker competition last fight. He won impressively, but he hasn't been fighting guys as tough as Canelo has and hasn't been knocking them out like Inoue.

4. Crawford has extreme talent, but doesn't have the resume to match. He needs to start fighting the top of the welterweight division.
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5. He beat an over-matched opponent easily in June, but Golovkin's skills may have eroded a bit.

6. Would love to see Santa Cruz fight Gary Russell or Josh Warrington.

7. Usyk is moving up to heavyweight, but suffered an injury and his last fight was canceled.

8. Spence has the same issue as Crawford. He has a ton of talent, but his best wins are against an undersized Mikey Garcia, a faded Lamont Peterson, and Kell Brook.

9. I'd like to see him face Lomachenko although Commey would be a good fight too.

10. Gvozdyk does have a bit of a thin resume, but he is the lineal champ. I'd like to see him against the elites at light heavyweight: Bivol, Beterbiev, Kovalev, Alvarez, and/or Ramirez. A fight agaisnt Callum Smith would be interesting too. Let's get these light heavyweights int he ring against each other!

The winner of Josh Taylor-Regis Prograis for the World Boxing Super Series championship will almost certainly vault the winner into the top ten. Danny Roman and Rey Vargas at 122 need a signature win to receive more consideration. Tyson Fury could enter the list on the strength of his boxing skills if he can beat Wilder, Ruiz, and/or Joshua.

Chris Myers is a Terrible Boxing Announcer

I wrote a post last July arguing that Mark Kriegel was an annoying boxing announcer, and shortly after ESPN thankfully booted him from ringside. Kriegel now gives his thoughts in a brief snippet once or twice a fight and also does those heart pieces before the fights that I fast forward right through (I have small children, so I go to sleep early, and watch almost all of my sports the day after.) Kriegel doesn't add anything in these snippets, but I can deal with them.

Mark Kriegel is a gift from the boxing gods compared to Chris Myers. Kriegel at least follows boxing and seems to enjoy the sport. The same cannot be said for Chris Myers.

I've known of Chris Myers since his days on SportsCenter, and I have nothing against him as a broadcaster. He's a solid NFL play-by-play announcer and sideline reporter. But he is way out of his element when it comes to boxing.

Myers seems to have done virtually no research on boxing beyond finding some rudimentary information. He is a complete novice when it comes to the sport. Sometimes that can add a fresh perspective. A neophyte can challenge assumptions that more seasoned followers and participants may have. Myers, however, doesn't add anything to a broadcast.

Myers doesn't know the terminology. Sometimes it comes out in funny and even cute ways like when he probably looked up a boxer on BoxRec, saw MD, and figured it stood for "Mixed Decision" as opposed to "Majority Decision." In boxing lingo, a majority decision is when two judges saw the fight for one guy and the third judge saw the bout as a draw.

Mostly, Myers doesn't know a left hook from a jab. He doesn't really understand how the scoring works in boxing. He doesn't know what the judges are looking for when scoring. He doesn't know that judges don't determine if a knockdown occurred, the referee does and the judges have to score based on the referee's decision. Myers treats "effective punches" as if it's a real category in boxing like "power punches." Power punches are a category that includes any punch that isn't a jab. Effective punches aren't a category akin to power punches. It's just a subjective description of blows.

He only references fights he has called. When he mentions other fights, it's usually incomplete results. Often he doesn't put those results in any context. That a fighter is coming off of a loss doesn't tell you much. Was that loss to Gennady Golovkin or a journeyman? Has that journeyman faced a bunch of prospects from Philadelphia at a heavier weight or is he from Mississippi and has a built up record? There's a strain of boxing announcer that loved boxing as a kid when Muhammad Ali was active, separated from the sport 40 years, and now references Ali or Sugar Ray Leonard in every current fight. Myers doesn't even do that. I don't think he likes boxing at all.

In the most recent fight on Fox, Myers declared that Jarrett Hurd is a great defensive fighter because he hadn't been knocked down since becoming "champ" until last Saturday's fight against Julian Williams. The absence of getting knocked down doesn't speak much to fighter's defensive abilities. Incidentally, Hurd isn't a good defensive fighter. He wins because he has a good chin and heavy hands.

My biggest issue with Myers is that he has no problem arguing with his analysts, who, for all their faults as broadcasters, actually know boxing. He's not arguing with them about the weather or football; he argues about the tenor of the fight they are witnessing even though Myers has no idea what he's talking about. Kenny Albert isn't an expert on boxing, but he knows that. He calls it as he sees it and lets his analysts take care of the analysis.

Albert should be he lead blow-by-blow guy on Fox until a suitable replacement is found, preferably a boxing guy, not a tv guy new to boxing.

Top Ten Pound-For-Pound

Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on December 31, 2018.

1. Vasiliy Lomachenko (12-1, 9 KOs) [1]
2. Saul Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs) [2]
3. Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) [3]
4. Terence Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) [4]
5. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (47-4-1, 41 KOs) [5]
6. Naoya Inoue (17-0, 16 KOs) [6]
7. Leo Santa Cruz (36-1-1, 19 KOs) [7]
8. Olexandr Usyk (16-0, 12 KOs) [8]
9. Errol Spence (25-0, 21 KOs) [9]
10. Mikey Garcia (38-1, 30 KOs) [10]

1. Lomachenko has a fight with Anthony Crolla in 10 days. Though Crolla is better than his record Lomachenko does need an impressive win to keep his top spot.

2. Canelo fights the best and he's doing it again with the Jacobs fight on May 4.

4. Crawford fights Amir Khan on April 20. This is his best opponent since 2016 when he beat Viktor Postol. Since then, Crawford has fought second rate guys. He potentially has the skills, but he doesn't have the resume of the guys ahead of him.

5. SSR faces Juan Francisco Estrada again on April 26.

6. Inoue faces Emmanuel Rodriguez on May 18 in the World Boxing Super Series.

9. Spence just dominated a small Mikey Garcia. He showed the skills to vault up the list, but doesn't have the resume. Hopefully, he fights the Crawford-Khan winner next.

10. Despite Garcia's embarrassing loss to Spence, he stays at 10. Garcia was the naturally smaller man. The other fighters in contention for a top ten spot don't yet have the resume. There are a lot of candidates: Anthony Joshua, Olexandr Gvozdyk, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Luis Nery, Daniel Jacobs, Dmitry Bivol, Regis Prograis, Josh Taylor, and Gervonta Davis just to name a few contenders.

Top Ten Pound-For-Pound

Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on October 6, 2018.

1. Vasiliy Lomachenko (12-1, 9 KOs) [1]
2. Saul Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs) [2]
3. Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) [3]
4. Terence Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) [4]
5. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (47-4-1, 41 KOs) [5]
6. Naoya Inoue (17-0, 16 KOs) [7]
7. Leo Santa Cruz (35-1-1, 19 KOs) [6]
8. Olexandr Usyk (16-0, 12 KOs) [10]
9. Errol Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) [8]
10. Mikey Garcia (38-0, 30 KOs) [9]


Lomachenko moved up to lightweight in 2018 and beat two of the better guys in the division. Hopefully 2019 brings a super-fight for Loma.

Canelo maintained the legitimate middleweight championship with a win over GGG in September and the former welterweight beat a top ten super middleweight with ease two months later.

I thought Golovkin won the first fight with Canelo, but I thought Canelo deserved a close decision last September. Both guys showed they were among the best boxers in the world in both fights.

Crawford stopped the undefeated but untested Jose Benavidez in October. Crawford's best win was in 2016 against Viktor Postol to become the legitimate junior welterweight champion. But the supremely talented Crawford has mostly feasted on a certain class of fighter. Hopefully he fights a top welterweight soon.

SSR, the legitimate super flyweight champion, places #5 on this list due to his two wins over Chocolatito and his victory against Juan Francisco Estrada. There aren't a lot of boxers who have three wins so recently as good as those.

Inoue is blowing his opposition away. In two 2018 fights, Inoue didn't see the second round. He destroyed Juan Carlos Payano, his World Boxing Super Series foe, in the opening round in October. Payano has a win and a close loss against 3-time Olympian Rau'shee Warren.

Santa Cruz has a win over and a close loss to Carl Frampton and two victories against Abner Mares. He's beaten a lot of fighters one notch below as well. A big featherweight fight in 2019 would do wonders for his ranking.

Usyk, the undisputed cruiserweight champion, already has amassed a solid resume. Wins over Glowacki, Gassiev, Briedis, and Michael Hunter were all impressive. In November, he stopped Tony Bellew.

Spence faces Mikey Garcia in March. It's a bit of a no-win situation for Spence, who is the naturally bigger man. An impressive win against Garcia should keep him where he is on the top ten list. Anything less could hurt his standing. Despite his undeniable talent, Spence's resume isn't as full as some other top guys.

Garcia is taking on a herculean task of facing Errol Spence. Garcia has a lot of wins over good fighters, but no signature win. A win over Spence would vault him up the rankings.

Honorable Mentions:
Gvozdyk's stoppage of Adonis Stevenson for the legitimate light heavyweight championship put him into contention for the top ten. He had a nice win over Isaac Chilemba and a few over guys just a step below Chilemba, but his resume is a bit thinner than those above. He's in a rich division and another win against a top 5 guy will surely force his inclusion in the top ten.

The winner of Eleider Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev in February will warrant consideration in the top ten. Hopefully the winner will be an opponent for Gvozdyk in the near future.

Top 10 Boxing Nations

Below is a list of the best current boxing nations. This is my first list of this nature.

Rank	Nation	Top 10	Champs	5 Star	Best
1	United States	4	1	28	Crawford
2	Ukraine	2	2	5	Lomachenko
3	England	0	0	17	Joshua
4	Mexico	1	1	10	Canelo
5	Russia	0	0	6	Kovalev
6	Japan	1	0	7	Inoue
7	Puerto Rico	0	0	3	Machado
8	Cuba	0	1	4	Rigondeaux
9	Philippines	0	0	4	Pacquiao
10	Thailand	1	1	3	SSR

Key:
Top 10: number of boxers from stated nation that are on my top 10 p4p list (as of Oct 6)
Champs: number of champions recognized by the Transnational Boxing Rankings (6 total)
5 Star: number of boxers who have 5 stars on BoxRec (take with a grain of salt, just meant to show a trend, nothing definitive.)
Best: In my opinion

1. The U.S. is still king even with the retirements of Andre Ward and Floyd Mayweather.

The U.S. has the most top 10 fighters and the most 5 star fighters. The country dominates the middle weight classes from 140 to 160 but is represented in all but the smallest weight classes. Just outside of the top 10 p4p list are Americans Shawn Porter, Gary Russell, Danny Jacobs, and Regis Prograis. The U.S. has plenty of hot prospects coming up including Shakur Stevenson. Las Vegas and New York are still the preeminent fight towns in the world. But the rest of the world is catching up.

2. Ukraine has had a number of decorated amateurs blow through the pro ranks. Lomachenko is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. Usyk and Gvozdyk are both recognized champions at cruiserweight and light heavyweight respectively. Ukraine basically has 3 top 10 fighters. Derevyanchenko is just a class below and there are several prospects coming up. The best Ukrainian fighters range in weight from lightweight on up.

3. England has three of the best four heavyweights. Super middleweight is another class of English domination. Half of TBR's 168 top 10 are from England including Callum Smith who just won last season's World Boxing Super Series.

4. While Canelo isn't the only high-level Mexican fighter, he is the clear standout. Miguel Berchelt, Luis Nery, Jaime Munguia, and Rey Vargas are the best of the rest. There aren't many Mexican fighters above 168. Between 115 and 130 is the sweet spot.

5. Russia looks to be moving up the list despite Kovalev suffering 3 recent loses. Cruiserweight and light heavweight are Russia's best weight classes. Though they haven't yet surpassed Kovalev in my book, Bivol and Beterbiev are on their way at 175.

6. Naoya Inoue won impressively since he made my top 10 list in October. He's the cream of the crop in Japan, but there are other strong guys including his brother. Almost all of them are 122 pounds or under.

7. Puerto Rico is an American territory, but treated as a separate nation in the context of boxing. Down from its heyday, Puerto Rico is nevertheless still churning out some good ones. Felix Verdejo suffered an upset loss earlier this year, so Emmanuel Rodriguez takes the mantle as the island's best prospect. He's in tough against Inoue in his next fight in the WBSS. Jose Pedraza faces Lomachenko tomorrow night, so it could be a defining couple of months for the direction of Puerto Rican boxing. Currently Puerto Rico is mostly represented in the lighter weight classes.

8. The top Cuban fighters- Rigondeaux, Lara, Ortiz, Barrera, Gamboa, Dorticos, Perez, and Rances Barthelemy- have all suffered losses in the not too distant past. Those losses have dimmed the star a bit of the once great hype surrounding the decorated Cuban amateurs defecting and going pro. Rigondeaux is still a fringe top 10 guy if he can bounce back from a loss to Lomachenko at a much higher weight than he's used to. Good Cuban fighters can be found from heavyweight on down to about 122.

9. Filipino boxing isn't at its zenith. Pacquiao is still relevant but no long dominant. Ancajas hasn't yet reached his potential. Donnie Nietes has always been good, but looked a little old last time out. On the other hand, Nonito Donaire has a chance to resurrect his career thanks to an injury to his opponent midway through his WBSS fight. Pacquiao is the heaviest Filipino fighter of note.

10. Thailand reaches the top 10 thanks to SSR's two wins over Roman Gonzalez last year and his follow-up victory over Estrada to cement his place in the top 10 p4p list. The two other 5 star boxers are minimum weight guys with mostly built up records.

Boxing Fights I Want to Watch

There have been some good top level fights recently and let's hope that trend continues.

Jumping a bit out of order, let's start with welterweight. The fight I most want to see is:
Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence for the true welterweight championship
A true 50-50 fight at the highest level

Heavyweight
Winner of Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua for the true heavyweight championship.

Light heavyweight
A 4 man tournament between the true champion Adonis Stevenson-Olexandr Gvozdyk winner, Eleider Alvarez, Dmitriy Bivol, and Artur Beterbiev

Middleweight
Canelo should fight a GGG rematch, Danny Jacobs, or Saunders next. Canelo-Saunders tagline could be: Whose PEDs are better?

I'd like to see Charlo and Andrade fight someone world class, maybe each other. At least Andrade tried before Saunders was caught. Charlo's win over Trout was good, but otherwise, both Charlos and Andrade have been stuck fighting a certain level. The Charlos are probably the most disrespectful boxers in the game right now- no class after the fight- so I'd like them to actually test themselves against world class. Charlo-Andrade wouldn't be the most exciting fight, but it'd at least stir the pot for one of them.

Junior welterweight
If Josh Taylor and Regis Prograis get past their opponents in the WBSS, that would be a very exciting fight. Both face live dogs int he semis though. The Hooker-Saucedo winner should face Mark Kriegel's love interest Jose Ramirez. The winner of that fight should face the WBSS winner. Mikey Garcia could face the winner. That would make 140 one of  the hottest divisions around.

Then the winner could move up to 147 and face the Crawford-Spence winner. I'd like Mikey Garcia to wait to face Spence. That fight doesn't excite me yet.

Lightweight
I'd rather see Lomachenko-Garcia than Spence-Garcia. Maybe Lomachenko could face the winner of my 140 super-tournament instead of Garcia.

Junior lightweight
Alberto Machado vs. Gervonta Davis
Lomachenko gets the winner. Or you can throw Miguel Berchelt in there.

Featherweight
Leo Santa Cruz vs. Gary Russell

Junior featherweight
Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Naoya Inoue
Isaac Dogboe vs. Rey Vargas

Bantamweight
Naoya Inoue vs SSR

Top Ten Pound-For-Pound

Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on July 1, 2018.

1. Vasyl Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) [1]
2. Saul Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) [Not ranked]
3. Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) [3]
4. Terence Crawford (33-0, 24 KOs) [2]
5. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (47-4-1, 41 KOs) [5]
6. Leo Santa Cruz (35-1-1, 19 KOs) [6]
7. Naoya Inoue (16-0, 15 KOs) [7]
8. Errol Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) [8]
9. Mikey Garcia (38-0, 30 KOs) [9]
10. Olexandr Usyk (15-0, 11 KOs) [Not ranked]

Exiting the list:
Sergey Kovalev (32-3-1, 28 KOs) [4]
Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KOs) [10]

Mark Kriegel is Annoying, Bring Back Teddy Atlas

Late last fall, ESPN replaced Teddy Atlas with Mark Kriegel for their live boxing broadcasting. The switch was a mistake.

Teddy Atlas has his quirks, but what I'm looking for in an announcer is knowledge of the subject and  entertainment value. Atlas fills both requirements. Kriegel fills neither.

The Storylines
The perfect place for Kriegel on a broadcast is doing those bio pieces before the fight that I usually just fast forward through. Every action has some deeper meaning or some deeper story behind it with this guy. A fighter's orphaned childhood eating garbage out on the streets led him to that straight right-left hook combination in the 4th round. What the hell? It's a fucking boxing match, not a Russian novel. I want to know that he landed the combo because the opponent's left was low after a jab, not because he overcame bipolar disorder through years of intensive therapy.

The Repetition
I read Mark Kriegel's book The Good Son about Ray Mancini. It was enjoyable until he recycled the the same old trope: Mancini was avenging his father's career which was successful, but the father never reached the pinnacle of his profession. Kriegel never really built off of that idea, he simply repeated it. He does the same thing when he announces fights and introduces his storylines

The Lack of Knowledge
I blame Howard Cosell, but boxing has a long tradition of placing non-experts in the expert chair. You got the sense that Cosell knew what he was taking about. That doesn't mean Mark Kriegel also knows. Besides the occasional mention of a jab, Kriegel doesn't provide anything of substance. And when he mentions a jab, his accent travels back in time 50 years, but for just a word.

An ESPN official said they took Teddy Atlas off the broadcasts because he treated Kriegel horribly during one telecast. Yeah, because Teddy Atlas holds people who don't know anything about boxing to account. It was cathartic to hear Kriegel called out for his lack of knowledge about boxing.

You, Sir, Are No Larry Merchant
The gradual delivery, the contrarian attitude. Kriegel is channeling his inner Larry Merchant. The difference is we waited to hear Merchant finally finish his thought because it was worth waiting for.

Muhammad Ali Isn't Fighting Tonight
Max Kellerman had to learn this. Bringing up old fighters can be illuminating, but only if done so with care. When Kellerman first started announcing fights on HBO, he compared every Sakio Bika fight to Hagler-Hearns (not an actual example). Kellerman brings up old fighters more judiciously now. Kriegel should be taking notes.

The Jose Ramirez Fixation
Mark Kreigel is in love with junior welterweight contender (don't try to talk to me about the alphabet belts) Jose Ramirez. His infatuation with Jose Ramirez makes Dick Vitale and Duke look like puppy love. Kriegel has managed to mention Jose Ramirez in virtually every fight he's called this year. I mean, Jose Ramirez is pretty good and has a nice back story, but he's not the face of boxing or anything. I can deal with hearing about Jose Ramirez during his own fight and occasionally when another 140 pound contender is in the ring. But enough already.


ESPN should bring back Teddy Atlas. The only problem is Tim Bradley has really come into his own as an announcer since Atlas left. That's primarily because providing anything of substance falls completely on his shoulders during the broadcast. When he called a fight with his old coach, Bradley's voice was neutered. Now, he is the lone boxing expert on the team (all apologies to Joe Tessitore, but Tess does a great job of knowing his place). Neverthless, I'd be willing to sacrifice Tim Bradley's continued improvement if we can mute Mark Kriegel. In the mean time, I'll be patiently waiting to once again hear Teddy Atlas rip a judge's bad scorecard.

Top Ten Pound-For-Pound

Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on April 11, 2018.

1. Vasyl Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs) [1]
2. Terence Crawford (33-0, 24 KOs) [2]
3. Gennady Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) [3]
4. Sergey Kovalev (32-2-1, 28 KOs) [4]
5. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (45-4-1, 40 KOs) [5]
6. Leo Santa Cruz (35-1-1, 19 KOs) [Not ranked]
7. Naoya Inoue (16-0, 15 KOs) [Not ranked]
8. Errol Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) [6]
9. Mikey Garcia (38-0, 30 KOs) [7]
10. Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KOs) [10]

Exiting the list:
Adonis Stevenson (29-1-1, 24 KOs) [8]
Keith Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) [9]


Stevenson drew with a good opponent, Badou Jack, but that result isn't good enough to warrant staying on the list.

Thurman falls off the list due to inactivity. A good win will put him back on.

Entering the list:
Santa Cruz fell off the list in April and is now back on with an impressive win over Abner Mares. He's now beaten Mares twice, avenged his lone loss to Carl Frampton, and has bested a number of good fighters. Spence hasn't quite faced the same competition as Santa Cruz. He beat an undefeated, but untested Carlos Ocampo in one round in June. Garcia has fought a similar amount of solid opponents, but doesn't yet have a signature win; Santa Cruz has three.

Inoue hasn't fought anyone great, but he has demolished good fighters. His bigger opponent in May, Jamie McDonnell, was no slouch. Inoue stopped him inside one round.

What to Watch for:
Golovkin faces Canelo Alvarez in a rematch of their September draw. Alvarez failed a drug test before the scheduled May 5 match up. If he's clean, Canelo may return to the list. GGG might make a good case for #1 with a great showing.

Kovalev is in tough against undefeated contender Eleider Alvarez in August.

Cruiserweight Olexandr Usyk was supposed to face Murat Gassiev in May. That fight is now slated for July 21. The winner could crack the top ten pound-for-pound.

Mikey Garcia faces the undefeated Robert Easter, a legitimate and lengthy lean lightweight on July 28.

Top Ten Pound-For-Pound

Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on December 28, 2017.

1. Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 9 KOs) [1]
2. Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) [2]
3. Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) [3]
4. Sergey Kovalev (32-2-1, 28 KOs) [5]
5. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (45-4-1, 40 KOs) [Not ranked]
6. Errol Spence (23-0, 20 KOs) [Not ranked]
7. Mikey Garcia (38-0, 30 KOs) [Not ranked]
8. Adonis Stevenson (29-1, 24 KOs) [7]
9. Keith Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) [8]
10. Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KOs) [9]

Exiting the list:
Saul Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) [4]
Erislandy Lara (25-3-2, 14 KOs) [6]
Leo Santa Cruz (34-1-1, 19 KOs( [10]

Alvarez is out for failing a drug test before his rematch with Golovkin. If he comes back clean, he'll be back on the list.

Lara lost a close decision to Jarrett Hurd last Saturday. Hurd's an improving fighter- top 5 in his division- but not near the pound-for-pound top ten at this point.

Santa Cruz fell off because of a numbers game. He faces a tough opponent- Abner Mares- in June, so he'll be back on with a win.

Entering the list:
SSRs win over Estrada in February gave legitimacy to his two victories over Roman Gonzalez last year, which explains his giant leap up the list. Those wins over Gonzalez weren't simply because Chocolatito matched up poorly with SSR or because he had faded. The Estrada win showed SSR is for real.

Spence's two best wins- over Kell Brook and Lamont Peterson- are comparable to Thurman's two best wins- over Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter. Spence stopped both of his opponents while Thurman eked out decision victories. Thurman has been injured and is looking for a tuneup fight while Spence is fighting an undefeated opponent next. I'd also favor Spence in a bout with Thurman.

Mikey Garcia doesn't have any "great" wins, but he has a litany of good ones. His victory over Sergey Lipinets in March was better than anything the fighters just below him have done recently.

What to Watch for:
Cruiserweight Olexandr Usyk faces Murat Gassiev in May. The winner could crack the top ten pound-for-pound.

Lomachenko moves up in weight to face the talented 135 pounder Jorge Linares, whose downfall is he cuts easily.

Adonis Stevenson faces his toughest opponent in a while: Badou Jack in May.

Boxing Fights I Want to See

Last year was a little better for boxing in terms of making the top fights everyone wants to see. Ward-Kovalev, Canelo-Govkin, Lomachenko-Rignodeax, Joshua-Klitschko, and Thurman-Garcia all fit the mold. In that same vain, here are the fights I'd like to see in 2018.

Heavyweight
Some combination of Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, and Joseph Parker. Please stop fighting Eric Molina!

Light Heavyweight
Adonis Stevenson vs. Sergey Kovalev for the legitimate light heavyweight championship.
Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol

Middleweight
Canelo-Golovkin 2
Billy Joe Saunders vs. Erislandy Lara (give me a skilled chess match any day)

Welterweights
Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence, but Keith Thurman is currently the best in the division, so let Crawford or Spence fight Thurman and the other one fight Danny Garcia before Crawford and Spence face off.

Junior Welterweights
Mikey Garcia vs Regis Prograis (I'm high on Prograis and I wonder if Garcia can take a hard-punching 140 pounder's punch)

Lightweight
Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Mikey Garcia

Junior Lightweight
Gervonta Davis vs. Gary Russell (Baltimore vs. DC)

Featherweight
Tournament
Leo Santa Cruz vs. Gary Russell
Carl Frampton vs. Abner Mares

Junior Bantamweight
Naoya Inoue vs Srisaket Sor Rungvisai-Juan Estrada winner

Best Boxing Referees and Judges

When these boxing referees are announced I feel confident there will be a fairly officiated fight.

Here's a list of the 6 best in alphabetical order:
Kenny Bayless
Harvey Dock
Michael Griffin
Jack Reiss
Tom Taylor
Tony Weeks


Fewer judges stand out.
Here are two that I feel the most confident in their scores:
Julie Lederman
Steve Weisfeld

Top Ten Pound-For-Pound

Here's my pound-for-pound list. I take into account ability and accomplishment. The previous list was posted on September 18.

1. Vasyl Lomachenko (10-1, 9 KOs) [9]
2. Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) [2]
3. Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) [3]
4. Saul Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) [4]
5. Sergey Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) [6]
6. Erislandy Lara (25-2-2, 14 KOs) [10]
7. Adonis Stevenson (29-1, 24 KOs) [7]
8. Keith Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) [8]
9. Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-1, 11 KOs) [6]
10. Leo Santa Cruz (34-1-1, 19 KOs( [Not ranked]

Exiting the list:
Andre Ward (32-0, 16 KOs) [1]

Ward exits the list on top after retiring.

Lomachenko's win over Rigondeaux convinced me that he's the best in the world. I value a fighter's resume, and Lomachenko's was not as good as the men above him. But after dominating a pound-for-pound top 5 fighter, the double Olympic gold medalist deserves to vault into the number one spot. In addition to Rigondeaux, Lomachenko badly beat fringe pound-for-pound contender Nicholas Walters and controlled the fight against the supremely talented Gary Russell.

Terence Crawford has a combination of boxing acumen and punching power that makes him one of the best fighters in the world. Better as a lefty, he has the ability to switch stances. But Crawford's resume is lacking compared to Lomachenko now. Crawford's best win was against the formidable Viktor Postol for the true junior welterweight championship. Otherwise, he's destroyed a lot of good opponents including Olympic gold medalists Yuriorkis Gamboa and Feliz Diaz, but doesn't have much experience on the next level

Gennady Golovkin's star has fallen somewhat after a tough win over Danny Jacobs and a draw with Canelo. But Jacobs is a top 3 middleweight and Canelo is a pound-for-pound top 5 boxer. GGG deserved a close win over Canelo in my mind. Besides Jacobs and Alvarez, Golovkin has knocked out a lot of decent opponents with his varied attack and heavy hands. His defense isn't as good as the two men above him.

Canelo Alvarez might have faced the most star opponents of anyone on this list. He's developed into a smart boxer who isn't afraid to mix it up. He's the only man to face both Floyd Mayweather and Golovkin. Officially he registered a split draw and a majority decision loss, but in reality, he lost both clearly. Wins over Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara, and Austin Trout were impressive, but the Lara and Trout decisions were controversial. Nevertheless, the other pound-for-pound contenders haven't faced as many top level fighters as Alvarez.

Sergey Kovalev was #2 until he lost twice to Andre Ward. The first decision loss was disputed; the second loss was a stoppage. Otherwise, it doesn't appear there's a boxer close to his weight division who can beat him. He's stopped Jean Pascal twice, Nathan Cleverly, and beat Bernard Hopkins.

Erislandy Lara's record is messy. I believe both of his losses were unjustified. I think he beat both Paul Williams and Canelo Alvarez. His draw against Carlos Molina should've been a loss. He's not the most exciting fighter, but he's one of the most skilled. A great defensive specialist and counter puncher, particularly with the overhand left.

Adonis Stevenson is the legitimate light heavyweight champion. His wins over Chad Dawson (especially) and Tavoris Cloud were big wins, but they were in 2013. Since then, he's fought some good guys, but no one great. He'll need to beat one of the many bona fide light heavyweight contenders to stay on this list. He has enough power in the left hand to do it.

Keith Thurman has impressive wins over Shawn Porter and pound-for-pound top ten contender Danny Garcia, but both were close decisions. Thurman has only beaten faded veterans and mediocre foreigners with padded records otherwise.

Guillermo Rigondeaux has supreme skills. His loss to Lomachenko shouldn't knock him out of the top 10. He beat top ten pound-for-pound boxer Nonito Donaire in 2013 and some other average guys around that win. Like his countrymen Lara, he is a southpaw defense specialist who counters well.

Leo Santa Cruz also has beaten some good guys. His split in two fights with Carl Frampton and win over Abner Mares place him over some other contenders who might be more skilled, but don't have the same resume. A pressure fighter, Santa Cruz is usually in high volume fights.

Honorable Mentions:

Errol Spence's best win was over Kell Brook. He's beaten average guys more impressively than other top fighters. Hopefully, he continues to fight top guys and vault onto the list.

Mikey Garcia has beaten a lot of quality guys, but no great ones. His best win was over Adrien Broner. No one in the top ten has such an unimpressive top victory. But Garcia is talented enough to make the list after acquiring a signature win.

Naoya Inoue's balance when throwing monster shots will see him make the list when he fights someone of note.

Oleksander Usdyk has some good wins. Krzysztof Glowacki was his best, which isn't too shabby. He's building a resume to make the top ten soon.

Srisaket Sor Rungvisai has two wins over former pound-for-pound contender Roman Gonzalez. The first fight was disputed, but the second one proved it was no fluke. While beating a great fighter twice rockets someone into the pound-for-pound conversation, SSR hardly has any other good wins. He has feasted on journeymen.

Anthony Joshua's epic win over Wladimir Klitschko puts him in contention. But Klitschko was 41, knocked Joshua down, and AJ doesn't have another win nearly as valuable. If he can beat both Joseph Parker and Deontay Wilder, he should be taken more seriously.