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.