Top ten pound-for-pound boxers in the world, including Tyson Fury, Canelo Alvarez and Vasyl Lomachenko

It’s fair to say boxing has no dominant pound-for-pound king today.

Unlike in some past eras – such as Floyd Mayweather’s – there is now genuine debate about who is boxing’s best.

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Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are previous pound-for-pound kings

The pound-for-pound argument is probably one of the most contentious in the sport and every supporter seems to have a unique opinion on it.

Some rank the best fighters in the world based purely on the manner of their performances – how they look.

Some rank them based purely on their résumés and weigh up who has the best recorded wins.

Some take other factors such as activity and official results into account, too, meaning the whole thing becomes one big confusing mess.

Therefore, talkSPORT.com is going to lay out its criteria (based roughly on Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound criteria) for this list right now:

CRITERIA

1. Result – The official result always stands and ultimately trumps the other factors. The other three are all equally important.


2. Performance – The manner in which a fighter wins or loses.


3. Résumé – The opponents beaten/titles won.


4. Activity – How often a fighter is fighting against top level opposition

FEAR

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SUPPORT

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ICON

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LIST

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POWER

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REPLY

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SMASHED

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10. Artur Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs)

Mikey Williams/Top Rank

Artur Beterbiev has knocked out every man he’s faced to date and become a unified WBC & IBF light-heavyweight champion. The Russian’s most recent win over Oleksandr Gvozdyk established him as the 175lbs king.

9. Josh Taylor (16-0, 12 KOs)

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Josh Taylor conquered the World Boxing Super Series super-lightweight tournament in spectacular fashion. The unified WBA & IBF champion beat two top titlists in Ivan Baranchyk and Regis Prograis to also claim the Ring Magazine belt.

8. Gennady Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs)

When GGG finally got the super-fight he’d wanted against Canelo, it was controversially ruled a draw. In their rematch a year later, the Mexican was awarded a narrow victory. The Kazakh is now a champion again having beaten Sergiy Derevyanchenko, however his status has taken a hit following his first loss and difficulty of his last win.

7. Tyson Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs)

Ryan Hafey/PBC

After dethroning Wladimir Klitschko in 2015, Tyson Fury’s life and career famously spiralled out of control. However, he’s since remarkably turned everything around and returned to knock out Deontay Wilder, re-establishing himself as the best heavyweight in the world.

6. Errol Spence (26-0, 21 KOs)

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WBC & IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence has now built an impressive record since defeating Kell Brook to claim the belt in 2017. Spence stopped Lamont Peterson before also dominating Mikey Garcia and unifying against Shawn Porter.

5. Oleksandr Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs)

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Oleksandr Usyk cleaned out his entire division, becoming undisputed cruiserweight champion in 16 fights. The Ukrainian came through all of his biggest tests in his opponents’ hometowns, travelling to beat the likes of Mairis Briedis in Latvia, Murat Gassiev in Russia and Tony Bellew in the UK. He’s now looking to repeat the feat at heavyweight.

4. Naoya Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs)

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Japanese three-weight world champion Naoya Inoue has already blasted through the light-flyweight and super-flyweight ranks, and is now a unified king at bantamweight. In his last fight, the 26-year-old conquered the World Boxing Super Series tournament in the 2019 ‘Fight of the Year’ with Nonito Donaire.

3. Terence Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs)

Mikey Williams/Top Rank

America’s Terence Crawford has won world titles in three weight classes, including becoming undisputed super-lightweight king. However, he is yet to face elite opposition. The WBO welterweight champion ranks so highly based on achievements and the manner of his victories, but must unify with the other welterweights if he wants to become pound-for-pound king.

2. Vasyl Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs)

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After an historic 396-1 amateur career, double Olympic gold medallist Vasyl Lomachenko turned pro and jumped straight into world class match-ups. The Ukrainian has since become a three-weight champion, utilising his ethereal boxing ability to conquer the likes of Gary Russell Jr, Nicholas Walters, Guillermo Rigondeaux and Jorge Linares.

1. Canelo Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs)

Canelo has a number of impressive names on his win sheet, including the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, Daniel Jacobs, Erislandy Lara, Shane Mosley, Amir Khan and Austin Trout. While some of those have come with controversy, the Mexican’s latest conclusive knockout of Sergey Kovalev is enough to cement him as our pound-for-pound king.

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