Oleksandr Usyk gave the efficiency of a lifetime on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, rallying to defeat gigantic Tyson Fury by a break up resolution to turn into the primary undisputed heavyweight champion in 1 / 4 century.
However was it sufficient to catapult No. 3-ranked Usyk previous Nos. 1 and a pair of Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue on the Boxing Junkie pound-for-pound listing?
No.
Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) deserves consideration for the highest spot after taking down Anthony Joshua in back-to-back fights in 2021 and 2022, stopping Daniel Dubois in 9 rounds in August and now handing Fury the primary lack of his profession.
That’s a hell of a run by any normal. And the previous cruiserweight champ has performed it towards naturally bigger males, who would have bother competing with him if he had been their dimension. That clearly works in his favor within the pound-for-pound debate.
So why isn’t he No. 1?
Let’s begin with Crawford and Inoue. The gifted lower-weight stars don’t have fairly the resume Usyk has however they’ve dominated one contender after one other to climb to the highest of the listing and have proven no indicators of weak spot.
Bear in mind: We had been as amazed when Crawford demolished fellow pound-for-pounder Errol Spence Jr. and Inoue obtained up from a knockdown to destroy Luis Nery as we at the moment are following Usyk’s historic victory over Fury.
And whereas we should remember the scale distinction between Usyk and his heavyweight rivals, he dominated neither Joshua nor Fury and benefitted from a controversial name by the referee – a clear physique shot that was dominated a low blow — towards Dubois to take care of his excellent document.
Fury believes he did sufficient towards Usyk to get the choice, which isn’t far fetched given the tight, back-and-forth battle. Had it gone Fury’s means, we wouldn’t even be speaking about Usyk as a possible No. 1.
Not one of the above is supposed to denigrate Usyk’s accomplishments. He has demonstrated over the previous two years that he not solely is the highest heavyweight in the mean time but in addition an all-time nice, which is the very best reward in boxing.
He simply hasn’t performed fairly sufficient to leap frog two different future Corridor of Famers, Crawford and Inoue.
After all, we should add one factor: If Usyk fights and beats Fury once more — notably if it’s extra convincing the second time — we’ll need to revisit our resolution to depart him at No. 3.
What about Fury, who entered Saturday at No. 9? He drops to No. 11 — under Bam Rodriguez and Artur Beterbiev — after his disastrous efficiency towards Francis Ngannou in October and his setback towards Usyk on Saturday.
And, clearly, Fury can also change his fortunes if he can flip the tables on Usyk in a rematch.
Subsequent pound-for-pounder up: No. 8 Gervonta Davis will face Frank Martin and No. 15 David Benavidez will tackle Oleksandr Gvozdyk on the identical card June 15 in Las Vegas.
Right here’s what the listing seems to be like in the mean time:
BOXING JUNKIEPOUND-FOR-POUND
Terence Crawford – Scheduled to problem 154-pound titleholder
Israil Madrimov on Aug. 3 in Los Angeles.
Naoya Inoue – No struggle scheduled.
Oleksandr Usyk – No struggle scheduled.
Dmitry Bivol – Combat towards No. 12 Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed 175-pound championship, initially scheduled for June 1, was postponed after Beterbiev injured his knee.
Juan Francisco Estrada – Scheduled to defend his 115-pound title towards No. 11 Jesse Rodriguez on June 29 in Phoenix.
Canelo Alvarez – No struggle scheduled.
Jermell Charlo – No struggle scheduled.
Gervonta Davis – Scheduled to defend his 135-pound title towards Frank Martin on June 15 in Las Vegas.
Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez – Scheduled to face No. 5 Juan Francisco Estrada for Estrada’s 115-pound title on June 29 in Phoenix.
Artur Beterbiev – Combat towards No. 4 Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed 175-pound championship, initially scheduled for June 1, was postponed after Beterbiev injured his knee.
Tyson Fury – No struggle scheduled.
Errol Spence Jr. – No struggle scheduled.
Vasiliy Lomachenko – No struggle scheduled.
Shakur Stevenson – No struggle scheduled.
David Benavidez – Scheduled to struggle 175-pounder Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15 in Las Vegas.
Honorable point out (alphabetical order): Jermall Charlo (no struggle scheduled); Roman Gonzalez (no struggle scheduled); Kazuto Ioka (scheduled to face Fernando Martinez in a 115-pound title-unification bout in on July 7 in Tokyo); Teofimo Lopez (scheduled to defend his 140-pound title towards Steve Claggett on June 29 in Miami); Junto Nakatani (scheduled to defend his 118-pound title towards Vincent Astrolabio on July 20 in Tokyo).
