Ukrainian southpaw Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs), undisputed heavyweight king of the World Boxing Association (WBA, super champion), World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Organization (IBO) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) held firm for the fifth consecutive time at the top of the Pound for Pound monthly ranking prepared by ESPN, the specialized magazine The Ring and the Transnational Boxing Rankings, a list that includes those considered by the said media as the select ten best fighters of the moment.
Usyk, 37, a native of Sinferopol, capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine, reached the privileged position last May when he defeated Englishman Tyson Fury on May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with 114-113, 115-112 and 113-114 scorecards, and whom he will face again in a rematch on December 21 in the same scenario, seat of the great fights of these days, a place that until recently was occupied by the “City of Gambling”, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
Usyk, of a dazzling amateur campaign (he was Olympic, World and 2 times European champion), regardless of what might happen negatively with his career in the future, has already earned a place in history as the best Ukrainian boxer of all time and also for being the first to have been crowned in the four main entities – WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO – which control boxing worldwide, in two different categories, cruiserweight and full weight.
Prior to the aforementioned clash with Fury last May, the undefeated Usyk had won the WBA, IBF and WBO belts against Britain’s Anthony Joshua in September 2021 and defeated him again in the rematch. Currently the all-weight belt in the regular version of the dean of the world boxing bodies, the WBA, is held by the Syrian-German Mahmoud Charr, a potential future opponent of Usyk and who has a record of 34-4-0, 20 knockouts.
Another possible contender for Usyk is Britain’s Daniel Dubois, a tough knockout who has knocked out 21 of 24 opponents before the limit, most recently in September of this year, a 5-round upset victory over countryman Anthony Joshua that took him to the IBF throne vacated by Usyk. Dubois’ two defeats have also been by KO, and he won their remaining bout on points. At 196 centimeters of pure muscle, Dubois is compared, keeping the distance, to the legendary Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, for his explosive and devastating punch.
THE OTHER 9
We probably could go on and on talking about other facets of Usyk’s brilliant career between the ropes. However, for the time being, we will leave it at this point to dedicate a few more lines to the remaining 9 members of the 10 best boxers of these days, which is the main topic of this article.
In that sense, let’s complete the reduced and elite lot that according to ESPN’s criteria ( only two of them are representatives of the wrongly called weaker sex, Claudia Trejo and Crystina Poncher):
2) Terence Crawford (40-0-0, 31 KO), WBA super welterweight champion; 3) Naoya Inoue (28-0-0-0,25 KO), absolute super bantamweight champion; 4) Arthur Beterbiev (21-0-0, 20 KO), who moved up two steps thanks to his controversial majority win over Dmitry Bivol this month at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, for the 4 entities belts, in the light heavyweight division;
5) Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (60-2-2), sole sovereign in super middleweight; 6) Dmitry Bivol (23-1-0, 12 KO), who dropped 2 places;
7) Jessie “Bam” Rodriguez (20-0,13 KO), WBC super flyweight champion; 8) Gervonta Davis (30-0-0,28 KO), WBA lightweight titleholder;
9) Shakur Stevenson (22-0-0, 10 KO), WBC lightweight champion and in 10th place Junto Nakatani (29-0-22 KO), former super flyweight champion and current WBC bantamweight champion, new member of the group in what is a recognition due to his victory by TKO6 against Tasana Salapat of Thailand on the 14th, in his third defense.
The Ring ranks them in the following order for the current month: Usyk, Inoue, Crawford, “Canelo” Alvarez, Beterbiev, Bivol, Gervonta Davis, Erroll Spencer Jr., “Bam” Rodriguez and Nakatani.
As for the Transnational Boxing Rankings, there are no major differences compared to the other two, except for the inclusion of the Honduran-American Teofimo Lopez, owner of the WBO super lightweight title and the former WBC super flyweight champion and current WBC flyweight champion,
Japan’s Kenshiro Teraji, in positions 9 and 10, preceded by Usyk, Inoue, Crawford, Beterbiev, Bivol, “Bam” Rodriguez, “Canelo” and Gervonta Davis.
