by Ukrainian southpaw Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs), undisputed heavyweight king of the World Boxing Association (WBA, Superchampion), World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Organization (IBO) and World Boxing Organization (WBO), remained steadfast for the fifth consecutive year at the top of the monthly pound-for-pound rankings compiled by ESPN, trade magazine The Ring and the Transnational Boxing Rankings, a list that includes those considered by said media outlets as the are currently considered the ten best fighters.
The 37-year-old Usyk, a native of Sinferopol, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine, reached the privileged position last May when he defeated England’s Tyson Fury 114-113 on May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 115-112 and 113 defeated -114 scorecards, and who he will face again in a rematch on December 21st in the same scenario, scene of the great fights of these days, a place until recently considered by the “City of Gambling”, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
Usyk, who had a brilliant amateur career (he was an Olympic champion, a world champion and a two-time European champion), regardless of what could negatively affect his career in the future, has already earned a place in history as the best Ukrainian boxer of all time for this , that he was the first to be crowned in two different categories in the four main associations WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO that control the sport of boxing worldwide: cruiserweight and fullweight.
Prior to the aforementioned clash with Fury last May, the unbeaten 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 overall weight belt in the regular version of the dean of world boxing associations, the WBA, is held by the Syrian-German Mahmoud Charr, a potential future opponent of Usyk who has a record of 34-4-0. 20 knockouts.
Another possible contender for Usyk is Britain’s Daniel Dubois, a strong knockout who has knocked out 21 of 24 opponents before the limit, most recently in September this year when he surprisingly defeated his compatriot Anthony Joshua in five rounds and sent him to the IBF Throne brought vacated by Usyk. Dubois’s two losses were also by knockout, and he won the remaining fight on points. At 196 centimeters of pure muscle, Dubois has been compared to the legendary Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield for his explosive and devastating punch.
THE OTHERS 9
We could probably talk further about other facets of Usyk’s brilliant career between the ropes. However, at this point we will leave it to dedicate a few lines to the remaining 9 members of the 10 best boxers of these days, who are the main topic of this article.
In this sense, we complete the reduced and elitist lot that, according to the criteria of ESPN (only two of them are representatives of the sex erroneously described as weaker, 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 levels to the 4-entity light heavyweight belts thanks to his controversial majority decision win over Dmitry Bivol this month at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh;
5) Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (60-2-2), sole sovereign in the super middleweight division; 6) Dmitry Bivol (23-1-0, 12 KO), who fell 2 spots;
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 10th ranked 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 for 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 far as the Transnational Boxing Rankings are concerned, there are no major differences from the other two, other than the inclusion of Honduran-American Teofimo Lopez, holder of the WBO super lightweight title and former WBC super flyweight champion and current WBC flyweight champion.
The Japanese Kenshiro Teraji in 9th and 10th place, ahead of Usyk, Inoue, Crawford, Beterbiev, Bivol, “Bam” Rodriguez, “Canelo” and Gervonta Davis.
