ESPN has released their latest Pound for Pound Rankings following a superb win for Teofimo Lopez last weekend in Las Vegas.
Mulling over the situation for a few days as their panel voted for their top ten, the new list was revealed on Wednesday.
WBN, who updated our ratings on Sunday, believe Teofimo Lopez should be rated in the top three following his undisputed victory over ESPN’s previous number one.
It’s hard to understand how Lopez only goes in at five when he’s just beaten ex-P4P King Vasyl Lomachenko. And via unanimous decision into the bargain.
As World Boxing News assessed the situation, still stunned from what happened on Saturday night, it was thought Lopez could go straight in at number two – replacing ‘Loma.’ This is since the Ukrainian was ranked second, not at the top spot as with ESPN.
Canelo, since becoming a four-weight ruler, has occupied the number one spot.
Had he beaten Lopez, Loma would certainly have overtaken Canelo. Therefore, you have to rank Lopez accordingly.
Tyson Fury‘s achievements of becoming a two-time lineal heavyweight champion took on new significance in the wake of Lomachenko losing. So, ‘The Gypsy King’ was elevated to number two.
This left little of a conundrum on Lopez. The only place to put him was immediately behind Fury.
On the ESPN list, Fury is somehow at eight despite his amazing efforts since 2015. Maybe his hiatus from the sport counts against him with some on the panel – who knows?
Pound for Pound
You’d expect top US stars like Terence Crawford and Errol Spence to be high on the ESPN list as most of the voters are from that part of the world.
For WBN’s money, Crawford doesn’t have the opponents on his resume yet.
Of his 36 victories, only two were rated in the WBN Top 30 when Crawford beat them. And that was six years ago against Ricky Burns and Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Julius Indongo, who Crawford defeated in 2017, had sneaked into the Top 50 at that time but was never really seen as a top world-beater.
Crawford has to get some real superstars on his resume. Manny Pacquiao and Spence must be top of his wanted list. Any win over either of those two and ‘Bud’ would make big waves on the WBN list.
Even defeating Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman would be a start.
I’m afraid that Crawford facing a massively faded and probably weight-drained Kell Brook doesn’t cut for 2020 if you are considered pound for pound best.
In the opinion of WBN, there’s no real evidence to support Crawford at number one.
Canelo is Canelo and should always be rated highly should he remain undefeated. He’s boxing’s biggest star and a shining example to any future champions.
Naoya Inoue has earned his spot in the top five. But ‘The Monster’ still needs to keep moving up and progressing to stay there as there isn’t that depth of opponent lower down the weights.
Spence is in both top fives and deservedly so, whilst Lomachenko is correctly just outside at six or seven. There’s work to do for him to get it back.
Pacquiao misses out on the ESPN list due to a lack of votes. Although WBN instantly believes Pacquiao’s achievements make him top ten, anyway. There really is no need to vote on that one.
Oleksandr Usyk, Juan Estrada, and Gennadiy Golovkin are the current top ten fillers and can be anywhere around 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11.
Compare both lists below with your own pound for pound.
WBN Pound for Pound Top 10:
1 Canelo Alvarez
2 Tyson Fury
3 Teofimo Lopez
4 Naoya Inoue
5 Errol Spence
6 Manny Pacquiao
7 Vasyl Lomachenko
8 Gennady Golovkin
9 Terence Crawford
10 Oleksandr Usyk
