Glancing at any Boxing Pound for Pound list, anyone wouldn’t be surprised to see Tyson Fury, Vasiliy Lomachenko, and Oleksandr Usyk in the top twenty.
However, BoxRec, having included Liam Smith in its version at number twelve – above all three – raised more than a few eyebrows.
A stoppage win over Chris Eubank Jr. seems worth many rankings points for the boxing statistics website, which has a notable past of disagreeable ratings.
Smith rides high, with Fury one place behind him. Lomachenko is at nineteen. However, WBN’s current Pound for Pound King is unfathomably at 27.
A victory over Eubank gets solid recognition. Although beating his compatriot Anthony Joshua twice doesn’t.
The list below shows the Top 50, a figure WBN has used since the inception of its own P4P Ratings in 2010.
BoxRec Pound for Pound Top 50
1 Saul Alvarez – super middle – 59 2 2 32
2 Dmitrii Bivo – light heavy – 21 0 0 32
3 Terence Crawford – welter – 39 0 0 35
4 Naoya Inoue – bantam – 24 0 0 30
5 Gennadiy Golovkin – middle – 42 2 1 41
6 Gervonta Davis – light – 29 0 0 28
7 Shakur Stevenson – light 20 0 0 25
8 Devin Haney – light – 30 0 0 24
9 Regis Prograis – super light – 28 1 0 34
10 Teofimo Lopez – super light – 19 1 0 25
11 Juan Francisco Estrada – super fly – 44 3 0 33
12 Liam Smith – middle – 33 3 1 34
13 Tyson Fury – heavy – 33 0 1 34
14 Brandon Figueroa – feather – 24 1 1 26
15 O’Shaquie Foster – super feather – 20 2 0 29
16 Kenshiro Teraji – light fly – 21 1 0 31
17 Roman Gonzalez – super fly – 51 4 0 35
18 Leigh Wood – feather – 27 3 0 34
19 Vasyl Lomachenko – light – 17 3 0 35
20 Josh Taylor = super light – 19 1 0 32
21 Jesse Rodriguez – fly – 18 0 0 23
22 Kazuto Ioka – super fly – 29 2 1 34
23 David Benavidez – super middle – 27 0 0 26
24 Sunny Edwards – fly – 20 0 0 27
25 Junto Nakatani – super fly – 25 0 0 25
26 to 50
26 Artur Beterbiev – light heavy – 19 0 0 38
27 Oleksandr Usyk – heavy – 20 0 0 36
28 Jose Carlos Ramirez – super light – 28 1 0 30
29 Luis Nery – super bantam – 34 1 0 28
30 Vergil Ortiz Jr – welter – 19 0 0 25
31 John Riel Casimero – super bantam – 33 4 0 34
32 Arnold Barboza Jr – super light – 28 0 0 31
33 Marlon Tapales – super bantam – 37 3 0 31
34 Luis Alberto Lopez – feather – 28 2 0 29
35 Emanuel Navarrete – super feather – 37 1 0 28
36 Rey Vargas – feather – 36 1 0 32
37 Murodjon Akhmadaliev – super bantam – 11 1 0 28
38 Mauricio Lara – feather – 26 3 1 25
39 Robeisy Ramirez – feather – 12 1 0 29
40 Anthony Joshua – heavy – 25 3 0 33
41 Joe Cordina – super feather – 16 0 0 31
42 Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov – super feather – 17 1 1 28
43 Frank Martin – light – 17 0 0 28
44 George Kambosos Jr – light – 20 2 0 30
45 Oscar Valdez – super feather – 31 1 0 32
46 Sandor Martin – super light – 40 3 0 29
47 Gary Antuanne – Russell – super light – 16 0 0 27
48 Raymond Muratalla – light – 18 0 0 26
49 Ryan Garcia – light – 23 1 0 24
50 William Zepeda Segura – light – 28 0 0
Liam Smith
In the World Boxing News top ten, two-weight unified champion Usyk is at one, followed by power-punching Japanese star Naoya Inoue in second. Lomachenko is sixth, with Fury at fifteen.
Regarding Smith, his rematch with Eubank Jr. remains on hold as the Liverpool man recovers from an injury. If they had fought on July 1, “Beefy” could have been looking at a P4P Top Ten spot on the list he currently graces in such high order.
Even Liam would be slightly perplexed to see his name that high on the list.
