The Ring Magazine is just waiting for the results of Naoya Inoue's fight versus Nonito Donaire this Thursday before issuing its latest pound for pound ranking.
But except for formality, it is certain that Saul Canelo Alvarez's recent knockout victory over Sergei Kovalev is bound to shake things up and drastically in the overall pound for pound ranking.
For a long while, in fact since the sudden retirement in late 2017 of Andre Ward who became pound for pound best after Roman Gonzalez and the now also retired Floyd Mayweather, Ukrainian wiz Vasily Lomachenko has held on to the number one position followed closely by Terrence Crawford and Inoue.
Canelo was a distant fourth.
Not anymore.
With his impressive victory over Kovalev, Canelo made history:
1. As the first fighter to hold simultaneously world championships in three weight classes since Henry Armstrong back in the late 1930s, He currently and concurrently holds titles at middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight.
2. As the first fighter from junior middleweight to win a world light heavyweight title since Mike McCallum in the early 90s.
3. As the first Mexican fighter to win four world championships in the higher weight divisions. Erik Morales, Jorge Arce and Juan Manuel Marquez are the other Mexican four division world champions but all below the welterweights.
Additionally, his opponents and results in his last five fights were impressive: Gennady Golovkin (2 fights, 1 SD win, 1 draw), Daniel Jacobs (UD), Rocky Fielding (KO) and Kovalev (KO).
Canelo in fact is now a strong candidates for the Fighter of the Year and perhaps even the Fighter of the Decade awards crowding Manny Pacquiao for the honors.
The Monster Inoue now looms as the only man who still has the chance of somewhat matching the impact of what Canelo has accomplished especially with the latter's victory over Kovalev. And it will all depends on how impressive his own expected victory will be against a comebacking Nonito Donaire, a former pound for pound top ten lister years ago.
Inoue's list of prominent opponents included Ryochi Taguchi, Omar Narvaez, Jamie McDonnell, Juan Carlos Payano and Emmanuel Rodriguez, all of whom except Taguchi, he knocked out with ridiculous speed and ease.
Incidentally, both Canelo and Inoue are also holders of the Ring Magazine world belts in the middleweight and bantamweight respectively, among the very few including Lomachenko and Tyson Fury recognized by the so called bible of boxing.
What's keeping up Lomachenko and also Crawford high in the Ring ranking are their reputation and the perception that they are better fighters pound for pound than the rest in the top ten list.
But that may no longer be enough in the forthcoming reckoning of the Ring staff who have also been lately very sensitive of the views of sentiments of the boxing fans not only in the USA but worldwide.
Lomachenko's last five fights involved winning bouts against Guillermo Rigondeaux (retirement) Jorge Linares, (TKO), Jose Pedraza (UD), Anthony Crolla (KO) and Luke Campbell (UD). Only Rigondeaux was a former pound for pound lister among them. Lomachenko has virtually built his lightweight legend around Linares and former Linares victims Crolla and Campbell.
Crawford's last five fights involved winning bouts against Felix Diaz, Julius Indonggo, Jeff Horn, Jose Benavidez, Jr and Amir Khan, all of whom he stopped within the distance. Impressive result against a mix bag of undefeated unknowns, has been and never was.
It will be very hard to deny Canelo.
And/or Inoue.
N.B. Manny Pacquiao deserves to keep his spot in the Ring pound for pound list. Weakest link is Mikey Garcia who is coming off a loss to Errol Spence and has been inactive since.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
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