Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez has been the noise of his ring moniker over the past few days. “BAM!” and down went Juan Francisco Estrada on Saturday night in Arizona. “BAM!” was what fight fans felt when they witnessed that performance. “BAM!”, the hard-hitting and super-skilled 24-year-old is now a top-5 pound-for-pound entrant.
Such was the quality of Bam’s seventh-round knockout over a decorated and undeniably great fighter that he has jumped from No. 11 to No. 5 in the pound-for-pound ratings. A two-weight world champion, Bam also picked up the WBC and Ring Magazine super flyweight titles and the sky is no longer the limit.
When a great young fighter is taking on the biggest challenges during his prime years, he should be rewarded. That is precisely what has happened with Bam Rodriguez, who has defeated Carlos Cuadras, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, Sunny Edwards and Estrada in just over two years. There’s more than one fighter on the pound-for-pound list who could learn a thing or two from that schedule.
Also on Saturday, two-weight world champ Teofimo Lopez scored a dominant 12-round unanimous decision over a game Steve Claggett in Miami but dropped one spot due to the Bam shake-up.
The Sporting News takes a look at the top 12 best pound-for-pound fighters in the world today:
Pound-for-pound rankings: The Sporting News’ top 12
Rank Fighter Record Movement (July 2, 2024) 1 Oleksandr Usyk 22-0 (14 KOs) – 2 Naoya Inoue 27-0 (24 KOs) – 3 Terence Crawford 40-0 (31 KOs) – 4 Canelo Alvarez 61-2-2 (39 KOs) – 5 Jesse Rodriguez 20-0 (13 KOs) +6 6 Dmitry Bivol 23-0 (12 KOs) -1 7 Artur Beterbiev 20-0 (20 KOs) -1 8 Teofimo Lopez 21-1 (13 KOs) -1 9 Gervonta Davis 30-0 (28 KOs) -1 10 Errol Spence Jr. 28-1 (22 KOs) -1 11 Shakur Stevenson 21-0 (10 KOs) -1 12 Junto Nakatani 27-0 (20 KOs) –
The best in the world pound-for-pound: Oleksandr Usyk In effect, Usyk has completed boxing. An Olympic champion at London 2012, this quick and cerebral lefty has been no less successful as a professional and he’s the very definition of what a pound-for-pound superstar should be.
At 37 years old, Usyk has become the first undisputed cruiserweight champion to achieve the distinction at heavyweight since Evander Holyfield over 30 years ago. Despite giving away huge amounts of height and reach to today’s behemoths, Usyk has proven himself the one true king of the glamour division.
Signature wins for the Ukrainian warrior include Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev, Anthony Joshua, and Tyson Fury.
