Oleksandr Usyk gave the efficiency of a lifetime on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, rallying to defeat gigantic Tyson Fury by a cut up determination to change into the primary undisputed heavyweight champion in 1 / 4 century.
However was it sufficient to catapult No. 3-ranked Usyk previous Nos. 1 and a pair of Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue on the Boxing Junkie pound-for-pound record?
No.
Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) deserves consideration for the highest spot after taking down Anthony Joshua in back-to-back fights in 2021 and 2022, stopping Daniel Dubois in 9 rounds in August and now handing Fury the primary lack of his profession.
That’s a hell of a run by any commonplace. And the previous cruiserweight champ has finished it towards naturally bigger males, who would have bother competing with him if he had been their measurement. That clearly works in his favor within the pound-for-pound debate.
So why isn’t he No. 1?
Let’s begin with Crawford and Inoue. The gifted lower-weight stars don’t have fairly the resume Usyk has however they’ve dominated one contender after one other to climb to the highest of the record and have proven no indicators of weak spot.
Bear in mind: We had been as amazed when Crawford demolished fellow pound-for-pounder Errol Spence Jr. and Inoue bought up from a knockdown to destroy Luis Nery as we are actually following Usyk’s historic victory over Fury.
And whereas we should be mindful the dimensions distinction between Usyk and his heavyweight rivals, he dominated neither Joshua nor Fury and benefitted from a controversial name by the referee – a clear physique shot that was dominated a low blow — towards Dubois to keep up his good file.
Fury believes he did sufficient towards Usyk to get the choice, which isn’t far fetched given the tight, back-and-forth battle. Had it gone Fury’s means, we wouldn’t even be speaking about Usyk as a possible No. 1.
Not one of the above is supposed to denigrate Usyk’s accomplishments. He has demonstrated over the previous two years that he not solely is the highest heavyweight in the intervening time but in addition an all-time nice, which is the very best reward in boxing.
He simply hasn’t finished fairly sufficient to leap frog two different future Corridor of Famers, Crawford and Inoue.
In fact, we should add one factor: If Usyk fights and beats Fury once more — notably if it’s extra convincing the second time — we’ll should revisit our determination to go away him at No. 3.
What about Fury, who entered Saturday at No. 9? He drops to No. 11 — under Bam Rodriguez and Artur Beterbiev — after his disastrous efficiency towards Francis Ngannou in October and his setback towards Usyk on Saturday.
And, clearly, Fury can also change his fortunes if he can flip the tables on Usyk in a rematch.
Subsequent pound-for-pounder up: No. 8 Gervonta Davis will face Frank Martin and No. 15 David Benavidez will tackle Oleksandr Gvozdyk on the identical card June 15 in Las Vegas.
Right here’s what the record appears to be like like in the intervening time:
BOXING JUNKIEPOUND-FOR-POUND
Terence Crawford – Scheduled to problem 154-pound titleholder
Israil Madrimov on Aug. 3 in Los Angeles.
Naoya Inoue – No combat scheduled.
Oleksandr Usyk – No combat scheduled.
Dmitry Bivol – Combat towards No. 12 Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed 175-pound championship, initially scheduled for June 1, was postponed after Beterbiev injured his knee.
Juan Francisco Estrada – Scheduled to defend his 115-pound title towards No. 11 Jesse Rodriguez on June 29 in Phoenix.
Canelo Alvarez – No combat scheduled.
Jermell Charlo – No combat scheduled.
Gervonta Davis – Scheduled to defend his 135-pound title towards Frank Martin on June 15 in Las Vegas.
Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez – Scheduled to face No. 5 Juan Francisco Estrada for Estrada’s 115-pound title on June 29 in Phoenix.
Artur Beterbiev – Combat towards No. 4 Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed 175-pound championship, initially scheduled for June 1, was postponed after Beterbiev injured his knee.
Tyson Fury – No combat scheduled.
Errol Spence Jr. – No combat scheduled.
Vasiliy Lomachenko – No combat scheduled.
Shakur Stevenson – No combat scheduled.
David Benavidez – Scheduled to combat 175-pounder Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15 in Las Vegas.
Honorable point out (alphabetical order): Jermall Charlo (no combat scheduled); Roman Gonzalez (no combat scheduled); Kazuto Ioka (scheduled to face Fernando Martinez in a 115-pound title-unification bout in on July 7 in Tokyo); Teofimo Lopez (scheduled to defend his 140-pound title towards Steve Claggett on June 29 in Miami); Junto Nakatani (scheduled to defend his 118-pound title towards Vincent Astrolabio on July 20 in Tokyo).
