Who is the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world? Naoya Inoue, Oleksandr Usyk and Terence Crawford feature in talkSPORT top 10 rankings list

Boxing’s pound-for-pound list has been hotly contested in 2023.

After Canelo Alvarez’s defeat to Dmitry Bivol last year, top spot has been up for grabs.

At the start of the year, many considered Oleksandr Usyk to be the king of the sport.

However, he boxed just once in 2023 in a mandatory defence victory over Daniel Dubois.

This has given the likes of Naoya Inoue and Terence Crawford the opportunity to catch him up.

The pound-for-pound argument is probably one of the most contentious in the sport and every supporter seems to have a unique opinion on it.

Some rank the best fighters in the world based purely on the manner of their performances – how they look.

Some rank them based purely on their résumés and weigh up who has the best recorded wins.

Some take other factors such as activity and official results into account, too, meaning the whole thing becomes confusing.

Therefore, talkSPORT.com is going to lay out its criteria (based roughly on Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound criteria) for this list right now:

#10 – Kenshiro Teraji

Age: 31

Record: 22-1 (14 KOs)

Teraji first became WBC light-flyweight world champion at just 10-0 in 2017. His only loss was instantly avenged as he regained his crown and then unified by beating two-weight world champion Hiroto Kyoguchi in magnificent fashion.

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#9 – Gervonta Davis

Age: 29

Record: 29-0 (27 KOs)

Davis burst onto the scene winning the IBF super-featherweight world title aged just 21. He has since become a major star, knocking out respected opponents also at lightweight and super-lightweight. His win over Ryan Garcia earlier this year was his biggest to date.

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#8 – Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez

Age: 23

Record: 19-0 (12 KOs)

Rodriguez became WBC super-flyweight world champion at age just 22, and impressively stopped Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in his first defence. He’s since moved down to flyweight become the unified the IBF and WBO world titles by stopping Sunny Edwards.

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#7 – Teofimo Lopez

Age: 26

Record: 19-1 (13 KOs)

Lopez stunned the boxing world by jumping straight in with Vasyl Lomachenko in his first fight after winning a world title and beating him at age 23. He was then stunned himself by George Kambosos, but has since bounced back with a dominant win over Josh Taylor to claim the WBO crown at super-lightweight.

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#6 – Devin Haney

Age: 25

Record: 31-0 (15 KOs)

Haney became undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO lightweight world champion by twice beating Kambosos after the Australian had dethroned Lopez. He then secured a narrow win over Lomachenko too and has since moved up to win the WBC super-lightweight world title by dominating Regis Prograis.

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#5 – Dmitry Bivol

Age: 33

Record: 22-0 (11 KOs)

Bivol first became WBA light-heavyweight world champion in 2017 and has made several defences since, his most notable being victory over Canelo Alvarez in 2022. This made him only the second fighter ever to beat the great Mexican after Floyd Mayweather did it in 2013.

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#4 – Canelo Alvarez

Age: 33

Record: 60-2-2 (39 KOs)

Canelo is a four-weight world champion from super-welterweight to light-heavyweight. His astonishing record includes wins over Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, Liam Smith, Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Sergey Kovalev, Callum Smith, Billy Joe Sauders, Caleb Plant and Jermell Charlo.

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#3 – Oleksandr Usyk

Age: 36

Record: 21-0 (14 KOs)

Usyk became undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO cruiserweight world champion in just 16 fights, beating Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev and Tony Bellew all in their home countries. He’s since repeated the feat at heavyweight by twice beating Anthony Joshua.

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#2 – Naoya Inoue

Age: 30

Record: 26-0 (23 KOs)

Inoue became WBC light-flyweight world champion at 6-0 aged just 20. In the ten years since, he’s beaten several top opponents in multiple divisions and stands today as a four-weight world champion, having just stopped Marlon Tapales to become a two-weight undisputed king.

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#1 – Terence Crawford

Age: 36

Record: 40-0 (31 KOs)

Crawford is a three-weight world champion and a two-weight undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO king. His dominant win over Errol Spence to become the welterweight top dog crowned him as boxing’s pound-for-pound king this year.

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