Pound-for-Pound Update 12-3-15

With the results of the last two weekends, there have been significant changes to the Saturday Night Boxing Pound-for-Pound list. Saul Alvarez (previously ranked #13) rises in the Rankings after his unanimous decision victory over Miguel Cotto. Alvarez jumps six spots to #7 and Cotto drops two places from #12 to #14. Also, Tyson Fury enters the Rankings after his decision win over heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko. Fury debuts at #12 while Klitschko falls from #2 to #13. With Fury's addition to the pound-for-pound list, Leo Santa Cruz (formerly #20) falls out of the Rankings.

One quick note about how I view a pound-for-pound list. I utilize recent victories or losses against a specific caliber of opposition as a primary driver for where a fighter is positioned in the Rankings. A secondary consideration (although not trivial) is a boxer's form in recent outings. I bring this up because I now have Alvarez slotted ahead of Gennady Golovkin on my list. Now, do I think that Alvarez beats Golovkin? No, I don't. However, from my perspective, Alvarez has three victories in recent years against very good fighters in Cotto, Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout. I would rank all of those opponents at the time Alvarez fought them over the quality of Golovkin's best foes, such as David Lemieux or Martin Murray.

Although I believe that Golovkin would beat Alvarez, that isn't enough for me to place him over Alvarez on my pound-for-pound list. From my perspective, it's who you beat and when you beat them. Without an emphasis on what fighters have actually done in the ring, this exercise becomes even more speculative than it currently is and frankly that's a rabbit hole I don't want to go down. Yes, I appreciate that many fighters have avoided Golovkin in the ring. However, I can't give Golovkin credit for theoretical opponents that he hasn't faced or beaten. Even though Golovkin has never sniffed a Top-20 pound-for-pound guy in the ring, I still have him ranked at #8, and that's not too shabby given the quality of his opposition.  

The complete Saturday Night Boxing pound-for-pound list is below: 

1.    Roman Gonzalez

2.    Andre Ward

3.    Manny Pacquiao

4.    Tim Bradley

5.    Sergey Kovalev

6.    Juan Estrada

7.    Saul Alvarez

8.    Gennady Golovkin

9.    Guillermo Rigondeaux

10.  Naoya Inoue

11.  Adonis Stevenson

12.  Tyson Fury

13.  Wladimir Klitschko

14.  Miguel Cotto

15.  Danny Garcia

16.  Takashi Uchiyama

17.  Terence Crawford

18.  Donnie Nietes

19.  Shinsuke Yamanaka

20.  Nicholas Walters

 

Adam Abramowitz is the head writer and founder of saturdaynightboxing.com.

He is also a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
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Contact Adam at saturdaynightboxing@hotmail.com