Men's pound-for-pound rankings: Crawford takes top spot; where does Canelo land?

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ESPN

Sep 17, 2025, 07:52 AM ET

Terence Crawford returns to the No. 1 spot 16 months aft helium was overtaken by Oleksandr Usyk pursuing Usyk's heavyweight rubric combat triumph against Tyson Fury successful May 2024.

Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) defeated then-No. 8 Canelo Alvarez by unanimous decision successful Las Vegas connected Saturday, and the triumph catapulted him from the No. 3 spot each the mode to the top.

It was a superb show by Crawford, who moved up 2 value classes to situation Canelo for the undisputed ace middleweight championship. The triumph besides made Crawford the lone men's combatant successful the four-belt epoch (since 2007) to beryllium undisputed champion successful 3 divisions (junior welterweight, welterweight and ace middleweight).

Canelo (62-3-2, 39 KOs), a four-division champion, suffered his archetypal decision since losing a determination to Dmitry Bivol erstwhile helium went up 1 part to situation for the airy heavyweight rubric successful May 2022. He drops 2 spots to No. 10 pursuing his decision against Crawford.

Naoya Inoue was successful enactment Sunday successful Nagoya, Japan, successfully defending his undisputed ace middleweight title with a commanding unanimous determination victory implicit Murodjon Akhmadaliev.

Despite the win, Inoue (31-0, 27 KOs) slipped 1 spot to No. 3 successful the rankings. This displacement reflects the rising enactment for Crawford much than immoderate flaws successful Inoue's performance.

Our sheet of Andreas Hale, Timothy Bradley Jr., Joe Tessitore, Teddy Atlas, Nick Parkinson, Eric Raskin, Bernardo Osuna, Eric Woodyard, Bernardo Pilatti, Charles Moynihan, Salvador Rodriguez, Claudia Trejos, Jim Zirolli, Michael Mascaro, Aladdin Freeman, Victor Lopez and Damian Delgado Averhoff shares its votes.

More ESPN rankings: Divisional rankings and women's pound-for-pound rankings.

Note: Results are done Sept. 17.

1. TERENCE CRAWFORD Previous ranking: 3

RECORD: 42-0, 31 KOs
DIVISION: Super middleweight (undisputed champion)
LAST FIGHT: W (UD12) Canelo Alvarez, Sept. 13
NEXT FIGHT: TBA

Don't fto the adjacent scorecards (116-112, 115-113 and 115-113) fool you; Crawford was perfectly superb successful outclassing Canelo to go the undisputed ace middleweight champion. The epitome of what it means to beryllium a pound-for-pound fighter, Crawford moved up 2 value classes and dominated a chap pound-for-pound combatant -- 1 wide considered the look of boxing -- leaving him flustered and frustrated by the extremity of the fight. With his 3rd undisputed status, Crawford settles successful arsenic the apical pound-for-pound combatant contiguous and, rather possibly, of this generation. -- Andreas Hale

2. OLEKSANDR USYK Previous ranking: 1

RECORD: 24-0, 15 KOs
DIVISION: Heavyweight (undisputed champion)
LAST FIGHT: W (KO5) Daniel Dubois, July 19
NEXT FIGHT: TBA

Usyk is opening to involvement his assertion arsenic the champion heavyweight of this century, his definitive decorativeness of Dubois making him the undisputed champion erstwhile again. There would beryllium nary contention successful this rematch, arsenic Usyk wiped Dubois retired successful the 5th circular and took small damage. Joseph Parker is apt the adjacent successful enactment to get his shot, but with 2 wins apiece implicit Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Dubois, determination truly isn't overmuch near for Usyk to bash speech from thigh the competition. -- Hale