Without a doubt, there are three men who stand out as the top three pound-for-pound boxing kings of today. Oleksandr Usyk, Naoya Inoue and Terence Crawford. All undefeated, all with phenomenal wins to knockouts ratios, all dominant, all multiple weight world champions and importantly, all undisputed kings in their divisions.
We’re in a golden era of boxing at the moment. We’re lucky enough to have three of the best in a generation, mixing it with fellow greats, putting on the fights we want to see. We take a look at the three kings of the era and conclude who is #1.
Who is the P4P Boxing #1?
Oleksandr Usyk
Undefeated at 24-0 with 15 knockouts, Usyk is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Not only this, but he was the first undisputed cruiserweight world champion in the four belt era. On top of all of this, he’s an Olympic gold medalist from the London 2012 games.
He’s beaten some of the greatest fighters of a generation. At cruiserweight, both Murat Gassiev and Tony Bellew fell at the hands of Usyk, but it’s at heavyweight that he’s done his best work. Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois and Tyson Fury have all lost to Usyk… twice. He’s single-handedly blown this era of British heavyweight boxing away.
The footwork, power and overall boxing ability of Usyk has stunned the heavyweight division. He still moves like a cruiserweight but hits as hard as any heavyweight. Without a doubt a pound for pound phenom and a man that, as of yet, no one has been able to figure out.
Naoya Inoue
A fighter that often goes under the radar, Naoya Inoue is arguably the pound for pound hardest hitter in the world of boxing today. With an undefeated 31-0 record, Inoue has recorded 27 knockouts. He’s the reigning super bantamweight undisputed world champion and the former bantamweight undisputed world champion.
His ability and power are second to none. He’s beaten Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Luis Nery, Stephen Fulton and Nonito Donaire, to name just a few..
The Japanese superstar suffers from being in the lighter weight classes, competing at 121lbs, which can be a hard sell to the casual fan. He’s also suffered in recent times in that, he hasn’t crossed over into the mainstream. He competed the day after the epic Canelo vs Crawford fight, meaning that many of the eyes were on Las Vegas, rather than the IG Arena in Japan. If he were to fight more outside of Japan with the backing of Turki Al-Sheikh, he could become a huge star. He’s certainly got the ability to.
Terence Crawford
Arguably the man who is most people’s pick for pound for pound #1 based on recent performances, Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford has the best resumè of all three of these men. Like Usyk and Inoue, Bud is undefeated. Like both of the other men, he has a solid wins to knockouts ratio, recording 42 wins and 31 knockouts. There’s one thing that sets him apart, however.
Terence Crawford is an undisputed champion in three divisions. In 2017, Crawford was crowned the undisputed light welterweight champion with a third round knockout of Julius Indongo. His second undisputed crown came during arguably his most complete performance, a dominant victory over Erroll Spence in 2023.
It was his most recent performance, a shutout of the legendary Saul Canelo Alvarez, that really has fans believing that Crawford is the boxing’s pound for pound king. Not only did he defeat Canelo, but he did so in a division 29lbs heavier than the division in which he captured his first undisputed crown.
Perhaps recency bias does play a factor in this one, but having beat names like Canelo, Spence, Kell Brook, Amir Khan, Shawn Porter and David Avanesyan, it’s hard to put Crawford anywhere but #1.
