Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue bolstered their claims on the top spot on most pound-for-pound lists with spectacular knockout victories recently, Crawford over Errol Spence Jr. and Inoue over Stephen Fulton Jr.
Now Oleksandr Usyk has his chance to make such a statement.
The heavyweight titleholder — behind only Nos. 1 and 2 Crawford and Inoue on Boxing Junkie’s list — is scheduled to defend his belts against capable challenger Daniel Dubois at Stadion Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland. (DAZN).
Usyk, the former cruiserweight champion from Ukraine, left no doubt about his greatness by twice defeating former heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua in 2021 and last year.
He was expected to fight fellow beltholder Tyson Fury for the undisputed championship but they couldn’t reach an agreement, although that could come next year.
Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) is a serious threat to Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) but the latter is favored. If he wins in dominating fashion, he will keep pace with Crawford and Inoue.
And if he ends up meeting No. 5 Fury and manages to win that fight, it would be difficult to separate the top three.
Stay tuned.
Here’s what the list looks like at the moment:
BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND
- Terence Crawford – No fight scheduled.
- Naoya Inoue – No fight scheduled.
- Oleksandr Usyk – Scheduled to defend his three heavyweight titles against Daniel Dubois on Saturday (Aug. 26) in Wroclaw, Poland.
- Dmitry Bivol – No fight scheduled.
- Tyson Fury – Scheduled to face MMA star Francis Ngannou in a boxing match on Oct. 28 in Saudi Arabia.
- Juan Francisco Estrada – No fight scheduled.
- Canelo Alvarez– Scheduled to defend his 168-pound titles against Jermell Charlo on Sept. 30.
- Jermell Charlo – Scheduled to challenge 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez on Sept. 30.
- Gervonta Davis – No fight scheduled.
- Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
- Vasiliy Lomachenko – No fight scheduled.
- Artur Beterbiev – Scheduled to defend his 175-pound titles against Callum Smiton Jan. 23 in Quebec City, Canada.
- Shakur Stevenson – No fight scheduled.
- Roman Gonzalez – No fight scheduled.
- Devin Haney – Reportedly in talks to challenge 140-pound titleholder Regis Prograis on Oct. 28 but no announcement has been made.
Honorable mention (alphabetical order): David Benavidez (no fight scheduled); Jermall Charlo (no fight scheduled); Sunny Edwards (scheduled to face Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez in a 112-pound title-unification bout on Dec. 16); Kazuto Ioka (no fight scheduled); Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (scheduled to face Sunny Edwards in a 112-pound title-unification bout on Dec. 16).
