By Chris Williams: Unbeaten Artur Beterbiev has now entered Ring Magazine’s top 10 pound-for-pound listing with his 10th round knockout win over WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk (17-1, 14 KOs) last Friday night in their unification match at the Liacouras Center, in Philadelphia.
IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs) broke Gvozdyk down with his body shots from the 8th, and dropped him 3 times in the 10th to get the knockout win. The fight has made the two-time Russian Olympian Beterbiev an overnight sensation, and he’s now finally in the top at #9 in the pound-for-pound rankings with Ring Magazine. He used his ring generalship to get the better of an excellent fighter in 2012
Here’s Ring Magazine’s current top 10 P-4-P listings:
1. Vasily Lomachenko
2. Terence Crawford
3. Saul Canelo Alvarez
4. Naoya Inoue
5. Oleksandr Usyk
6. Errol Spence Jr.
7. Gennadiy Golovkin
8. Juan Francisco Estrada
9. Artur Beterbiev
10. Manny Pacquiao
Beterbiev rates a higher ranking
Beterbiev arguably deserves a top 3 rankings based on how good he’s looked as a professional. Too many of the top fighters in the pound-for-pound list aren’t looking all that impressive.
Here’s this writer’s take:
- WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford might need to be pushed down in the rankings because he’s fighting too many soft opponents for him to be ranked at #2. Crawford never fought anyone good at 140, and he still hasn’t beaten a quality fighter at 147. Since moving up to welterweight, Crawford has beaten Jeff Horn, Jose Benavidez and Amir Khan. He’s now fighting Egidijus Kavaliauskas. That’s a fighter that is coming off of a draw against 2nd tier guy Ray Robinson. It’s nice that Crawford unbeaten, but his opposition has been mediocre throughout his career. He needs to be moved down to bottom 10 or even out of the pound-for-pound rankings altogether.
- Oleksandr Usyk hasn’t beaten anyone great since turning pro. His best win was a controversial 12 round majority decision over Mairis Briedis.
- Gennadiy Golovkin has failed twice against Saul Canelo Alvarez, and his recent win over Sergiy Derevyachenko is highly controversial. Golovkin needs to be dropped from the pound-for-pound rankings, because he’s not measuring up.
- Juan Francisco Estrada hasn’t beaten anyone other than Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, and his fighting style isn’t pleasing. Estrada should be dropped from the top 10 rankings as well in this writer’s opinion. Until Estrada beats someone good, he needs to be left out.
- Vasiliy Lomachenko’s recent elevation to WBC Franchise champion is enough for me to see him as not worthy of the #1 in the pound-for-pound rankings. When you get a fighter that is free to fight whoever he pleases, he shouldn’t be in the top 10 pound-for-pound rankings.