Boxing pound-for-pound rankings: Terence Crawford claims No. 1, but what about Errol Spence Jr.?

Errol Spence Jr. entered his fight against Terence Crawford on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas holding three of the four welterweight belts, a reputation as one of the sport’s biggest punchers and, by some, as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

There is little dispute now that Crawford, not Spence nor Naoya Inoue nor anyone else, is the No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world. Crawford’s ninth-round TKO of Spence was so complete, so devastating and so shockingly one-sided that to say anything else would be to stamp oneself a hater.

Inoue is great, and he did a number on another outstanding fighter, Stephen Fulton. But Crawford did a number on Spence, and there was no one outside the Fulton household who thought going into last week that Fulton was better than Spence.

The question is, what to do about Spence? He lost in such a one-sided manner that there is an argument he should fall outside of the top 10, perhaps in the 11-15 range. Does undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney, or undisputed super welterweight champion Jermell Charlo, deserve a spot at No. 10 ahead of Spence?

Both Haney and Charlo are top-10-caliber fighters and they were able to unify their divisions, but is that enough to squeeze one of them in and push Spence out?

I think not.

Neither of them has faced an opponent as good and still in their prime as Crawford. Haney defeated the great Vasiliy Lomachenko in his last outing, but Lomachenko is getting up there and is clearly on the back side of his career now, even though he remains an elite talent.

Crawford and Inoue are far ahead of the field and, at this point, not competing with anyone else. You could probably throw 12-15 names in a hat after those two and randomly pull them out and come up with a good top 10. Fighters like Oleksandr Usyk, Shakur Stevenson, Gervonta Davis, Canelo Alvarez and Tyson Fury seem like givens as well, leaving three spots in the top 10 and five men competing for it.

Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev are a combined 40-0 with 30 knockouts. Beterbiev has been getting hit a bit more in his last few fights, but he’s still 19-0 with 19 KOs against good opposition.

How is it possible to remove him? Answer: It’s not, really, and he stays in, going to No. 9.

Bivol defeated Alvarez and that in-and-of itself earns him a top 10 spot. He’ll probably be favored over Beterbiev if/when they ever meet, so he merits a spot, too. I’ll make him eighth.

For me, the last spot comes down to Haney, Charlo, Teofimo Lopez, Lomachenko and Spence. Three of them — Haney, Charlo and Lopez — were undisputed champions. Lomachenko and Spence have been unified champions.

Each of them deserves consideration, but I think Spence has been at the top long enough, accomplished enough that he supersedes the others he’s competing against. I’ll drop Spence from five to 10 and my top 10 is complete.

Boxing pound-for-pound rankings as of Aug. 1

1. Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs), Undisputed welterweight champion. Previous Ranking: 2.
2. Naoya Inoue (25-0, 22 KOs), WBC-WBO super bantamweight champion. Previous Ranking: 1.
3. Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), IBF-WBA-WBO heavyweight champion. Previous Ranking: 3.
4. Shakur Stevenson (19-0, 9 KOs), Lightweight contender. Previous Ranking: 4.
5. Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) Secondary WBA lightweight champion. Previous Ranking: 6.
6. Canelo Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs), Undisputed super middleweight champion. Previous Ranking: 7.
7. Tyson Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs), WBC heavyweight champion. Previous Ranking: 8.
8. Dmitry Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs), WBA light heavyweight champion. Previous Ranking: 9.
9. Artur Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs), IBF-WBC-WBO light heavyweight champion. Previous Ranking: 10.
10. Errol Spence Jr. (28-1, 22 KOs), Welterweight contender. Previous Ranking: 5.