Pound for pound: Does Dmitry Bivol climb Boxing Junkie’s list after sensational victory?
Dmitry Bivol did it again.
The 175-pound titleholder turned in a sensational performance, this time easily outpointing previously unbeaten Gilberto Ramirez this past Saturday in the United Arab Emirates.
That followed his upset of Canelo Alvarez in May, when he stunned the boxing world by winning a unanimous decision.
The U.S.-based Russian is now considered one of the best fighters in the world regardless of weight. But where should he be on the pound-for-pound list?
Bivol was No. 6 in Boxing Junkie’s rankings going into his fight with Ramirez, behind only No. 1 Terence Crawford, No. 2 Naoya Inoue, No. 3 Oleksandr Usyk, No. 4 Errol Spence Jr. and No. 5 Tyson Fury.
Has he done enough to climb higher on the list? Yes, he has.
He trades places with Fury, moving into the No. 5 position. Fury has been the dominant fighter in his division but we feel Bivol has now demonstrated that he’s a better all-around fighter than Fury regardless of weight.
Bivol falls short of supplanting Spence at No .4. The welterweight titleholder has had similar success but has a stronger resume than his counterpart.
Here’s what the list looks like at the moment:
BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND
Terence Crawford – Scheduled to defend his WBO welterweight title against David Avanesyan on Dec. 10 in Omaha, Nebraska.
Naoya Inoue – Scheduled to meet Paul Butler for the undisputed bantamweight championship on Dec. 13 in Tokyo.
Oleksandr Usyk – No fight scheduled.
Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
Dmitry Bivol – No fight scheduled.
Tyson Fury – Scheduled to defend his WBC title against Derek Chisora on Dec. 3 in London.
Canelo Alvarez– No fight scheduled.
Juan Francisco Estrada – Scheduled to face Roman Gonzalez on Dec. 3. Estrada is the WBC’s junior bantamweight “franchise champion”.
Jermell Charlo – Reportedly has reached an agreement to defend his undisputed junior middleweight championship against Tim Tszyu on Jan. 28 but no official announcement has been made.
Gervonta Davis – Reportedly in talks to meet Ryan Garcia in a 136-pound catch weight fight. No date has been mentioned.
Vasiliy Lomachenko – No fight scheduled.
Artur Beterbiev – Reportedly targeting Jan. 28 in London for his rescheduled three-belt light heavyweight title defense against Anthony Yarde, who is scheduled to face Stefani Koykov in a tune-up fight on Nov. 19.
Shakur Stevenson – No fight scheduled.
Roman Gonzalez – Scheduled to face WBC junior bantamweight “franchise champion” Juan Francisco Estrada on Dec. 3.
Devin Haney – No fight scheduled.
Honorable mention (alphabetical order): David Benavidez (no fight scheduled); Jermall Charlo (no fight scheduled); Stephen Fulton Jr. (no fight scheduled); Kazuto Ioka (scheduled to face Joshua Franco in a junior bantamweight title-unification bout on New Year’s Eve in Tokyo); Josh Taylor (scheduled to defend his WBO junior welterweight title in a rematch with Jack Catterall on Feb. 4 in Glasgow, Scotland).
