We saw a brilliant display of all things connected to The Sweet Science when Devin Haney dominated a good, proven fighter in Regis Prograis. Indeed, this past Saturday’s commanding win by “The Dream” was a joy to watch (for everyone apart from Prograis fans or supporters, that is), and the win that saw 25-year-old Haney become a two-weight champ had an impact on the pound-for-pound rankings we all so love to argue about. Or did it?
Haney, who just might be the best pure boxer out there today (Shakur Stevenson fans will disagree) may well have elevated himself into the loudest of conversations regarding the mythical but so passionately followed P-4-P rankings. Did Haney’s brilliant win put him in the Top 5?
Here’s the new Top 10 pound-for-pound list from this vantage point:
1: Naoya Inoue
2: Terence Crawford
3: Canelo Alvarez
4: Devin Haney
5: Oleksandr Usyk
6: Dmitry Bivol
7: Gervonta Davis
8: Shakur Stevenson
9: David Benavidez
10: Teofimo Lopez
There are some superb boxers doing their stuff right now, and we fans are super excited about it. Inoue is a generational talent, and so is “Bud.” The same argument can be made about Canelo, Haney, and maybe one or two other guys on the above list. And then there’s the magnificent talent fast approaching the elite level, guys like the quite awesome Andy Cruz, Moses Itauma, Boots Ennis, Vergil Ortiz, and Curmel Moton.
The sport of boxing is in a pretty good place right now, that’s for sure.
But who is THE best on the planet, pound-for-pound right now?
It’s always great to debate, to go back and forth, and today, with so much natural talent abounding, debating is so much more fun.
Who do YOU have as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world as we speak?
“Everybody can punch. Just because a guy isn’t a concussive, one-punch knockout artist, that doesn’t mean you want him tapping on you all night long. Those punches have an effect,” said Stephen Edwards to Millcity Boxing about Regis Prograis’ loss to Devin Haney.
“He was stinging Regis; that’s what he was doing. He was taming him; he was putting him in his place. He was like, ‘I might not be able to knock you out with one punch, but if I keep hitting on you over and over, I’m going to stop you. I’m going to make you sick. I’m going to make you drunk.’
“When you get dizzy, you get nauseous. You just got to be careful. Regis is going to get every call in the world now. Everyone is going to call him from 140 and 147. He didn’t just lose. It was a poor performance,” said Edwards.
