What a superb weekend of boxing it proved to be (this aside from the simply awful and shocking news that broke earlier today of Ricky Hatton losing his life). In Las Vegas, Terence Crawford gave us what could be referred to as a career-best performance, as as outboxed Canelo Alvarez to become the unified super-middleweight king; this is the fifth weight “Bud” has now ruled at.
The Pound-for-Pound Crown Debate
Crawford at times schooled Canelo, a fighter who, when the fight was first announced, was said by many to be way too big, strong, and powerful for the switch-hitter from Nebraska. How wrong such thinking was proven to be.
While in Japan, a few hours later, in a fight that was widely looked at as being his career-toughest, unified super-bantamweight king Naoya Inoue gave us a masterclass of his own, as he scored a lopsided unanimous decision win over Murodjon Akhmadaliev to retain his four belts. And Akhmadaliev is a fighter who said himself, and was supported by others, including Eddie Hearn, that Inoue was ducking him. How wrong such thinking was proven to be.
Inoue made us marvel just as much as Crawford did in his big win. “The Monster” used his superb boxing skills to dominate a very good fighter, and by the middle rounds, Inoue was almost playing with the southpaw from Uzbekistan. Inoue didn’t get the stoppage. Today’s win marked just the fourth time in his pro career that Inoue didn’t devour a foe, but he came close at times. The ninth round was a big one for Inoue, as he cracked an at times insanely tough “MJ” with fast combos that were packed with power and sizzle.
Inoue then closed the show in the fight against his stubborn and durable challenger, with the 32-year-old boxing with real greatness, along with cleverness. It was, as was the case with 37-year-old Crawford’s display of The Sweet Science, nothing but a joy to watch.
So, now to ask the question posed in the above headline: who is the current pound-for-pound king? Is it the 42-0(31) Crawford? How could it not be? Or is it the 31-0(27) Inoue? Again, how could it not be? Or is it reigning, currently 24-0(15) unified four-belt heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk? How could it not be?
But unless we agree on a three-way tie, only one of these modern, in fact, all-time greats can sit atop the pile. You could argue that not for quite some time has it been as tough a task picking the reigning No. 1 P-4-P king.
One thing we can all agree on, though, is the fact that we have, in Inoue, in Crawford, and in Usyk, three superb, seemingly unbeatable ring masters.
The Case for Crawford
What next for “Bud?” We don’t know? How about Usyk’s next move? Again, we’re not sure. While as far as Inoue goes, it could well be – in fact, it hopefully will be – that much talked-of all-Japanese super fight showdown with Junto Nakatani.
But as has been said before now, let’s just sit back and both enjoy and fully appreciate the talents, the amazing, some say generational talents, of Usyk, Crawford, and Inoue.