Top 12 pound-for-pound fighters in boxing: Mythical rankings starring Crawford, Inoue, Usyk

Top 12 pound-for-pound fighters in boxing: Mythical rankings starring Crawford, Inoue, Usyk originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Terence Crawford proved to be undeniable when the former welterweight champion cruised past Canelo Alvarez to become the undisputed super middleweight champion.

The win propelled Crawford to the top of The Sporting News’ P4P rankings, a position “Bud” is well familiar with.

Crawford has traded spots with the likes of fellow undisputed greats Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk over the last few years.

Inoue once again defended his status as the undisputed super bantamweight champion with a win against Murodjon Akhmadaliev. Akhmadaliev was considered the most dangerous opponent in the division, and the Japanese fighter beat him with ease.

MORE: Terence Crawford is undisputed, undeniable after Canelo Alvarez win

Usyk once again beat Daniel Dubois, this time to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion. The Ukrainian has proven to be unstoppable within the land of the giants.

With the loss to Crawford, Canelo moved down a few spots on the list. Outside him, the biggest increase in the rankings sees Junto Nakatani up four spots. Nakatani defended bantamweight gold this year and looks to face Inoue in 2026.

The Sporting News Global Boxing Panel, which is comprised of internal and external boxing experts spanning four continents who intimately cover global and local boxing, ranks the top 12 pound-for-pound fighters in the world:

Pound-for-pound rankings: The Sporting News’ top 12

Rank	Fighter	Record	Movement (October 13, 2025)
1	Terence Crawford	42-0 (31 KOs)	+2
2	Naoya Inoue	31-0 (27 KOs)	–
3	Oleksandr Usyk	24-0 (15 KOs)	-2
4	Dmitry Bivol	24-1 (12 KOs)	–
5	Jesse Rodriguez	22-0 (15 KOs)	+2
6	Artur Beterbiev	21-1 (20 KOs)
7	Junto Nakatani	31-0 (24 KOs)	+4
8	Canelo Alvarez	63-3-2 (39 KOs)	-3
9	Shakur Stevenson	24-0 (11 KOs)	+1
10	David Benavidez	30-0 (24 KOs)	+2
11	Teofimo Lopez	22-1 (13 KOs)	-3
12	Gervonta Davis	30-0-1 (28 KOs)	-3

The best in the world pound-for-pound: Terence Crawford

If there were any doubts regarding Terence Crawford’s status in boxing, “Bud” shut them down with a dominant performance against Canelo Alvarez.

A Golden Gloves winner and seven-time medalist, the Omaha-born Crawford schooled Canelo to become the undisputed super middleweight champion.

A four-division champion, the 38-year-old is in a rare field to become undisputed in three divisions (super lightweight, welterweight, super middleweight). He moved up two weight divisions to win gold at 168.

In a league of his own and now a box-office draw, Crawford is undisputed and undeniable.

Signature wins for Crawford include Canelo, Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter, and Amir Khan.