Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez reveals his pound-for-pound top three

By Elliot Worsell

PERHAPS the one factor extra pointless than drawing up a pound-for-pound top 10 checklist is arguing a couple of pound-for-pound top 10 checklist. Doing so, in any case, will crown no winner, deliver no reward, and ultimately serve solely to spotlight an incapability to understand what precisely a pound-for-pound checklist represents.

As for what it supposedly represents, it does, like most issues, imply various things to completely different folks. Yet, in the end, a pound-for-pound checklist is sweet just for losing time and producing debate. It has no larger objective than that and it actually has no bearing on any specific fighter’s legacy or certainly their standing within the sport.

That mentioned, for these all in favour of such issues, right here is the pound-for-pound top three in keeping with Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez: “For me, (Oleksandr) Usyk is number one, (Naoya) Inoue is two, and (Terence) Crawford is three. Usyk is the heavyweight undisputed champion; there’s no topping that.” As for the general worth of a pound-for-pound checklist, Rodriguez, 19-0 (12), mentioned to Boxing News: “At first, I never really cared (about the list), to be honest. But once I was actually put on the pound-for-pound rankings it was more of a shock than anything. Ever since then I have wanted to stay on that list and be mentioned among the great fighters in that top 10. To be on the list is something I want and this fight will move me up even higher if I win.”

Already, with out beating Juan Francisco Estrada, his opponent on Saturday (June 29), Jesse Rodriguez is taken into account among the best pound-for-pound fighters within the sport. Win on Saturday, although, and the Texan is aware of that he won’t solely have joined the very elite – that’s, moved larger up on the pound-for-pound checklist – however can have achieved on the age of 24 greater than most fighters can ever think about. Indeed, to even simply be included on such an inventory at that age, whether or not sitting at 10 or in top spot, is a testomony to each his expertise and the speed at which he has progressed.

Still, what actually counts ultimately are victories, not the opinions of followers. Which is what made it considerably amusing to see the impassioned response of Turki Alalshikh, probably the most highly effective males within the sport, after coming throughout a selected pound-for-pound checklist final month. Taken from BoxRec.com of all locations, Alalshikh, new to the sport, posted this top 10 checklist on social media and wrote beneath it: “(Naoya) Inoue is a great boxer, but (Terence) Crawford is the pound-for-pound number one. I don’t know how the rankings work or if there’s a clear criteria, but it seems like there are some personal opinions and inaccuracies involved. I believe that boxing needs one entity to evaluate with transparency and credibility. Soon, I will support a project for that matter.”

A put up too good to disregard, it’s arduous to know precisely the place to start out. Firstly, if there’s one place the place private opinions have completely no sway on a pound-for-pound checklist – or for that matter any of their rankings – it’s BoxRec.com, the place in fact every thing is computer-generated and carried out on a factors system. That is to not say their rankings are excellent, removed from it, however any accusation of bias is actually a moot level relating to that web site.

Secondly, the concept of a pound-for-pound checklist on BoxRec.com being the impetus for change in an unruly sport like boxing is weird within the excessive. Moreover, the concept that the game wants one “entity to evaluate with transparency and credibility” turns into simply as absurd when one considers the varieties of folks concerned in offering the so-called evaluations, transparency and credibility. Ideally, sure, issues can be higher regulated and extra streamlined within the sport, however to assume something near that’s in boxing’s future is considerably quixotic to say the least.

What is extra, regardless of the discuss of “personal opinions and inaccuracies”, Alalshikh’s response to BoxRec.com’s pound-for-pound checklist comes from precisely the identical place, impressed little question by the truth that he’s now working with Terence Crawford, this man of whom he speaks so extremely. Which is completely high-quality, too, by the way in which, for Alalshikh’s view that Crawford is the primary pound-for-pound is neither ridiculous nor a view completely his. It is the truth is a view shared by many, pushed even more durable within the aftermath of Crawford’s terrific 2023 win over welterweight rival, and fellow pound-for-pound contender, Errol Spence.

Terence Crawford stops Errol Spence in July (Getty Images)

Maybe Alalshikh is simply excited, that’s all. Maybe as the brand new mover and shaker within the sport he’s testing the extent of his energy and seeing simply how far he can take this factor. Maybe, with Naoya Inoue not too long ago including to his legacy with a high-quality efficiency in opposition to Luis Nery, and Oleksandr Usyk additionally doing the identical with a win over Tyson Fury, the pound-for-pound debate is changing into a worthy speaking level; or at the very least as worthy as it could possibly ever get. Maybe subsequent month, when Crawford fights Israil Madrimov, we can have a fair clearer image of the place these three (Crawford, Inoue and Usyk) sit on an inventory that basically means little or no within the grand scheme of issues.

Indeed, the perfect you may say for it’s this: the game, by way of the expertise on the top degree, is in a wholesome place. That is to say, in Crawford, Inoue and Usyk now we have three males whose talents would seemingly have allowed them to flourish throughout any earlier period in boxing historical past. These aren’t simply three males who occur to be world champions of their respective weights courses and at the moment are having fun with protracted unbeaten runs. They are as a substitute three of the perfect skills now we have ever seen within the sport, and it simply so occurs that they’ve reached their respective peaks at roughly the identical time.

Usyk beats Fury (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

So good is that this trio, the truth is, it’s arduous to guess which one in all them would be the first to slide up; that’s, give floor in a race during which they don’t even realise they’re competing. Up to now there have hardly even been indicators. Inoue, it’s true, was knocked down for the primary time in his professional profession in opposition to Nery, however the method during which he then turned that struggle round solely added credence to his declare to be primary. Similarly, Usyk, regardless of being considerably handicapped as a comparatively small heavyweight, is now reaching feats the likes of Inoue and Crawford are unable to realize by advantage of them preventing opponents who weigh the identical as them. That, within the struggle for pound-for-pound primary, should absolutely rely for one thing.

Which it does, in fact. Like the checklist itself, for Usyk, being a heavyweight means each every thing and nothing. It means the Ukrainian’s achievements will all the time comprise an x-factor the achievements of Crawford and Inoue lack and it additionally means the pound-for-pound checklist turns into much more pointless than it’s after we are rating solely fighters whose legacy is being constructed in opposition to opponents weighing the identical as them.

Already you could possibly argue that the three of them – Usyk, Crawford and Inoue – are pushing it. Usyk, in chasing the massive canine of the heavyweight division, is pushing it each time he competes, whereas Crawford and Inoue, whether or not for cash or pound-for-pound supremacy, are ceaselessly being linked to fights lifelike to solely a sure kind of fan. That means, on this case, Canelo Alvarez for Crawford and Gervonta Davis for Inoue, the considered which on the one hand excites, but, alternatively, makes you query not solely the sanity of the folks concerned within the sport however, every now and then, the well being of the game itself.