The mythical Ring magazine pound-for-pound title (boxing’s best regardless of weight class) is revered, but fraught with jeopardy and danger.
Consider former welterweight king Donald Curry before he was blitzed by then unheralded Lloyd ‘Ragamuffin Man’ Honeyghan in September 1986 or, Julio Cesar Chavez before he came up against Frankie ‘The Surgeon’ Randall in January 1994. More recently, consider Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez being stonewalled by Dmitry Bivol when he sought to be undisputed in a weight class too many.
When the title is lost – it is sometimes dramatically !
With the retirement of still-recognised Ring champion Terence Crawford the title is shortly up for grabs. ‘Bud’ Crawford (42-0, 21 KOs) unified the 168lbs (12st) super-middleweight division, his fifth at different weights, three undisputed, before calling time on his stellar boxing career earlier in the month.
On Saturday (Dec 27) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia current #2 Naoya Inoue (31-0, 27 KOs) will defend his standing and with that the undisputed 122lb (8st, 12lbs) junior-featherweight title. This is his fourth divisional ‘world’ title with two being undisputed.
Japan’s ‘Monster’ Inoue will meet undefeated Mexican Alan Picasso (32-0-1, 17 KOs). The bout will be available on DAZN streaming site as a pay-per-view option.
The ultimate destination is a ‘Superfight’ with compatriot Junto Nakatani (31-0, 24 KOs) currently at #8 pound-for-pound.
The #2 in The Ring magazine pound-for-pound, soon be likely be elevated to champion is two-time undisputed world heavyweight and former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs). The Ukrainian looks like he will continue his career and with it will stake a further claim to be be pound-for-pound.
However, on Saturday in Riyadh what can we expect ?
Inoue has spoken of the need for caution and not being complacent. He recognises the undoubted skills of Picasso and his undefeated record as one to respect. The Mexican’s near 50% knockout ratio will command caution from the Japanese. But, this is The ‘Monster’ who has taken all before him, has been dropped numerous times but always come on to overwhelm his opponent.
True at 31 years old and moving way above his most effective weight class he is walking on thin ice, but such is his ring savvy, undoubted skills and concussive punching power we expect him to be victorious again. We see another up and down slugfest with Inoue winning inside ten rounds.
Afterwhich, it’s onto Nakatani and a much more formidable challenge to wrestle the pound-for-pound title permanently from soon to be annointed Oleksandr Usyk.
Catch ‘The Monster’ while you can, starting Saturday night.
The Undisputed 