Andre Ward proclaimed himself the pound-for-pound world number one after stopping Sergey Kovalev in their rematch to retain his unified light-heavyweight world championship.
An eighth-round win via a controversial technical knockout took Ward to 32 wins from 32 in his career and the 33-year-old then set his sights on climbing the weight classes.
Speaking to HBO after the fight, he said: "Let me ask you the question: Can I get on the pound-for-pound list now? At the top? Hopefully, against a great fighter like Sergey Kovalev, we'll get our credit tonight and get atop that pound-for-pound list."
An impressive performance from Ward was marred by the ending to the fight, with a succession of borderline low blows securing the stoppage after he had initially rocked the Russian with a powerful straight right to the head.
Kovalev was aggrieved at losing the pair's first meeting last November having knocked Ward down in round two, and again he was frustrated at the stoppage.
Ward was unrepentant when watching the same footage.
"When I saw him react to the body shots that were borderline, I knew I had him," he said. "Go back down there. Why get away from it?
"Then I hurt him with a head shot and I just had to get the right shots in there to get it over with. T hat one's probably borderline - he was hurt, I went right back there again, he wasn't reacting, right back there again and the referee stopped it."
“I think it was plain to see that I broke him mentally and physically. I’m not a person that demands respect or none of that. You don’t have to respect me and I don’t demand anything, but at a certain point and time, you got to give a person their just do. I’m 13 years in and I’ve been doing it against the best.