1. Usyk: A legitimate Cruiserweight beating giants. I wouldn't say he is the greatest heavyweight of all time. But I would say he is a All Time Great in ability that would give multiple heavyweight ATGs a run for their money. Dubois X2, Joshua X2 and Fury X2. Swept the heavyweight scene clean outside of not fighting some opponents like Zhang and Parker. Undisputed in both Cruiserweight and Heavyweight. Twice in Heavyweight. Not the greatest era when it comes to skill, but he is fighting elite champions that are 6'6"-6-9". It is like a 5'3 boxer dominating 5'6-5'9 boxers.
2. Inoue: The most consistently proven fighter and near his prime in the downslide, always the smaller man at 122 showing outstanding punching power to beat opposition but shows equally less punch resistance, compensating with skill and IQ where he hasn't lost so far instead he brutally stopped his opponents. Beat consistently the most champions besides Alvarez, but unlucky for him there isn't HOF caliber fighters that he fought. A mix pretty good/great champions in every division, his best wins over Taguchi, Rodriguez, Narvaez, Tapales, Nery, Fulton and Donaire 2X. 1 HOF in Donaire who was in the downslide, perhaps 2-3 depends how Fulton and another fighter that lost to Inoue accomplished afterwards.
3. Crawford: Exciting fighter that somehow was under promoted and didn't get the opportunity that he should had. Still managed to get consistent wins over Brook, Postol, Porter, Madrimov and a marquee win over Errol Spence. Some nice additional wins over former top contenders like Mean Machine and Benavidez Jr. HOF resume, very shallow All Time Great, but very great in ability, able to fight so affectively switching stances, aggressive fighter who is careful defensively and counters under fire. Quite very athletic and his punching power starched every Welterweight he has faced.
4. Bivol: Highly proven, bested multiple champions like Joe Smith Jr, Canelo Alvarez, Zurdo Ramirez and Arthur Beterbiev, debatable if he beat Arthur twice though he got notably hurt in both. Monotonous and not heavy handed. Outstanding punch output and footwork to compliment his very high skill, able to do immediate adjustments like Stevenson, but is quite more proven.
5. Rodriguez: Quite proven, beat multiple champions, mix of some on the downslide but quite dangerous and some at their best, like Cuadras, Rungvisai, Edwards, Estrada, and Cafu. He is 25 years old, meaning he has time to do more and improve even further. Has other nice wins over top contenders during their time like Cristian Gonzalez, Israel Gonzalez and Pedro Guevara.
6.Stevenson: Athletic and highly adaptable with his high IQ, lacks power but isn't feather fisted. Has consistent good wins over Gonzalez, Herring, Conceicao and Valdez. Pretty good wins over top ranked conrenders in Harutyunyan, Santos and Zepeda. Three division champion.
7. Beterbiev: Likely on the downslide, skill and power however are still highly prevalent, could stop at 175 even now or win by decision for it, he gets winded but recovers when he boxes.
8. Benavidez: Skill translated well at 175 though he isn't as dominating as 168, quite competent and can acclimate at 175. Has beaten multiple worlds champions more than most now in days, like Andrade, Dirrell, Plant, and Gvozdyk. Morrell could be a title holder at 168-175 though he isn't. He could had achieved more of course. But the longitivity of the higher weight classes could let him prove himself further.
9. Junto Nakatani, Less major wins than Crawford, lacks a marquee win. Physically big at 118 and 122. Quite very athletic and heavy handed. Has some nice wins over Moloney, Santiago, and Nishida.
10. Teofimo Lopez: Inconsistent, but quite athletic boxer puncher. Could beat the best in the division, could lose to lesser but competent contenders in his division. Has wins over Loma, and Taylor. He has nice wins over Commey, Sandor Martin and Barboza. Has shown deficiencies often though. Nakatani has often been hurt, but he recovers and makes adjustments.
Currently, Alvarez is only currently included in P4P because of his resume from the past and popularity. He has a gas tank for 4-6 rounds, a low punch output, supbar defense to reliant of using his high guard now, doesn't aim for the finish, and reflexes are faded. This aren't the qualities of a current P4P fighter. Whether he has a debatable win over GGG and unified 168, that was years ago.
I always ask this when looking at current P4P lists, but people rarely ever answer it. And when they do they remain very elusive and ambiguous with their answers, but I ask anyways.
When rating a current P4P list, how far back do you look on their resume and still count it towards their ranking RIGHT NOW?
The example I always give, is if Ray Leonard came out of retirement, wouldnt he have the best resume? So wouldnt you have to rate him #1 P4P? Of course not, because we recognize he is no longer that same fighter.
Now, I get this is hard because it requires honest evaluation and contextualization- whereas many just like to throughout names on a resume and thats it. But take the SRL argument and extrapolate that out to the names on your top 10 lists. Lets look at Usyk, he was an ATG cruiserweight champ- but he no longer is a cruiserweight. Thats not the fighter he is right now, so do we count that towards his P4P ratings right now? I would think not.
Canelo is on many lists, but most of his big wins came before the pandemic, do we still think he is the same fighter now as he was in 2018? I think there is a clear material difference between that Canelo, and the one we have now.
So I gotta ask, are everyone's current P4P lists an actual list of who they think is the best right now, or is it a list of just what currently active fighter has the best career resume? It seems like for most its the latter, and thats a shame, as the former would be more interesting and engaging of a discussion point.
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