Comments Thread For: BoxingScene roundtable: Who is pound-for-pound number one?

[BoxingUpdates]

The debate has sparked up once more after Crawford impressed audiences once again after he moved up two weight classes to defeat Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez earlier this month. Who do you have at number one?
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[boxingitis]

Turki Alalshikh
If it wasn't for him Usyk wouldnt have fought Fury
Crawford wouldnt have fought Canelo

[TheOneAboveAll]

Tom Ivers has some pretty dumb reasoning. Usyk remains #1 (its not really close) and Crawford and Inoue can argue about #2.

[felinoboxing]

Tom Ivers, that "if everyone were the same size" argument is absurd. The real number 1 pound for pound is Victor Conte.

[takenotes]

I am going with Usyk because he is still fighting guys that outweigh him by 30-40 lbs and with Fury over 50 lbs. and beating them easier than Crawford beat Canelo. Crawford struggled with Madrimov and I think if Crawford fought a Beneviedez at 168 he loses. Canelo IMO was ripe for the picking considering his last performances. Inoue is good but his chin is not. I just do not think you can really get around Usyks ability to KO guys that are so much bigger. Plus the resume...DDD twice..Fury twice and AJ twice.

[DeeMoney]

Tom Ivers, that "if everyone were the same size" argument is absurd. The real number 1 pound for pound is Victor Conte.

I get his logic, and it makes sense, I think he just explains it awkwardly. It shouldn't be if everyone was the same size, rather more if everyone carried the same relative attributes to their weight class in the same weight class.

Essentially P4P is saying, 'relative to ones weight class' so who is more dominant to their weight class is the best P4P at the time. This can be seen as making everyone relatively the same size as well, though that ignores that some fighters are successful due to physical attributes (most notably height and reach).

The problem I see with ranking P4P is there ends up being an apples to oranges discussion- are we ranking historic P4P or current P4P. Current P4P is asking who is the best fighter in the world relative to their weight class- which means things fighters did 5+ years ago really don't matter. For example, Crawford is an ATG, but his success at 140 shouldn't impact his current P4P status, because he is no longer that 140 lb fighter; hasn't been it for a while and won't be dropping back down to it again. Current P4P is how you are now.

Most people though, are discussing historic P4P, essentially which fighter still fighting right now has the best historic P4P resume/career? In which case Crawford's work at 140 should be taken into account.

Sadly, as with most discussions, nobody established the criteria or outlined what we are looking to answer- I guess because if they did it would lead to less clicks and banter.