Boxing Pound-for-Pound Rankings: Errol Spence Jr. passes Terence Crawford as top welterweight fighter - CBSSports.com
Boxing Pound-for-Pound Rankings: Errol Spence Jr. passes Terence Crawford as top welterweight fighter
Outside of Teofimo Lopez Jr.'s upset of Vasiliy Lomachenko to unify lightweight titles in October, the unprecedented turbulence commanded by the COVID-19 outbreak seemed to continue any kind of major shakeup to boxing's pound-for-pound rankings. Most big-name fighters appeared in the ring just one time in 2020 with some, incorporating WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquaio, not finding an opening at all to return.
Yet floor with the rare occurrence of having no sulky of four fighters with a legitimate announce to the No. 1 spot on this list, the biggest debate regarding placement seemed to come plus welterweight kings. Unbeaten 147-pound champions Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford did nothing but compete anti each other for higher placement on this list while frustrations from fans only blocked to mount about them not being able to disapabominate in the ring who is better.
Crawford used most of the year ranked just one ahead of Spence, who entered his fall bet on against Danny Garcia with a large list of questions as to whether a car accident in 2019 had changed him. Luckily for Spence, he seemed to be the same fighter -- if not better -- while renewing his focus to the sport, and the thorough victory over Garcia mighty have given him more fuel to edge Crawford in the rankings.
The the majority issue for Crawford, the former undisputed champion at 140 pounds, is that he just doesn't have the same experienced level at welterweight against elite foes that Spence has given their polar opposite repositions within boxing's political landscape.
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Spence's welterweight contained of having beaten Kell Brook, Lamont Peterson, Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter and now Garcia badly trumps Crawford's piecemeal assortment of musty former champions and stay-busy names. Spence also has shown a variety of performances that announce to how well-rounded and dangerous he can be adapting to different styles -- from outpointing Mikey Garcia at distance to outslugging Porter at discontinuance range. The Spence-Crawford debate, however, will hopefully be solved in 2021 by the two figuring out how to consummate this announce inside the ring.
The same can be said for a pair of heavyweight champions lingering in and throughout the top 10 in Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
Fury's demolition of Deontay Wilder in their rematch to open 2020 failed him with rare placement for a heavyweight in the top 10 (alongside Oleksandr Usyk, who contained up from cruiserweight). But it was Joshua who appeared discontinuance to one day rejoining them when he returned to stop Kubrat Pulev and showcase his newfound balance between defense boxing from distance and thunderous finishing requisition when it mattered most.
A Fury-Joshua struggles in 2021 is the biggest the sportive could produce from the standpoint of importance, and mighty also play a big role, just like Spence-Crawford, in creating some finality to the debates throughout which fighter deserves to be king.
Honorable Mentions: Artur Beterbiev, Jermall Charlo, Juan Francisco Estrada, Josh Taylor, Jermell Charlo, Gennadiy Golovkin, Anthony Joshua
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