1. Naoya Inoue

2. Errol Spence Jr.

3. Terence Crawford

4. Wanheng Menayothin

5. Gennady Golovkin

6. Manny Pacquiao

7. Mickey Garcia

8. Vasyl Lomachenko

9. Luis Nery

10. Tyson Fury

11. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai

12. Miguel Berchelt

13. Leo Santa Cruz

14. Callum Smith

15. Roman Gonzalez

16. Ken Shiro

17. Kosei Tanaka

18. Canelo Álvarez

19. Ryan Burnett

20. Maurice Hooker

21. Gilberto Ramirez

22. Regis Prograis

23. Sergey Kovalev

24. Daniel Jacobs

25. Shawn Porter

26. Anthony Joshua

27. Jarrett Hurd

28. Oleksandr Usyk

29. Ivan Baranchyk

30. Donnie Nietes

Honorable Mention: Guillermo Rigondeaux

Errol Spence Jr. stays at #2 and Mickey Garcia stays at #7, as they were in March, 2019

Rating and understanding P4P.

The pound for pound rankings explained. This is a necessity because unfortunately not only fans but some of the top boxing analysts, senior writers and organizations have lost sight of the true meaning of pound for pound. Originally talked about and started when welterweight / middleweight Sugar Ray Robinson dominated his era. Robinson was to small to fight the heavyweights of the time- thus the pound for pound – best/ skilled boxer list/talk started. The idea was that if Robinson was the same weight as a bigger man, he was simply the better boxer and would win.

P4P is not a list of ranking the champions of every division and it is also not a list of multiple weight division champions (though those boxers are sometimes more deserving of the honor). A three division champion doesn’t necessarily get a higher ranking then a one division champion. It’s about how dominate you are when facing the elite competition. The idea behind p4p is if two fighters weighted the exact same, who would win. For example, if Manny Pacquiao weighted 250 pounds, would he defeat Anthony Joshua?

P4P explained:
Pound for pound is heavily based on a boxer’s performance and recent fights ( it’s really what have you done lately as opposed to a famous name). The list is ever-changing just like for example the best wide receiver in the NFL or the best hitter in baseball, every month a new ball player creeps up and has the highest average and every year it’s a new generation of baseball players that take the throne away from super-star, high-salary experienced baseball players. And that’s how the P4P list should be.

Boxing Action Magazine Break Down: (Real P4P Explained)
For the boxers protection, Championship fights are now only 12 rounds as opposed to 15 rounds from the 1920’s to the 1980’s. The change gradually took place from 1982-1988 after Duk Koo Kim died in a nationally televised championship fight. Prior to the 1920’s, some fights had unlimited rounds; the fight continued till someone quit or the fight was stopped by police.

To be very clear; I am not saying we should have 15 round fights anymore!!! But pound for pound is assuming a 15 round fight. In the 80’s when the two best welterweights or the two best middleweights on the planet fought each other, the way we actually found out who the best was; often was in the 13th, 14th and 15th round. That’s when we saw the best dig down deeper than the other boxer and take (will) the fight over and make it clear cut. Now its 12 Rounds and flipping a coin-sometimes with the judges deciding most big fights – Remember 12 round fights are there to protect the fighter which is great but when where rankings pound for pound the top guys on the planet have to be ready and prepared to go 15 rounds and if they can’t do that, that doesn’t mean they can’t be great champions, it just means they are not on the top pound for pound list.

For the latest Boxing News, Updates and Rankings visit us at www.BoxingAction24.com

Photo courtesy of Ryan Hafey / Fox Sports & PBC