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The Big Question: Who’s the No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the sport after Teofimo Lopez beat Vasiliy Lomachenko?

Is there a consensus pick, or is it up to someone to grab the brass ring?

Photos by Al Bello/Etsuo Hara/Steve Marcus/Getty Images

Last week’s Big Question was a pick’em for Lomachenko-Lopez. We had a little over 2,700 votes in that poll between Tuesday and Saturday afternoon. A full 80 percent of those responding picked Lomachenko. All four of our staff pickers, including me, picked Lomachenko. Lomachenko was the favorite. Lopez, of course, won.

Since the world is Teofimo Crazy right now, quite understandably, let’s shift gears for this week’s Big Question to something that isn’t necessarily about Teofimo, but does involve him, since he’s the reason we’re asking this one.

Who’s the top pound-for-pound fighter out there now, in your opinion?

Most — not all, but most — had Lomachenko No. 1 before last Saturday. He’s not No. 1 anymore, and there is no truly clear choice, I don’t think. In my weekly rankings, where I begrudgingly include P4P, I have Canelo Alvarez in the top spot, but even to me that feels unusually questionable. Generally speaking, there’s something of a consensus choice, a guy that a clear majority favor in the spot.

Do we have that right now? Personally, I don’t think so, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that boxing fans tend to have real strong opinions even when something seems to be a pretty open question.

So who’s your pick right now? Who’s your No. 1 P4P fighter?

The top choices, in my view, the guys I expect would get the most consideration right now (in alphabetical order):

  • Canelo Alvarez: reigning titleholder at 160, reigning secondary titleholder at 168, won a title at 175 last year and vacated it, also once held a title at 154 if things that happened in 2011-13 mean a ton to you in 2020
  • Terence Crawford: has a belt right now at 147, has also won titles at 135 and 140, and was a true undisputed champion at 140
  • Naoya Inoue: current two-belt titlist at 118, has also won world titles at 108 and 115
  • Teofimo Lopez: has three of the four titles at 135, and while he’s just broken through, his beating Lomachenko (who was “the guy” for most) probably has a lot of people at least thinking about him being in the race
  • Errol Spence Jr: has two belts at 147, one of the clear top American stars at the moment, though there is some concern (reasonably) about how he’ll look coming back after a serious car crash a year ago

Maybe you have someone else in mind, and if so, vote “other” and tell us your choice!

Poll

Who’s the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter at the moment?

This poll is closed

  • 40%
    Canelo Alvarez
    (735 votes)
  • 24%
    Terence Crawford
    (441 votes)
  • 21%
    Naoya Inoue
    (386 votes)
  • 2%
    Teofimo Lopez
    (43 votes)
  • 4%
    Errol Spence Jr
    (83 votes)
  • 6%
    Other
    (110 votes)
1798 votes total Vote Now

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