Canelo Alvarez Reigns Again As The BWAA’s Pound-For-Pound King
Canelo Alvarez reigns again atop the BWAA pound-for-pound top-10 rankings. This is the second-straight time Alvarez won the BWAA poll.
In the December 2019 poll, Alvarez, based on his brilliant November stoppage of Sergey Kovalev, beat out previous BWAA pound-for-pound king Vasiliy Lomachenko, breaking his seven-poll win streak, by a point in what was the tightest BWAA pound-for-pound top-10 poll yet.
This time, Alvarez still squeezed by Lomachenko by four points, based on a preponderance of first-place votes, outdistancing Lomachenko by a 3-to-1 margin in that area. “Loma” received more second-place votes than any fighter in the poll, while Alvarez received a handful of third- and fourth-place votes.
The BWAA’s pound-for-pound polls are selected by BWAA members from respected news outlets and is broken down based on a descending points system, with a first-place vote receiving 10 points, a second-place vote receiving nine points and so on. Ties go to the fighter with the most votes.
The Boxing Writers Association of America has been listing on a bi-monthly basis its top-10 pound-for-pound fighters in the world. All BWAA members, full and auxiliary, can send their top-10 pound-for-pound votes in for each even month to JSantoliquitoBWAA@yahoo.com. The next deadline will be Friday, June 5, 2020, with the results posted later that month.
As in the last poll, the top three remain the same: Alvarez, Lomachenko and Terence Crawford, respectively, while Naoya Inoue switches from five to four with Errol Spence Jr.
Oleksandr Usyk, now fighting as a heavyweight, remains at No. 6. Gennadiy Golovkin remains at No. 7 edging out Tyson Fury, making his BWAA top-10 debut, breaking up the tie based on more votes. Fury does come in at No. 8, bumping out Deontay Wilder at 10, with Manny Pacquiao remaining at No. 9 and junior bantamweight champ Juan Francisco Estrada dropping from No. 8 to No. 10.
The grouping matches the same top 10 in ESPN’s February poll, with the stark variances coming in Alvarez being No. 1 in the BWAA poll and No. 3 by the ESPN.com voters, following Lomachenko and Crawford, respectively. The other differences come in Fury being No. 7 by ESPN, with Juan Francisco Estrada at No. 8, Golovkin at No. 9 and Pacquiao at 10.
The one noticeable difference in The Ring’s top 10 and the BWAA’s is the inclusion of Fury in the BWAA poll, where he’s not included in The Ring’s March top 10. Instead, light heavyweight titlist Artur Beterbiev, the BWAA’s first runner-up, is at No. 9 and Pacquiao is at No. 10.
The Ring’s top two matches the BWAA’s, with the other big difference coming at No. 3, where Inoue is rated over Crawford in The Ring poll. Another difference is Usyk is No. 5 in The Ring poll and Spence at No. 6, while the BWAA has Spence at No. 5 and Usyk at No. 6. Golovkin is No. 7 in both polls, and Estrada is rated No. 8 by The Ring and No. 10 by the BWAA pollsters.
1. Canelo Alvarez (228 points)
Middleweight
53-1-2 (36 KOs)
2. Vasiliy Lomachenko (224)
Lightweight
14-1-0 (10 KOs)
3. Terence Crawford (195)
Welterweight
36-0-0 (27 KOs)
4. Naoya Inoue (159)
Bantamweight
19-0-0 (16 KOs)
5. Errol Spence Jr. (136)
Welterweight
26-0-0 (21 KOs)
6. Oleksandr Usyk (106)
Heavyweight
17-0-0 (13 KOs)
7. Gennadiy Golovkin (74)
Middleweight
40-1-1 (35 KOs)
8. Tyson Fury (74)
Heavyweight
30-0-1 (21 KOs)
9. Manny Pacquiao (58)
Welterweight
62-7-2 (39 KOs)
10. Juan Francisco Estrada (51)
Jr. Bantamweight
40-3-0 (27 KOs)
Also receiving votes: Artur Beterbiev (17 points), Mikey Garcia (7), Leo Santa Cruz (7), Josh Taylor (6), Devon Haney (5), Caleb Plant (4), Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (2), Demetrius Andrade (1), Shawn Porter (1), David Benavidez (1).
