Vasiliy Lomachenko Remains The BWAA’s Pound-For-Pound King

For the second-straight time, Vasiliy Lomachenko, now a lightweight, is the BWAA’s pound-for-pound king. Lomachenko remains on top followed by Terence Crawford, who held the position for the first two BWAA’s pound-for-pound polls, which 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 will be 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 by the first Monday of each even month to JSantoliquitoBWAA@yahoo.com. The next deadline will be Monday, August 6, 2018, with the results posted the first week of that month.

Once again, Lomachenko, the BWAA’s 2017 Fighter of the Year, received more first-place votes than any other fighter.

There is, however, a major shakeup among the top four places. Whereas Lomachenko, Crawford and Gennady Golovkin make up the top three, Canelo Alvarez took a fall from No. 4 to No. 8, replaced at No. 4 by Errol Spence Jr., who was previously No. 7. Mikey Garcia maintains his place at No. 5, as does Srisaket Sor Rungvisai at No. 6. Sergey Kovalev moves from No. 9 to No. 7, breaking the 42-point tie with Alvarez based on receiving more votes.

Alvarez took a tumble because he’s serving a six-month suspension for testing positive twice for clenbuterol. Many BWAA members took a stand against Alvarez by not listing him at all. He was listed on less than 50% of the ballots. Of the ballots he was listed on, he still averaged a top-five placement. Japanese junior bantamweight Naoya Inoue moves from No. 10 to No. 9, while the injured Keith Thurman dips from No. 8 to No. 10.

Another area worth noting is that of the 25 fighters receiving votes, only three were on every ballot—Lomachenko, Golovkin and Spence.

1. Vasiliy Lomachenko (145 points)

Lightweight

11-1-0 (9 KOs)

2. Terence Crawford (124)

Welterweight

32-0-0 (23 KOs)

3. Gennady Golovkin (122)

Middleweight

38-0-1 (34 KOs)

4. Errol Spence Jr. (79)

Welterweight

23-0 (20 KOs)

5. Mikey Garcia (74)

Lightweight

38-0-0 (30 KOs)

6. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (47)

Junior Bantamweight

45-4-1 (40 KOs)

7. Sergey Kovalev (42)

Light Heavyweight

32-2-1 (28 KOs)

8. Canelo Alvarez (42)

Middleweight

49-1-2 (34 KOs)

9. Naoya Inoue (36)

Jr. Bantamweight

16-0 (14 KOs)

10. Keith Thurman (31)

Welterweight

28-0 (22 KOs)

Also receiving votes: Anthony Joshua (24 points), Leo Santa Cruz (10), Dmitriy Bivol (7), Oleksandr Usyk (7), Jermall Charlo (7), Jermell Charlo (6), Deontay Wilder (6), Manny Pacquiao (4), Miguel Berchelt (4), Jarrett Hurd (2), Shawn Porter (2), Gary Russell Jr. (2), Juan Francisco Estrada (1), Donnie Nietes (1), Carl Frampton (1).