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Last weekend’s boxing bonanza eclipsed this year’s Cinco de Mayo boxing weekend, as Terence Crawford took on Canelo Alvarez and Naoya Inoue squared off against Murdjon Akhmadaliev. Both fights turned out to be an extraordinary display of boxing brilliance that left fans worldwide utterly entertained. Crawford, of course, defeated Canelo via a dominant unanimous decision on Saturday. This wasn’t the end, though!

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Meanwhile, Inoue, who claimed “I am the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world” before his fight on Sunday, took out Akhmadaliev with ease despite hype surrounding the latter’s chances in the lead-up to the fight. Now, both fights over the last weekend appear to have had a massive impact on Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings, as huge changes have revealed who’s the new pound-for-pound king. 

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Naoya Inoue won’t like this 

Before Ring Magazine’s latest update, Oleksandr Usyk held the No. 1 pound-for-pound spot, followed by Naoya Inoue at No. 2 and Terence Crawford at No. 3. Canelo Alvarez sat further down at No. 8. But after last weekend’s historic fights, the landscape has shifted dramatically. Crawford has surged to No. 1, pushing Usyk and Inoue each down a place, while Canelo has slipped to No. 10, now ranked behind David Benavidez.

The shake-up has sparked debate, particularly since Inoue also delivered a dominant performance and has cleaned out his division over the past 26 months with six fights. In contrast, Crawford has fought just three times in the same period. Yet his achievement of becoming a three-division undisputed champion—a milestone no other male boxer has reached in the four-belt era—gave him the edge in the rankings.

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Still, there’s a strong argument for Inoue’s case. While Usyk has fought only four times in recent years and is not expected to return to the ring again this year, Inoue is already lined up for a December bout against David Picasso and a potential clash with Junto Nakatani next year. Regardless, the new Ring Magazine rankings look something like this now:

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No. 1 

Terence Crawford

No. 2 

Oleksandr Usyk

No. 3 

Naoya Inoue

No. 4 

Dmitry Bivol

No. 5 

Artur Beterbiev

No. 6 

Jesse Rodriguez

No. 7

Junto Nakatani

No. 8

Shakur Stevenson

No. 9 

David Benavidez

No. 10 

Canelo Alvarez

While Terence Crawford overthrew Oleksandr Usyk and Naoya Inoue, the numbers from Canelo-Crawford suggest it also dominated the viewership records. 

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Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford: The most-watched men’s championship fight

As Terence Crawford secured a career-defining victory over Canelo Alvarez, Netflix has revealed that the main event averaged 36.6 million live+SD viewers, rising to 41.4 million with Live+1, making it the most-watched men’s championship boxing match this century. In the US, 20.3 million people tuned in to watch the fight unfold, peaking at 24 million concurrent streams. 

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The fight topped Netflix charts in 30 countries, including the U.S., Mexico, and the UK, while trending worldwide on X with nearly a billion global impressions. Not to mention, Allegiant Stadium played host to 70,482 fans during the fight and generated a record $47 million in gate revenue. 

It looks like Naoya Inoue may have to work even harder to claim the No. 1 pound-for-pound spot, with a possible clash against Junto Nakatani ahead. Meanwhile, the Canelo fight could well have been Crawford’s last. Can Inoue rise back to the top?

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Written by

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Sudeep Sinha

4,776 Articles

Sudeep Sinha is a Golf Writer at EssentiallySports, covering the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the storylines around the sport's biggest events and names. He previously spent over two years writing in the Boxing department, where his fight-night coverage was featured on Sports Illustrated, Daily Mail, and Yahoo Sports, including his reporting on Ryan Garcia's career arc. On the golf beat, Sudeep covers tour news, player form, and the season-long storylines that shape the men's and women's game, from majors to the ongoing shifts in how professional golf is structured. That same appetite for detail that made his boxing coverage stand out now shows up in how he breaks down a swing change or a schedule shakeup for hardcore and casual fans alike. Outside work, he splits his time between reading, cycling, and following combat sports.

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Syed Rahil Ahmed

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