Teddy Atlas believes there is currently just one active fighter that is even better than Terence Crawford.
Atlas is now best known as host of The Fight with Teddy Atlas, where he breaks down the latest developments in boxing and MMA each week. A trainer of countless world champions – from Michael Moorer to Timothy Bradley – and once part of Mike Tyson’s corner team, Atlas’s opinions remain widely respected.
A pound-for-pound list is, of course, entirely subjective, ranking the 10 best fighters in the world regardless of weight class.
Currently, most observers would place Oleksandr Usyk, Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue in their top three, in varying orders. Usyk was last seen outclassing Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion.
Crawford capped what may be a Fighter of the Year campaign by toppling super-middleweight king Canelo Alvarez to become a three-weight undisputed champion, while Japanese destroyer Inoue returns on December 27 to defend his super-bantamweight undisputed crown against David Picasso.
So, who makes Atlas’s top 10 after last weekend’s action in Riyadh? He shared his list on social media.
- Usyk
- Crawford
- Inoue
- Bivol
- Bam [Rodriguez]
- Beterbiev
- Benavidez
- Stevenson
- Nakatani
- Haney
It means that Atlas believes Usyk is the only current fighter more superior to Crawford, with the Ukrainian expected to return in 2026 for his latest world heavyweight title defence.
As for some of the other inclusions in Atlas’ list following the weekend, Devin Haney became a three-weight world champion after outclassing Brian Norman Jr, David Benavidez retained his WBC light-heavyweight title by demolishing Britain’s Anthony Yarde, and the gifted Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez became a three-belt world champion at super-flyweight after stopping Fernando Martinez.
