Having previously been considered as the pound-for-pound king, Canelo Alvarez is on a quest to prove that he remains amongst the elite, and the four-division world champion has revealed his top five active pound-for-pound fighters.
Many fight fans considered Canelo to be the pound-for-pound number one between 2019 and 2022, as he continued his long unbeaten streak since a 2013 loss to Floyd Mayweather and progressed through the weight divisions.
In November 2019, Alvarez dethroned WBO light-heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev to claim world honours in a fourth division, before moving back down to super-middleweight and capturing all four 168lb titles in an 11-month spell to become boxing’s first undisputed super-middleweight champion.
Canelo has since suffered defeats to both Dmitry Bivol and Terence Crawford and the 36-year-old now finds himself without a belt, but he is set for a world title challenge at the end of the month, when he heads to Saudi Arabia and attempts to dethrone Christian Mbilli.
Speaking to DAZN Boxing ahead of that title bid, Canelo revealed his current top five boxers in the sport, noticeably opting not to include himself.
“My top five pound-for-pound fighters are [Oleksandr] Usyk, [Naoya] Inoue, Bivol, Shakur [Stevenson] and Gervonta [Davis].”
Canelo’s selections may come as no surprise, with Usyk and Inoue viewed as the top two fighters on most people’s pound-for-pound lists.
Bivol currently holds three of the four world titles at light heavyweight, making the next defence of those belts against Callum Smith in December, while Stevenson looks poised for a showdown with Devin Haney later this year.
As for Davis, he may be the surprise inclusion in Canelo’s list, with ‘Tank’ having not competed since March 2025 when he was held to a controversial draw with Lamont Roach.
