While most would regard Oleksandr Usyk and Naoya Inoue as the leading pound-for-pound stars, a former world champion has gone against the grain and placed himself at the very top.
Due to their tremendous talent and consistency at the highest level, Usyk and Inoue have become two-division undisputed champions in their respective weight classes.
When all is said and done, they will doubtless enter the Hall of Fame as two generational greats, having fought and beaten the very best of their era.
In an attempt to skip the queue, however, former unified welterweight champion Jaron Ennis has positioned himself at the top of his own pound-for-pound list.
‘Boots’ unified the IBF and WBA world titles in April 2025, dethroning Eimantas Stanionis with a sixth-round finish to establish himself as the top dog at 147lbs.
Other than that, a lack of notable victories has made it difficult to even place the 28-year-old in the top 10, let alone consider him a top five pound-for-pound star.
In an interview with RING CHAMPS, though, Ennis insisted that he deserves to be positioned above Usyk, Shakur Stevenson and Jesse Rodriguez, while not even including Inoue in his list.
“I’m gonna say me, Usyk, Shakur [and] ‘Bam’.”
Perhaps Ennis believes that, on an ability-for-ability metric, he is superior to those who have done far more to cement their legacies in the sport.
In any case, the unbeaten American will look to become a two-weight unified champion, and thus claim his most meaningful victory, when enters his second super-welterweight outing against Xander Zayas on June 27.
