Oleksandr Usyk remains adamant that, even after Terence Crawford announced his retirement last December, he is not the sport’s leading pound-for-pound operator.
Despite his humility, many would regard Usyk as the finest fighter of his generation, with the Ukrainian having become a three-time, two-division undisputed champion.
His professional accolades followed a distinguished amateur career, where he claimed Olympic gold in 2012, before defeating the likes of Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev to unify all four major belts at 200lbs.
The 39-year-old then cemented himself as the greatest heavyweight of this era by securing two victories over Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, respectively.
And yet, even during his reign as the undisputed king, Usyk always maintained his belief that Crawford was the number one pound-for-pound fighter.
Since then, though, the masterful southpaw has been forced to select a different candidate after the three-division undisputed champion called time on his illustrious career.
Speaking with Inside the Ring ahead of his clash with Rico Verhoeven on May 23, Usyk named four-division world champion Shakur Stevenson as the man to replace Crawford.
“Thank you so much [to] people who support me, but I cannot say [the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter is] me.
“Now, maybe it’s Shakur.”
While Stevenson is certainly a top five pound-for-pound star, some would argue that two-division undisputed champion Naoya Inoue deserves to be placed above him at this stage.
The Japanese ‘Monster’ has dominated several of the lower weight classes in recent years, notably defeating the likes of Nonito Donaire, Stephen Fulton and Luis Nery. His case will be made stronger if he defeats Junto Nakatani on May 2.
Stevenson, meanwhile, has terrific potential to become the sport’s flagship fighter. A three-division champion at the age of 28, the Newark southpaw comes off a dominant win over Teofimo Lopez and looks to push on by facing more big names in and around the 140 weight class.
