TERENCE CRAWFORD has soared to the summit of the pound-for-pound rankings following his beatdown of Errol Spence Jr.
The Nebraska native become the undisputed ruler of the welterweight division last weekend with a ninth-round stoppage of the former unified 147lbs champion.
Slick switch hitter Crawford beat Spence Jr from pillar to post and ruthlessly bloodied him before the referee mercifully called a halt to proceedings.
Crawford’s career-best performance saw him become the first male boxer to become an undisputed champion in two different weight classes.
And Ring Magazine have deemed his historic victory worthy of placing him at the top of their prestigious pound-for-pound rankings.
Newly-crowned four-weight world champion Naoya Inoue is directly below Crawford in second place following his eighth-round KO victory over former unified super bantamweight king Stephen Fulton.
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Unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk sits in third place ahead of boxing megastar Canelo Alvarez.
Canelo conqueror and WBA light-heavyweight king Dmitry Bivol occupies fifth spot ahead of the recently-battered Spence Jr.
Undisputed lightweight champion Devin Haney sits in seventh place ahead of Teofimo Lopez, who recently silenced his doubters with a decision victory over Josh Taylor.
Former three-weight world champion Vasyl Lomachenko – who lost the unified 135lb titles to Lopez nearly three years ago – rounds out the list in tenth place.
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Crawford, 35, declared himself boxing’s pound-for-pound king shortly after his emphatic dethroning of Spence Jr.
The undisputed two-weight champ said: “Without a doubt.
“Like I told everybody once before, the winner out of this fight was gonna be number one pound-for-pound, hands down.
“You got Errol Spence, was ranked number four in the pound-for-pound.
“And you got Terence Crawford – I was ranked number one.
“So, you got two fighters that’s in the top five pound-for-pound ratings.
“How can [the winner] not be number one pound-for-pound?”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
