Canelo Alvarez enhanced his standing on the WBN P4P Top 50 list as Naoya Inoue cemented the top spot in an eventful week for the sport.
Canelo dropped and defeated Jaime Munguia in Las Vegas to defend his undisputed super middleweight title. Subsequently, the Mexican superstar moved up one place to three on the Pound for Pound standings.
Naoya Inoue, the undisputed super bantamweight champion who fought on May 6 and defeated Luis Nery after surviving a knockdown, continues as the unrivaled king of boxing.
In addition, World Boxing News has removed Ryan Garcia until the New York State Athletic Commission rules out the current threat of an impending suspension. VADA Testing will open the B sample to Garcia’s April 19 drug test that they initially flagged for ostarine. If VADA ratifies those initial results, Garcia faces a ban, and his win over Devin Haney will be declared a no-contest. Therefore, WBN has placed Haney back at his original number seven position.
Terence Crawford continues at number two ahead of his return in three months. Oleksandr Usyk drops to four but can climb above Inoue as the new number one if he can become undisputed at heavyweight next weekend. Usyk faces Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia and will equal Inoue’s feat as a two-weight undisputed champion if successful.
Crawford was the first to achieve this fantastic haul of eight title belts in two weight classes. However, WBN won’t consider Crawford for the summit because of his lack of activity compared to Inoue and Usyk [nine months recently through no fault of his own]. Usyk will open a massive debate based on the outcome of the Fury headliner.
Dmitry Bivol is fifth, with Vasily Lomachenko at six. If ‘Loma’ beats George Kambosos on Sunday, the Ukrainian master will re-enter the top five. Lomachenko stands above Haney because WBN believes the former amateur star won their controversial fight.
Shakur Stevenson is eighth, one place ahead of lightweight rival Gervonta Davis, and ahead of a potential unification later this year. Artur Beterbiev, who suffered an injury recently postponing his June 1 clash with Bivol, is at ten.
WBN P4P Top 50 – May 10, 2024
1 Naoya INOUE
2 Terence CRAWFORD
3 CANELO Alvarez
4 Oleksandr USYK
5 Dmitry BIVOL
6 Vasiliy LOMACHENKO
7 Devin HANEY
8 Shakur STEVENSON
9 Gervonta DAVIS
10 Artur BETERBIEV
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Read all articles and exclusive interviews by Phil Jay. Learn more about the author, experienced boxing writer, and World Boxing News Editor since 2010. Follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
