Roy Jones Jr believes Terence Crawford is the pound-for-pound king of boxing.
However, ‘RJ’ insists fellow two-weight undisputed champion Naoya Inoue is ‘fast on his heels’.
“Right now the pound-for-pound king with the Kid [Naoya] Inoue right on his back,” Jones Jr told talkSPORT Drive.
“I’ll tell you why, Terence Crawford has been dominating for the last ten years, ain’t nobody come close.
“The only reason he didn’t get the pound-for-pound title earlier is because no one higher up the ladder would give him the opportunity, but he is definitely now pound-for-pound the king.
“Inoue is fast on his heels because anyone you give Inoue, he destroys.”
Jones Jr’s assessment lines up with the Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound ratings which have Crawford at No.1 and Inoue at No.2.
Just below them on the boxing icon’s list is Dmitry Bivol who faces Artur Beterbiev on June 1 in Saudi Arabia for all four major sanctioning body belts at light-heavyweight.
Providing Bivol wins that fight, Jones Jr believes he can leapfrog both boxers into pole position.
“After that, you’ve probably got to go with [Dmitry] Bivol, he’s been doing his thing for a while,” he added.
“Bivol has shown that he can beat whoever he wants to beat, now if he beats [Artur] Beterbiev he’s going to get the new crown of pound-for-pound king.”
Crawford became the consensus pound-for-pound king after beating Errol Spence Jr last July to become undisputed champion at welterweight.
In doing so, he became the first two-weight undisputed champion in the four-belt era having already claimed all of the titles at super-lightweight six years prior.
Inoue was the second man to achieve this distinction when he followed up his reign of dominance at bantamweight with another four-belt unification at super-bantamweight at the back end of 2023.
Bivol, meanwhile, ranks highly on most people’s lists due to his notable win over former pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez, as well as his impressive seven-year reign as WBA light-heavyweight champion.
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News Summary:
- Roy Jones Jr explains why Terence Crawford is the pound-for-pound king, but another boxer is ‘fast on his heels’
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