Spike O'Sullivan: Usyk and Shields are my pound-for-pound king and queen of the ring
SHREWD OPERATOR: Oleksandr Usyk of Ukraine nails Anthony Joshua at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London last September.
IF the mother-in-law is anything to go by, there must be more lists made these two weeks than the rest of the year combined. You can’t move for a list around the place.
To be fair, this in-between few days from Christmas to January is a great time of the year for looking forward. But it’s a time for looking back too.
The year was good to me in lots of ways and I have a lot to be thankful for. Fighting for a middleweight world title in Brooklyn in May was a dream partly fulfilled for me. Erislandy Lara is such a class act and had too much for me that night but I know I've more than enough to get back to fight for another world title again soon — hopefully in 2023. Whatever about me, this has been a hectic year for our sport too. Boxing being boxing, there have been lows but there have been so many highs too.
Where has it all left us? Well, that’s the fun part, isn’t it?
This is also a grand time of year for the high stool, which seems appropriate. Because, in so many ways, pound-for-pound rankings are the ultimate in pub talk. It’s basically ‘lads, if we parked the reality of how big and small these guys and girls are…who would beat who?’ But it’s the best way we have of measuring who is the best in the game right now and for me, there are two clear candidates in men’s and women’s boxing. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of contenders lining up behind them though.
So, to get ye all talking on the high stool or at home, here are my end-of-year pound-for-pound rankings for both men’s and women’s boxing.
If ye disagree wildly or think I’ve missed someone, make sure and let me know. Call me out on Twitter or in the street if you prefer. The beauty of boxing — and life — is that everyone has an opinion. It’s just that mine are right! Off we go…
Let’s start off with a bang then, shall we? You might be wondering how I can include a fighter whose only outing in 2022 ended in defeat. Well, that’s because he was robbed. Absolutely thieved blind of a win over Josh Taylor in Glasgow last February. I love both of these fighters and respect them a lot too. I think Josh is the best boxer in Scotland’s history. But everyone saw Jack win on a night when all of the belts at 140lbs were on the line. Jack is such a talented southpaw, he has almost no clear weaknesses. It looks like we’re going to have to wait until maybe April to get the rematch now. It promises to be another cracking contest but I just hope it’s judged a little more accurately this time round.
Has anyone had a better 2022 than Bivol? It’s hard to think of too many contenders. In May he became only the second human on the planet, Floyd Mayweather the other, to beat Canelo Alvarez. And here’s the thing — it was a comprehensive victory and should have been reflected properly on the scorecards. He outlanded Canelo in every round. Phenomenal. It would have been easy to kick back for the rest of the year but he went and took down another decorated Mexican. Gilberto Ramirez was 44-0 until he met Bivol in November. It was unanimous again. Taking down two of the best Mexican fighters in the world in the same year is serious work. Canelo says he wants a rematch with Bivol in autumn of 2023 but why? Bivol’s just too big and strong for him. I’d prefer to see him try to unify the division against Artur Beterbiev.
Just the one outing for the Iron Man this year but he fairly delivered the goods. Having drawn with Brian Castaño in a controversial one last year, Charlo took it out of the judges’ hands in May when he dropped Castaño twice in the 10th and claimed a KO win to take all four of the 160lb belts. Charlo’s jab is like concrete and he’ll stand there and rely on it. You have to respect that. I don’t know when his twin brother, Jermall who is 32-0 in the division above, is coming back to fight next but they’ve already said there’s no way they’ll fight each other.
Jermell had been eager to get on with things anyway, booking a January date with Tim Tszyu. A broken hand has delayed the bout but when it does happen, It could be very tasty.
Speaking of Australia, we’re going to stay there. That’s not where Haney is from but it’s where he spent most of the past year. A couple of things have fallen his way but he’s been ruthless when presented with the opportunities. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine saw the great Vasiliy Lomachenko go back home to fight for his country. As heroic as that was, it left Australia’s George Kambosos without a dance partner at 135lb. In stepped Haney and he outboxed Kambosos in front of a massive crowd in Melbourne. The rematch clause was triggered and Haney repeated the trick in October. He’s defensively brilliant. I’ve always been someone willing to hit the road and take the daunting dates so I respect the hell out of Haney for doing that early in his career.
Here’s The Truth: Spence could and some will say should be higher up. What a fighter he is. But he hasn’t been as active as he could have been. His defeat of Yordenis Ugás in April was only his second fight in three years. I know there are reasons for that. He’s blessed to have made it out of a horrific car crash in 2019 and has had retinal issues too. At his best, he looks unbeatable, piling pressure on you and destroying the body. But we’ve reached a point now where all we need to see next is Spence and Terence Crawford to sort their shite out. They have the opportunity to give us one of the most mouth-watering fights of this era. Time for them to park the contractual bickering and get it on.
I see some rankings have omitted the Gypsy King because he’s ‘retired’ again. What a spoofer. He’s not retired and to be honest, that kinda nonsense from Fury has long since got old. What never gets old is watching him do his thing. I struggle with getting the right words for him to be honest but let’s take a second to look at even this year: knockout victories over Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora in front of huge stadium crowds made to look like easy work. It all feels normal now for Fury but it’s far from it. What’s next? Keep reading to the end. Fury is an absolutely unique fighter. We’ve never seen anyone like him and I feel confident enough in saying this: he’s the hardest boxer to beat in the history of our sport.
Some things in life are guaranteed. Canelo staying busy is one of them. The year may have begun with him losing for the first time in nine long years when moving up to fight Bivol proved a step too far but he got things right back on track. Ending the debate by comprehensively beating Gennady Golovkin in their trilogy fight in September was a great way to bounce back. I’ve already written this year about how much I admire Canelo’s style and substance but I do wonder if setting his eyes back on Bivol is smart. A good big 'un will always beat a good little 'un and Bivol is always going to be bigger. Canelo had wrist surgery recently but wants to be back for a warm-up up bout in May to take a run at Bivol in September. One thing is certain: it’ll be interesting.
This feels harsh but when Crawford racked up his 10th-straight victory inside the distance against David Avanesyan earlier this month, the first reaction was disappointment. Listen, I know what goes into any camp for a fighter, the sacrifices and work. But we’re just too far down the road now to be content with anything but Crawford fighting Spence next. This was supposed to have been the year and in September it looked a done deal. Crawford is a free agent and does most of his own negotiations but something tripped it up again. Bud is one of the best boxers we’ve seen, such a high IQ technician in there. But the sport has a question that needs answering: who is the best welterweight out there? Come on lads…give us the goods.
If this is the first time you’re hearing the name, you’re probably not alone. But let me tell you this: you’ve plenty of catching up to do and you’re going to enjoy catching up. The Monster by nickname, monstrous by nature, Inoue is just a ferocious winner and is already a three-weight world champion. He wrapped up a phenomenal year with a KO of Paul Butler earlier this month. Just two of his fights have come outside of Tokyo which is part of the reason why his reputation still has miles to go. There is no one who can live with him at 118lb so we’ll see him move up to super bantamweight next. He looks to have more than enough to mow them down too.
I just can’t look past the big man as the best in the world right now. Every time you ask for more from him, he over delivers. Bear in mind what he was going through this year when Russia invaded Ukraine and he returned home to try to contribute to the war effort. Somewhere along the line he decided his efforts were better focused out of the country, which, ultimately, was bad news for Anthony Joshua. Joshua did improve for their second bout in August and yet Usyk was even more dominant, landing more blows on him than any other opponent. The options are wide open in front of Usyk now with Deontay Wilder on the radar but Fury is the fight the public wants to see. As brilliant as Usyk is, I’d still only see a Fury fight going one way…but let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.
Closer observers of the women’s game will probably raise their eyebrows here but let them. I have an awful lot of time for Persoon…and probably even more sympathy. It’s three years now but I still come back to Persoon’s first bout with Katie Taylor in New York which she arguably won. If the judges had scored it accurately it would have changed Delfine’s life and that’s the difference between the male and female side of the sport. For good measure, she got screwed over again recently when a KO over Ikram Kerwat was ruled a No Contest. Let’s hope for better luck in 2023.
If you’ve never seen her seven-second KO of Miranda Adkins, do yourself a favour. That was two years ago now but Estrada has continued to back up her reputation. She’s a two-division world champion and celebrated signing a multi-year deal with Top Rank with another successful title defence in November. Bob Arum and Co. clearly see her pedigree and are looking to build bigger things in 2023.
You could almost compare her year with Canelo’s. She moved up a weight to take on a daunting opponent, it didn’t go her way but she came back down and bounced back by confirming her class. Serrano’s name will forever be remembered by Irish sports fans after the huge part she played in April’s historic headline showdown with Katie Taylor at Madison Square Garden. It was an absolute cracker of a fight and there were moments when Serrano was doing a lot of the fighting. On another night it could so easily have gone her way. That night, and the opportunity, might come in 2023 if Serrano does agree to the Croke Park rematch that Taylor and Eddie Hearn seem to want so much. In the meantime, Serrano handed Sarah Mahfoud her first loss in September becoming unified featherweight champion. A class act.
I could have sat here every December for the last 15 years and written the following words: ‘what more can we say about Katie Taylor?’ And you know what, she’d have forced us to find more words each new year. My former Ireland amateur teammate, I’d love to say I taught her everything she knows but Katie’s the one who has been teaching us all for years now. What a year for her. The way she hung in there against Serrano when things took a bad turn was unreal. She finished the year by seeing off Karen Carabajal with little trouble and now looks for the Croke Park homecoming she’s been craving all along. I hope 2023 is really, really good to Katie but I also hope it’s her last year in the ring. She’s done it all and, like the rest of the country, I care about her. So let’s hope she can be the queen of Croker and go out on the highest high.
Katie was the one who changed the game for women’s boxing. She dragged it to a place where it couldn’t be ignored any longer and brought the spotlight. But it’s Claressa who is ensuring the spotlight will never leave again. Merciful hour, what a fighter. The CV is already one of the most stunning things you’ll see: two-time Olympic gold medalist, multiple weight world champion and still in her mid-20s.
Her brilliant win over Savannah Marshall in London a couple of months ago did two things: cemented her position as the top woman in the game and earned revenge against the only fighter to ever beat her as a pro or amateur. Which begs the question: is there anyone out there to stop her? I look at Claressa and think she has a chance to take herself and women’s boxing to a place no one else could. She can be a figure like Serena Williams was for so long to tennis. The sport is blessed to have her.
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