Vasiliy Lomachenko Rules Again As The BWAA’s Pound-For-Pound King

For the fourth-straight time, Vasiliy Lomachenko is the BWAA’s pound-for-pound king. Lomachenko maintains the No. 1 spot, once again outlasting Terence Crawford, who held the No. 1 position for the first two BWAA’s pound-for-pound polls, which are selected by BWAA members from respected news outlets and is broken down based on a descending points system, with a first-place vote receiving 10 points, a second-place vote receiving nine points and so on. Ties go to the fighter with the most votes.

The Boxing Writers Association of America will be listing on a bi-monthly basis its top-10 pound-for-pound fighters in the world. All BWAA members, full and auxiliary, can send their top-10 pound-for-pound votes in by the first Monday of each even month to JSantoliquitoBWAA@yahoo.com. The next deadline will be Monday, February 11, 2019, with the results posted later that month.

The response to the poll continues to be strong.

Lomachenko, the BWAA’s 2017 Fighter of the Year, received more first-place votes (17) than anyone, with Crawford finishing a distant second in that area (3).

Middleweight titlist Canelo Alvarez made the largest jump, moving six places from No. 9 on the previous top-10 BWAA pound-for-pound list to No. 3 overall, no doubt fueled by his decision victory over Gennady Golovkin, who was previously third and dropped down to five. The second-largest leap came from undisputed cruiserweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk, who moved from No. 8 to No. 4.

The shuffle moves Mikey Garcia down from No. 4 to No. 7, while Errol Spence Jr. fell from No. 5 to No. 8. WBO junior bantamweight champ Naoya Inoue stays at No. 6, while Srisaket Sor Rungvisai drops from No. 7 to No. 9. IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua stays at 10.

1. Vasiliy Lomachenko (197 points)

Lightweight

12-1-0 (9 KOs)

2. Terence Crawford (181)

Jr. Welterweight

34-0-0 (25 KOs)

3. Canelo Alvarez (141)

Middleweight

51-1-2 (35 KOs)

4. Oleksandr Usyk (123)

Cruiserweight

16-0-0 (12 KOs)

5. Gennady Golovkin (109)

Middleweight

38-1-1 (34 KOs)

6. Naoya Inoue (93)

Jr. Bantamweight

17-0-0 (15 KOs)

7. Mikey Garcia (92)

Lightweight

39-0-0 (30 KOs)

8. Errol Spence Jr. (63)

Welterweight

24-0-0 (21 KOs)

9. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (56)

Jr. Bantamweight

47-4-1 (41 KOs)

10. Anthony Joshua (15)

Heavyweight

22-0-0 (21 KOs)

Also receiving votes: Donnie Nietes (11 points), Leo Santa Cruz (6), Oleksandr Gvozdyk (3), Gervonta Davis (1), Jermall Charlo (1), Regis Prograis (1).