Pound-for-pound: Naoya Inoue, Jermall Charlo active Saturday and more to come
Two fighters on the Boxing Junkie pound-for-pound list are active this weekend. And most of the rest have scheduled or tentative fights set in the next few months.
On Saturday, No. 3 Naoya Inoue defends his bantamweight titles against Michael Dasmarinas in Las Vegas. And Jermall Charlo, an Honorable Mention on the list, will put his middleweight belt on the line against Juan Macias Montiel in Houston.
No. 6 Teofimo Lopez had been set to defend his undisputed lightweight championship against George Kambosos on Saturday but Lopez tested positive for COVID-19 and had to pull out. The fight was pushed back to Aug. 14.
Inoue and Charlo are significant favorites to win their fights, meaning the pound-for-pound list is unlikely to change this weekend.
However, that might not be the case in coming fights involving pound-for-pounders. Many believe No. 15 Manny Pacquiao has a real shot at upsetting No. 4 Errol Spence Jr. on Aug. 21. Brian Castano is a live underdog against No. 12 Jermell Charlo on July 17. And some think Kambosos can be competitive against Lopez.
Here is where the pound-for-pounders stand.
BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND
- Terence Crawford — No fight scheduled.
- Canelo Alvarez – Expected to fight Caleb Plant to unify all four major 168-pound titles in September but no deal is in place.
- Naoya Inoue — Scheduled to defend his bantamweight titles against Michael Dasmarinas on June 19 in Las Vegas.
- Errol Spence Jr. – Scheduled to face No. 15 Manny Pacquiao in a welterweight title-unification bout on Aug. 21 in Las Vegas.
- Oleksandr Usyk – Tentatively scheduled to challenge heavyweight titleholder Anthony Joshua on Sept. 25 in London.
- Teofimo Lopez — Scheduled to defend his 135-pound titles against George Kambosos Jr. on Aug. 14.
- Vasiliy Lomachenko — Scheduled to fight Masayoshi Nakatani on June 26 in Las Vegas.
- Tyson Fury – Scheduled to defend his heavyweight title against Deontay Wilder on July 24 in Las Vegas.
- Juan Francisco Estrada — The WBC announced that Estrada will meet Roman Gonzalez in a third fight as part of a junior bantamweight tournament but nothing is official.
- Gennadiy Golovkin — Tentatively scheduled to face Ryota Murata in a middleweight title-unification fight on Dec. 28 in Tokyo.
- Mikey Garcia — No fight scheduled.
- Jermell Charlo — Scheduled to face Brian Castano in a 154-pound title-unification fight on July 17.
- Josh Taylor — Expected to face mandatory challenger Jack Catterall in his next fight but no deal is in place.
- Artur Beterbiev — No fight scheduled.
- Manny Pacquiao — Scheduled to face No. 4 Errol Spence Jr. in a welterweight title-unification bout on Aug. 21.
Honorable mention (alphabetical order): Mairis Briedis (no fight scheduled), Jermall Charlo (scheduled to face Juan Montiel on June 19), Gervonta Davis (scheduled to face Mario Barrios on June 26), Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (the WBC announced that Sor Rungvisai will meet Carlos Cuadras as part of a junior bantamweight tournament but nothing is official), and Oscar Valdez (expected to defend his junior lightweight title against Robson Conceicao in late summer or fall but nothing is official).