The retirement of Terence Crawford despatched ripples by means of boxing, impacting plenty of fighters and divisions.
Canelo Alvarez’s plans to avenge his September 2025 defeat to Crawford had been instantly scrapped, whereas the super-middleweight division was left with out a recognised primary.
Crawford’s victory over Canelo made him a three-weight undisputed champion, however his resolution to hold up the gloves left all 4 titles vacant.
The WBA have since acted to raise interim titleholder Jose Armando Resendiz to full champion, whereas the remaining three belts are anticipated to search out new homeowners this 12 months, with a number of contenders lining up for his or her alternative.
The fallout prolonged past the world title image and into the pound-for-pound debate. Whereas inherently subjective, such rankings proceed to form discussions round boxing’s elite, no matter weight class.
For a number of years, Crawford featured prominently within the prime three alongside heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) and multi-weight phenom Naoya Inoue (32-0, 27 KOs).
With Crawford now faraway from the equation, Usyk and Inoue are broadly considered because the main candidates for the highest spot, relying on who you ask, with Dmitry Bivol and Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez generally cited to spherical out the highest 5.
Inoue loved a busy 2025, making 4 profitable defences of his undisputed super-bantamweight title. His 12 months was capped with a routine factors victory over David Picasso final month in Riyadh.
Previous to his last struggle of the 12 months, Battle Hub TV caught up with the Japanese star and requested whether or not Crawford’s retirement now made him the perfect fighter on this planet. Inoue’s response was characteristically transient.
“Hai (sure).”
Whether or not Usyk would agree is unlikely to develop into a urgent debate. What’s past doubt is that boxing at present boasts two distinctive champions who, in their very own methods, are staking professional claims to greatness.
