When it comes to boxing's fictional pound-for-pound rankings, three names have rotated in and out of the top spot for the past couple of years. There is former undisputed junior welterweight and current WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford (35-0, 24 KOs); three-division champ Vasiliy Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs), who's the current owner of three of the four lightweight titles; and three-weight world champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs).
While the debate rages on, in Alvarez's mind there is no question who the pound-for-pound top fighter should be.
“I’ve done better than they have,” Alvarez said to a group of reporters in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “I’ve done things that are better than they have done in their career."
This weekend, Alvarez will make his latest bid at greatness and distance himself from his contemporaries when he moves up two weight classes to challenge Sergey Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight championship at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, live on DAZN .
A victory for the current WBA and WBC (Franchise) middleweight champion and WBA (regular) super middleweight titlist would make him a world champion in his fourth weight class. That, in itself, makes a compelling case for Canelo's position as the top pound-for-pound fighter in boxing.
To his credit, Alvarez has taken on some of the stiffest challenges in boxing with victories over Erislandy Lara, Miguel Cotto and Daniel Jacobs while also being the only man to hold a victory over fellow pound-for-pound great Gennadiy Golovkin. The only blemish on his record came against arguably the greatest fighter of this generation in Floyd Mayweather back in 2013. His resume certainly speaks for itself, and when compared to Lomachenko, who lost a split decision to Orlando Salido in his second professional fight, and Crawford, who doesn't have a catalog of opponents quite like Alvarez, the 29-year-old Mexican has a valid case for the top spot.
Alvarez believes he's the best fighter in the world — and also believes that those who don't agree with his assessment of himself simply do not like him.
"I never really lost any sleep over not be No. 1 pound for pound," he said. "Because in the end, there’s somebody who puts you there. Maybe those people don’t like me, and they’ll never place me at No. 1. The only point here is I felt No. 1 my entire life. That’s why I have reached where I’ve reached. Ever since I started my profession, I felt No. 1. And I continue feeling the same way. And I continue training as though I were No. 1, and I’ll continue doing that my entire life.”
Should Canelo defeat Kovalev on Saturday, it's going to be difficult for his critics to keep him out of the top spot. And in his mind, he's already done everything you are supposed to do to be considered the best fighter in the world.
“Of course, history, your resume, that’s what places you at No. 1,” Alvarez said. “There can’t be anything else. [A fighter] that embraces fights, history, and who you fight, championships — everything.”