NAOYA INOUE has moved to the top of Ring Magazine’s latest pound-for-pound rankings.
The Japanese knockout specialist took just two rounds to blast out Nonito Donaire in their unification bantamweight rematch this week.
And that has been enough to see 29-year-old take top spot in the latest rankings that were released this week.
Canelo Alvarez had been in top spot for several months, but he has now been bumped off in the Ring Magazine’s P4P top ten boxers.
The Mexican ace, 31, was outpointed by Russia’s WBA light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol last month.
It was just the second defeat of his 61-fight career, with his previous loss coming at the hands of Floyd Mayweather in 2013.
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Prior to Canelo’s shock defeat, he was sitting pretty at the top of the Ring’s P4P list.
But he has now plummeted down in the rankings, while there is still no room for Tyson Fury after he signed off his career with a brutal knockout victory over Dillian Whyte last month.
The Ring Magazine still counts Fury as their top heavyweight and champion, though they have omitted him from their updated list.
And there is also no room for Anthony Joshua either – although that could all change if he wins his rematch with No.2 Oleksandr Usyk.
The Ukrainian took the heavyweight titles from AJ last September, and that also took him top of the P4P list.
But now Inoue’s latest victory, which unified the bantamweight division, propelled him above Usyk into pole position.
And, with Fury and Joshua’s omission, that means there is now only one British boxer left in the top ten.
Unbeaten star Josh Taylor retains his place, although he has dropped from sixth to ninth.
The 19-0 Scot is not to blame for the terrible scorecards that gifted him an undeserved win over Jack Catterall back in February but his air of invincibility has definitely suffered a dent.
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Prior to that bout Taylor was one of British boxing’s biggest success stories, racing to undisputed 10st glory by taking on all of the best in his way and beating them convincingly.
He is definitely not the first big star to dodge a costly bullet thanks to some skew-whiff scoring, and his reputation has taken a big hit.
