Mexican boxing legend Marco Antonio Barrera has revealed his top five pound-for-pound fighters, making it clear who he believes sits firmly at number one.
It is generally accepted that two-division undisputed champions Oleksandr Usyk and Naoya Inoue are the crème de la crème, given their utter dominance across multiple weight classes.
Usyk, in particular, has claimed a series of monumental victories against the likes of Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, establishing himself as the greatest heavyweight of this era.
Inoue, too, has removed any doubt over his supremacy at 122lbs, where he will defend his undisputed crown against Junto Nakatani on May 2.
But while there is little debate to be had about Usyk and Inoue’s placement on any pound-for-pound list, the remaining spots are of course far more subjective.
Largely because of his dominant unanimous decision victory over Teofimo Lopez in January, many feel that Shakur Stevenson deserves a place in the top five.
According to Barrera, though, Usyk takes top spot ahead of Inoue with Dmitry Bivol, Jesse Rodriguez and Canelo Alvarez filling the other spaces.
“Number one Usyk.
Number two Inoue; number three Bivol; number four ‘Bam’ Rodriguez; number five, I think, [is] Canelo Alvarez.”
Bivol became the undisputed light-heavyweight king in February 2025, exacting his revenge over Artur Beterbiev by scoring a career-defining majority decision victory.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, has taken the lower divisions by storm in recent years, perhaps most notably defeating Sunny Edwards and Juan Francisco Estrada in 2024.
As for Canelo, it has become harder to justify his place in the top five since the Mexican lost to Terence Crawford, who moved up two weight divisions and secured a unanimous decision victory in September.
