Boxing Pound-for-Pound Rankings: Canelo Alvarez maintains No. 1 spot despite decisive loss to Dmitry Bivol

Pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez’s “daring to be great” tour hit a snag last Saturday when his bid to challenge unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol ended in a unanimous decision loss.  

Alvarez, 31, who has won titles in four divisions, failed in the end to one-up his incredible 2021 campaign when he became the first undisputed champion in 168-pound history. That doesn’t mean he deserves anything but our collective praises, however, for turning down bigger fights commercially in order to find a matchup like Bivol that would truly challenge him.  

Bivol, who used the victory to find his own place among the top 10 best in the world, relied on skill just as much as size to frustrate Alvarez. His defense was also on point enough that he limited the Mexican icon to single punches landed at a time and nothing more.

Luckily for Alvarez, his reputation is so sky high that the defeat did not affect his P4P ranking as a unique modern superstar willing to risk a loss in order to maximize how great he can be. Still, the loss was a humbling reminder that up to a certain point, size does matter.  

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Considering Alvarez spent just as much time during fight week talking about how he would defeat Bivol as he would teasing possible future moves up to cruiserweight and even heavyweight, the loss should provide a new baseline of what is reasonable. That hasn’t stopped Alvarez, however, from saying he’s interested in an immediate rematch. 

Below is the latest Pound for Pound rankings update after Alvarez’s shocking loss in May.

Pound-for-Pound Rankings

1. Canelo Alvarez

Undisputed super middleweight champion (57-2-2, 38 KOs) | Previous ranking: No. 1

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