"I'm the best" - Canelo Alvarez responds to dropping down the pound-for-pound rankings

Canelo Alvarez v Dmitry Bivol [Getty Images]

Canelo Alvarez was stopped in his tracks earlier this month after losing to WBA Light-Heavyweight Champion Dmitry Bivol. The pound-for-pound king was dropped down to sixth place by The Ring Magazine on their pound-for-pound list, while Oleksandr Usyk took Canelo's number one spot.

Canelo Alvarez seems to be unfazed by the pound-for-pound rank reduction and still believes that he is the best boxer in the world.

After the recent announcement of Canelo Alvarez's trilogy fight against Gennadiy Golovkin, Alvarez spoke to DAZN about his new pound-for-pound position:

"The truth is that I don't know how they handle that kind of thing but I still feel I'm the best. Tell me another fighter who is trying in other categories, going down and up in weight, wanting to achieve different kinds of things. Nobody has done that. I do it."

Alvarez then added:

"I risk everything to keep making history when I don't need to risk anything. I've already achieved so many things. I'm in a position where I don't have to risk anything, and I still do it, and nobody does that when they are in a position like the one I'm in. So personally, I still feel I'm the best in the world."

The defeat to Dmitry Bivol broke the Mexican's nine-year unbeaten streak. Although Alvarez has fallen in the pound-for-pound rankings, he still holds many accolades in multiple weight divisions.

With the trilogy fight with the Kazakh star coming this year, there are already plans underway for Alvarez to get a rematch with Bivol later on.

The Mexican will look to reclaim his number one spot in the pound-for-pound rankings by beating his arch rival Golovkin and later defeating Bivol in a rematch.

Gatti vs. Ward, Holyfield vs. Bowe, where will Canelo vs. Golovkin rank amongst the great trilogies? 🤔

#CaneloGGG3

Beyond Canelo Alvarez, what else has changed in the top 10 pound-for-pound list?

With The Ring Magazine still going strong after 95 years, the independent rankings are the most respected in world boxing today. After its latest update on May 14, it welcomed some different names and removed some old ones.

The new list welcomes Juan Francisco Estrada, Vasyl Lomachenko and Dmitry Bivol. Artur Beterbiev, Gervonta Davis, Tyson Fury and Teofimo Lopez have been removed.

Oleksandr Usyk jumped from seventh place to become the new king. The Ukrainian holds the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO Heavyweight Titles after beating Anthony Joshua. Crawford, Spence and Naoya Inoue remained in the top five as they all retained their unbeaten records.

Crawford still holds the WBO Welterweight Title while Spence holds the WBA, WBC and IBF Welterweight Titles. Inoue, meanwhile, is still the Unified Bantamweight World Champion, having held the WBA, IBF, and Ring magazine titles since 2019.

Here is Ring Magazine's top 10 pound-for-pound list, as reported by talkSPORT's Michael Benson:

📋 Jermell Charlo has entered the Ring Magazine pound-for-pound list after becoming undisputed:

1️⃣🇺🇦 Oleksandr Usyk
2️⃣🇺🇸 Terence Crawford
3️⃣🇯🇵 Naoya Inoue
4️⃣🇺🇸 Errol Spence
5️⃣🇲🇽 Juan Estrada
6️⃣🇲🇽 Canelo
7️⃣🇺🇦 Vasyl Lomachenko
8️⃣🇷🇺 Dmitry Bivol
9️⃣🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Josh Taylor
🔟🇺🇸 Jermell Charlo