Victorious Canelo Alvarez & Devin Haney plummet down Ring Magazine's pound-for-pound boxing list

Despite reigning supreme in each of their respective fights last weekend, Canelo Alvarez and Devin Haney have both slipped down Ring Magazine's pound-for-pound pecking order.

Dubbed as a 'game-changing' weekend for the sport, many of the biggest names in boxing were in action across three blockbuster days of action, with Ring Magazine's Times Square bill in New York featuring Haney, Ryan Garcia and Teofimo Lopez alone.

Canelo then took centre stage in Saudi Arabia 24 hours later against William Scull in the first of his four fights under the Riyadh Season umbrella, before fellow pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue returned to Las Vegas for the first time in four years against the gutsy Ramon Cardenas.

Whilst the Japanese star's showdown proved enthralling, the trio of fights at the top of the New York card proved hugely uninspiring, as did Canelo's dreary points success over former IBF title-holder Scull in the Middle East.

In fact, such was the disappointment in the fight, the Mexican - a former pound-for-pound number one - has subsequently slipped from number seven to number eight in the Ring Magazine list, with the in-form Junto Nakatani leaping above the four-weight world champion.

Canelo's lacklustre showdown with his Cuban opponent produced just 445 punches, setting a new unwanted record for a 12-round fight with no other fight, tracked by CompuBox, in 40 years featuring fewer shots.

Remarkably, of those 445, Canelo was responsible for just 152 of them, amassing to an average of just 12 punches a round, or, even more astoundingly, three per minute!

That surprisingly low tally was even more absurd than than the numbers produced in Rolly Romero's shock success over Ryan Garcia (490 punches) and Haney's equally as lethargic victory over Jose Ramirez (503 punches).

The hope was that Haney and Garcia would both reign supreme in impressive fashion in the Big Apple to set-up a mouthwatering rematch after the first showdown 12 months ago ended in hugely controversial fashion.

However, with Garcia being beaten so comprehensively and Haney failing to deliver anywhere near the sort of performance expected of him, that fight is now unlikely to draw the same excitement as it would have done prior to last weekend's trans-Atlantic snooze-fest.

The fact that Haney has now been axed from the top 10 pound-for-pound list, drawn up by Ring Magazine, and replaced by David Benavidez, tells its own story, with Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya one of many to voice his frustrations at the Californian's showing.

I feel bad for Turki (Alalshikh), I really do. He is paying all this money to the fighters to turn out, show up and fight, and give the fans what they deserve - great fights - but they aren't delivering!

"Show up and fight, and not just dance around like Bill Haney and Devin Haney - my gosh, he (Devin Haney) was tagged a couple of times by (Jose) Ramirez and he just jumped on his bicycle and started running for his life - Jesus!

"And then Canelo... come on! He was getting paid all of this money to fight against a runner - somebody we all knew was going to run. He chose to fight him and now he is saying he hates fighting runners... well then, don't fight runners!"

At least Canelo's victory did carry some significance, with the 34-year-old establishing himself as a two-time undisputed super-middleweight champion; teeing up a mouthwatering super fight against the unbeaten Terence Crawford on September 12.

Ring Magazine Pound-for-Pound Boxing Rankings

(As of 09/05/2025)

1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Naoya Inoue
3. Terence Crawford
4. Dmitry Bivol
5. Artur Beterbiev
6. Jesse Rodriguez
7. Junto Nakatani
8. Canelo Alvarez
9. Kenshiro Teraji
10. David Benavidez