Ranking the most skilled southpaws today: Usyk, Crawford, Bam, Shakur, Nakatani

5 elite southpaws who are in most people's Top 10 P4P rankings today. Where would you rank them from most skilled to least skilled in your opinion?

 

1) Usyk
2) Crawford
3) Rodriguez
4) Nakatani
5) Stevenson

 

Rodriguez and Nakatani should really fight it out to see who is better.

 

I honestly would have preferred seeing Nakatani against Bam first and then the winner taking on Inoue. It would make the Inoue fight much more meaningful but I know they want to take the opportunity to have an all-Japanese showdown right away.

 

More like they know they make that fight, Rodriguez kills the Nakatani-Inoue fight. Like how after the Stevenson-Jack draw, Saluiman pleaded with Bob Arum not to enforce the Gvozdyk mandatory because "the world needed the rematch" like that fight was automatically dead the moment the mandatory was enforced. Turns out he was right.

 

There’s no guarantee that Bam could beat Nakatani. Personally I think Big Bang is all wrong for Bam.

 

1.Shakur
2.Usyk
3.Bud
4.Bam
5.Nakatani

 

1. Usyk
2. Crawford
3. Shakur
I don't think the other two have proved themselves as elite yet.

 

Agreed, Nakatani and Bam are okay. They’re not in the same realm as the other 3

 

I think Bam has proven his elite level skills time and again with his wins over Cuadras, SSR, Edwards, Estrada. Also looked fantastic beating Cafu, the same guy who dethroned Kosei Tanaka. I can understand Nakatani since he hasn't beaten enough big names to be fully tested but he's still a unique talent with crazy power.

 

Turki called this dudes bluff already. Tried to make the fight and this dude jettisoned like they were offering and all you can eat sushi buffet.

Winning this fight makes the Inoue fight bigger and Nakatani already has a ton of filler in his resume he couldve cleared to make this fight.

Even sadder too cause at least he could've accepted then pulled out like a *****. Nope, dude just auto-rejected. Guess he wasn't expecting the dight to be offered, probably knew Rodriguez would accept the fight too...

No time for Bam Rodriguez, but has plenty for David Cuellar who got buckled by rando colombian last week and random thai guy #518467...

If only he were as confident as you are.

 

If we’re strictly talking about skills with each fighter in the form they’re in right now, then I’d say it’s something like:

1. Shakur
2. Bud
3. Usyk
4. Junto
5. Bam

Crawford and Usyk have both let a fair share of their skills atrophy to deal with age and their weight climbs. Crawford doesn’t switch anymore, he’s learned to fight more disciplined without pressuring or getting into too many exchanges (both of which he did with his fair share of skill), and he doesn’t let off combos like he used to. He’s trimmed down his style to revolve more around his control game, negotiating distance with his footwork, and finding opportunities for his sneaky counters.

Usyk has trimmed down his style to get rid of a lot of his movement and outboxing skills. His footwork has lost a lot of variety and he doesn’t use angles to the same extent he used to. His style nowadays is more so centred around educated pressure and aggressive counter-punching so that he can drain his bigger opponents both physically and mentally for when he comes alive down the stretch.

Shakur’s skill level is immaculate imo. The same level as the two aforementioned ATGs, I would argue. His defence is so well-rounded that the sheer volume of skills that he has just in terms of not getting hit is ridiculous. The variety of his footwork, his educated long guard game, his fortune-teller-esque head movement. His bag of tools is absurd even before we start talking about what he brings to the table offensively (which is a helluva lot more than what his detractors would have you believe he has).

Bam and Junto are kind of a toss-up depending which flavour you prefer imo. The angle-heavy, high-guard pressure of Bam Rodriguez, or the fencing, rangy, power-boxing and counter-punching of Junto. I think Junto is a tad more creative just in terms of how he uses his lead hand to measure, prod, and block punch lanes in addition to the endless ways he likes to abuse the uppercut. But I wouldn’t argue with anyone who argues that Bam’s intelligent use of angles while maintaining proper defensive awareness with punch traffic and physical controls combined with his ability to capitalise on his extreme angle shifts offensively should place him ahead of Junto Nakatani.

All men are exceptional pugilists though and any ranking is pretty defendable here.

 

Crawford is 1

 

Shakur, Crawford, Bam, Nakatani, Usyk.

No disrespect of Usyk, he's a legit ATG, one of the best HW's ever, probably the best CW ever. But when you compare skills of big guys vs smaller guys, the smaller guys are going to come out ahead. Usyk isn't physically capable of half the stuff Shakur does, for example.

This is always where the whole P4P thing breaks down for me though. Usyk has to drag around 100lbs more than Shakur, of course he can't do half the stuff Shakur can, so how is it fair to directly compare their skills? Footwork and angle changes? Usyk is over twice Bam's weight, of course he can't do the extreme angle shifts that Bam does, so how is it fair to compare them?

Do we look at how they look compared to opponent in their own weight class? That's also not fair because you can have weak divisions. If you want to look at dominance in a single division, there's nobody at 115 who could carry Bam's jock strap. But 115 isn't a particularly strong division right now. Neither is HW for that matter.

(Side note, does boxing make anyone think that other sports could use weight classes? Height in the case of the NBA. There are probably some 5'3" dudes with incredible talent for basketball, but because they're 5'3", there's zero path for them)

 

*nonsense disqualifying better, more proven, more skillful fighters*
proceeds to prop up a prospect who lands single digit punches on gloves whose best wins are Valdez and Zepeda*

Just admit youre here to watch a certain kind of fighter but boxings not doing it for ya.
Might want to try basketball or rap.

Oh wait, you probably already consume that 25/8...