This week, the well-known American media "Sports Illustrated" updated the P4P boxing ranking for July, which attracted widespread attention. The boxing section of Sports Illustrated has a long history, far surpassing some of today's emerging media, and the objectivity and richness of the report were once comparable to that of Boxing magazine.
Nowadays, many well-known boxing media - ESPN, "Left Hook", BoxRec, "World Boxing News" have their own P4P rankings, but they are basically the same, but the P4P rankings of "Sports Illustrated" are different from other media, which is another reason for special attention.
In the updated P4P rankings, a notable change is that the famous 115-pound super-flyweight fighter Jesse Rodriguez, with his outstanding performance not long ago, surpassed Mexican star Caneiro Alvarez in one fell swoop and ranked 4th on the list, which is relatively rare in previous P4P rankings, because small-level fighters are rarely able to enter the top 5 on the list, so it shows Rodriguez's strength and influence.
Rodriguez impressed fans last week in a clash with veteran Juan Francisco Estrada, where the two men exchanged knockouts, but Rodriguez was undoubtedly the better to destroy Estrada for a big victory, and the 24-year-old improved his record to 20 wins and 13 knockouts.
At just 17 years old, Rodriguez made his way into the professional arena and rose to prominence faster than expected, defeating the experienced Carlos Cuadras to become the king in 2022 before knocking out Thailand's Srisaket. Interestingly, Rodriguez dropped his weight to 112-pound flyweight in 2023 and soon claimed the World Title again, and last week's fight with Estrada was Rodriguez's return to 115 pounds, and the results proved to everyone that he was strong.
Now, Rodriguez's popularity has soared, his future is limitless, and he is even expected to compete with Naoya "The Monster" Inoue, but in any case, Rodriguez has become a rising star in the small division and is getting more and more attention.
The undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk tops the Sports Illustrated P4P rankings, which is also different from other outlets, as ESPN and World Boxing News both rank Terrence Crawford at the top of the rankings, followed by Naoya Inoue, but in the Sports Illustrated rankings, Crawford is No. 2 and Inoue is No. 3.
The undisputed 168-pound super middleweight champion Alvarez, who was originally ranked No. 4, was replaced by Rodriguez, dropping one spot to No. 5.
It is worth noting that Devin Haney, who claims to be a "Mayweather replica", has fallen out of the top 10 in the P4P rankings of most media since losing to Ryan Garcia, but in the Sports Illustrated rankings, Haney still occupies the 10th position, and Sports Illustrated's explanation for this is that Ryan Garcia, who defeated Harney, was found to be on drugs, and Haney resumed his status as a WBC super lightweight champion and deserves a place in the P4P rankings.
Here are the top 10 P4Ps in boxing by Sports Illustrated:
1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Terrence Crawford
3. Naoya Inoue
4. Jesse Rodriguez
5. Carneiro Alvarez
6. Dmitry Bivol
7. Shakur Stevenson
8. Artur Beterbiev
9. Gwotta Davis
10. Devin Haney