Canelo Alvarez returned to the pound-for-pound rankings after a dominant win over Christian Mbilli, reclaiming the WBC super middleweight title following a 13-month layoff and elbow surgery.
The 36-year-old Mexican star, now 64-3-2 with 35 knockouts, outpointed the previously unbeaten Mbilli to re-enter the list at No. 9. Alvarez's counterpunching and defense were sharp, and he expressed desire for rematches against Terence Crawford and Dmitry Bivol.
Updated Pound-for-Pound Rankings
1. Naoya Inoue (33-0, 27 KOs) – Undisputed junior featherweight champion, retained top spot after career-defining win over Junto Nakatani in May before 55,000 at Tokyo Dome.
2. Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez (24-0, 17 KOs) – Unified junior bantamweight champion, moved up to bantamweight and knocked out Antonio Vargas for WBA title in third weight class.
3. David Benavidez (32-0, 26 KOs) – Unified cruiserweight champion, became first boxer to win titles at 168, 175, and 200 pounds by knocking out Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez. Faces Michael Cieslak on Dec. 12.
4. Shakur Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs) – Junior welterweight titleholder, dominated Teofimo Lopez Jr. in January, winning 11 rounds on all scorecards.
5. Oleksandr Usyk (25-0, 16 KOs) – Heavyweight, vacated titles in June for retirement bout; came off controversial TKO of Rico Verhoeven in May.
6. Dmitry Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) – Unified light heavyweight champion, returned from back surgery to beat Michael Eifert in May; elbow surgery in July ahead of Dec. 12 fight vs Callum Smith.
7. Jaron Ennis (36-0, 32 KOs) – Unified junior middleweight champion, scored 7th-round TKO over Xander Zayas in June.
8. Devin Haney (33-0, 1 NC, 15 KOs) – Welterweight titleholder, dropped Brian Norman Jr. to become three-division champion in November; set to unify vs Liam Paro in December.
9. Canelo Alvarez (64-3-2, 35 KOs) – Super middleweight titleholder, returned from layoff to outpoint Christian Mbilli and regain WBC title.
10. O'Shaquie Foster (26-3, 12 KOs) – Unified junior featherweight champion, unified three 130-pound titles by beating Emanuel Navarrete in October.
Dropped out: Jai Opetaia. Honorable mentions: Opetaia, Vergil Ortiz Jr., Oscar Collazo, Junto Nakatani, Sebastian Fundora.
