B/R Pound-for-Pound Boxing Rankings: April 2024

It’s springtime.

The time when a combat sports fan’s fancy turns to competitive violence.

And when it comes to boxing, it’s a time when a handful of the sport’s best fighters will be showing their wares in far-flung rings from Copenhagen to San Diego to Riyadh, as part of a two-month stretch through Memorial Day during which 13 world title fights are scheduled.

A heavyweight unification match between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk is tops on that short-term agenda thanks to an eye cut that shifted their get-together from February to May.

Provided it actually happens, its winner will be the undisputed champ of the four-belt era and the first universally recognized kingpin in the big-boy division since Lennox Lewis held the IBF, WBA and WBC straps in 1999.

That was the catalyst for the B/R combat staff to reconvene and label the best of the best in the sport, which we’ve done by applying our own eye test and gauging the opinions of respected sources such as The Ring and Boxing Scene, among others.

Click through to see who made our top 10 and let us know how you’d have done it with a line or two in the comments section.

Weight Class: Heavyweight

Major Titles Held: WBC

It’d be hard to fathom a pound-for-pound list without the longest-reigning heavyweight champion, but it’s nearly the case when it comes to Fury, whose most recent appearance in a ring—a narrow defeat of Francis Ngannou last October—hasn’t aged particularly well.

The good news? If Fury manages to get past Usyk and claim undisputed status in the glamour division, he’ll likely be able to pull the trigger on the all-England showdown that’d pit him against Anthony Joshua, whose two-round blowout of Ngannou last month made people forget his own struggles against Usyk across fights in 2021 and 2022.

Weight Class: 140 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBO

Want to ride the competitive roller coaster? Try rooting for Teofimo Lopez.

The former lightweight king was among the redemption stories of 2023 thanks to a shocking (to most) rise to 140 pounds and a defeat of long-reigning champion Josh Taylor at Madison Square Garden last June.

The win revved the hyperbolic engines of Lopez and Co. to the point where you’d have thought his subsequent opponent, Jamaine Ortiz, was doomed from the moment he climbed the ring stairs at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas two months ago.

Instead, the once-beaten contender gave the new champ all he wanted and may have (to some) deserved a better fate than the unanimous decision Lopez was awarded.

Which, given his tendency for abrupt peaks and valleys, only means “The Takeover” will dominate in his next outing, rumored to be in late June against Canadian contender Steve Claggett.

Stay tuned…and make sure your safety harnesses are lowered and locked.

Weight Class: 135 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBA

If it feels like it’s been a while since you saw Gervonta Davis in a ring, you’re not wrong.

It has been.

The Baltimore-based “Tank” has been out of action for nearly a full year since beating then-unbeaten rival Ryan Garcia into submission in the biggest fight of the first half of 2023.

Word on the street is that Davis will headline PBC’s pay-per-view show on Prime Video in the summer, most likely against unbeaten Frank Martin, who’s the second-ranked contender for the top-tier WBA belt Davis has held at lightweight since Devin Haney vacated.

Weight Class: 175 pounds

Major Titles Held: IBF, WBC, WBO

At last, something nearly all boxing people can agree on.

Where the first three fighters on our list are included on respected pound-for-pound collections here and there, Artur Beterbiev begins a run of seven straight fighters that nearly everyone with a valid opinion regards as one of the world’s 10 best.

He’s rated higher by some and lower by others, but it feels like a good fit for him here at No. 7 coming off a seven-round blowout of former super middleweight claimant Callum Smith in January that ran his record to 20-0 and kept his KO percentage at a pristine 100.

The only fight that matters for him anymore arrives in exactly two months in the form of fellow 175-pound elite Dmitry Bivol, who holds the only title belt (the WBA’s) that Beterbiev has failed to secure.

Weight Class: 140 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBC

Devin Haney’s list of accomplishments is long and distinguished.

But even though he’s unbeaten in 31 fights, has been an undisputed champion in a competitive weight class, and climbed the ladder to convincingly snatch another belt from a respected, two-time title claimant, he’s relegated to middle-of-the-pack status.

He’s almost always ranked fourth, fifth or sixth on popular pound-for-pound lists and it’s no different here even now that he’s a WBC champion at 140 pounds and lined up for an April 20 defense against a more visible but less accomplished challenger in Ryan Garcia.

It’s a fight in which Haney has everything to lose.

An impressive victory might spike his ranking a place or two, but a loss in such a high-profile event would make it difficult for him to reascend to even the same status anytime soon.

Weight Class: 175 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBA

Dmitry Bivol, the other half of the aforementioned light heavyweight showdown set for June 1 in Saudi Arabia, is ranked a couple spots ahead of his counterpart thanks to a similarly pristine record that includes a victory over one of the sport’s biggest names—Canelo Alvarez.

The technically sublime and athletically gifted Russian delivered a clinic against his cinnamon-haired challenger when they met two years ago and even though Bivol has fought just twice in the interim it’s not done much to dull the luster of 2022’s signature upset.

The duel with Beterbiev is fascinating because of the contrasting styles and the winner is all but guaranteed a mid- to high-echelon place on every rankings list in the aftermath.

Weight Class: 168 pounds

Major Titles Held: IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO

Onto every pound-for-pound list, a little Canelo Alvarez must fall.

The Mexican superstar has been among the sport’s highest-profile fighters since meeting Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 and his belt-copping climb from 154 to 175 pounds and all points in between has yielded millions of pay-per-view buys annually.

He’ll make his annual Cinco de Mayo appearance on May 4 in Las Vegas, where he’ll face former 154-pound champ Jaime Munguia in a fight that’s as interesting for its buildup—pitting Munguia’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya against his former client and protege—as its entertainment value.

Not surprisingly, the “Golden Boy” is suggesting a changing of the guard is imminent, but it’d be a pretty significant surprise to the folks at DraftKings, who’ve got Alvarez as a -600 pick.

Weight Class: 147 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBA, WBC, WBO

Call it a recency bias, in reverse.

Though Terence Crawford has done absolutely nothing in the ring to suggest he’s not still the world’s best fighter, it’s the fact that he’s done nothing in the ring recently that hurts his claim.

“Bud” from Nebraska whipped Errol Spence Jr. in last summer’s anticipated unification fight at welterweight and achieved undisputed status in a second weight class, but the absence of a rematch or a defense against anyone else in the subsequent nine months warrants dropping him a couple slots given the activity of those now above him.

That said, Crawford is now in line to fight for the WBO’s title at 154 pounds against new champ Sebastian Fundora after invoking his right as the organization’s champion at 147 to a place as a mandatory challenger in another division.

If Fundora chooses to vacate to fight Spence, though, it could be another long wait.

Weight Class: Heavyweight

Major Titles Held: IBF, WBA, WBO

Need a testament to how good Oleksandr Usyk is?

Look no further than DraftKings, where line-makers have the Ukrainian a virtual pick-em at -110 in a fight against a guy (Fury) who’s never lost a pro fight, stands half a foot taller, and will likely weigh at least 30 or 40 (or more) pounds heavier when they meet in May.

It would have been hard to believe as Usyk approached his initial title try against then-champ Anthony Joshua only 29 months ago, but the two wide defeats of “AJ” and a ninth-round finish of once-beaten challenger Daniel Dubois have greatly elevated his profile since.

The chasm between Dubois and Fury is vast, though, which means a win in the unification bout will all but guarantee Usyk retains his place or even climbs the one remaining rung to the top.

Weight Class: 122 pounds

Major Titles Held: IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO

There are a few certainties in life.

The sun rises in the east. The sun sets in the west.

And Naoya Inoue fights a lot.

Where his colleagues tend to lean toward haggling and inactivity, the Japanese “Monster” simply climbs in the ring and beats opponents senseless while gathering up title belts like revved-up kids snatch Easter eggs.

He went from zero belts to four across five months in the back half of 2023 alone, climbing to 122 pounds to dethrone WBC/WBO champ Stephen Fulton (TKO 8) in July and reappearing a day after Christmas to complete the sweep with a 10th-round KO of IBF/WBA king Marlon Tapales.

And he’ll be back at it in just more than a month, returning to the Tokyo Dome to meet once-beaten former WBC champ Luis Nery on May 6 in a fight almost guaranteed to be a thriller.

At 26-0 with 23 KOs and titles at four weights, the soon-to-be-31-year-old (his birthday is April 10) is simply without peer…for the moment at least.