Unfortunately in boxing sometimes not always the best fights or the fights that “should happen” do take place, due to competing interests among boxers, promotions and sanctioning organisms, but we can at least analyse some great fights that should ideally happen this year.
Ryan García (USA) beat former Olympic Champion, Luke Campbell (ENG), to take the WBC interim Lightweight Title with a big liver hook, although Campbell did knock him down once.
Due to his social media popularity he is set to become one of the biggest stars in boxing and might be calling the shots within an extremely competitive Lightweight Division, where Teófimo López (HON, #1 by The Sportspedia) is number one since he beat Pound for Pound-rated Vasyl Lomachenko (UKR, #2) but before taking any of them, the Mexican-American would be better off first fighting against Gervonta Davis (USA, #3) -his preferred option- or WBC Champion Devin Haney (USA, #4). All of them could be great matchups amongst them.
The Welterweight should have a fight among Pound for Pound top fives: Terence Crawford (USA, #2 Pound for Pound by The Sportspedia) and Errol Spence Jr (USA, #4 P4P). Crawford has been the #1 Lightweight and Super Lightweight by beating the best in those divisions but he has still not beat the very best Welters..And also-unbeaten Errol Spence Jr is the best available.
Crawford took less time to beat Kell Brook (ENG) than Spence did, indeed. Manny Pacquiao (FIL, #3) should not be discarded just due to his age, and he could also be in the mix. A fight against Miguel Ángel García (MEX, #5) could be the best matchup. There are rumours that such fight could take place in the Middle East.
The Heavyweight will also be very interesting this year and the fight that should happen is an All-British bout between Tyson Fury (ENG, #1), who beat Deontay Wilder (USA, #5), and Anthony Joshua (ENG, #2), who absolutely dominated Andy Ruiz Jr (MEX, #4) -in their rematch- and Kubrat Pulev (BGR).
In the smaller weight classes, Juan Francisco Estrada (MEX, #1) has already signed a contract to fight a rematch against Román González (NIC, #3), who beat him eight years ago. This should be a great fight and Estrada should be the favorite to win this time around.
#1 Pound for Pound, Saúl Álvarez (MEX) wants to clean the Super Middleweight by taking all titles, so that means he could be fighting Caleb Plant (USA, #3) and Billy Joe Saunders (ENG). But, as we have previously suggested, what about a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr (USA), the biggest fight that boxing could do today? Canelo is not the same boxer he was when they first fought.
We have released our yearly Boxing Men’s World Ranking and there are other divisions where two fighters should fight to make it clear who is #1:
- Light Heavyweight between unbeaten Russians Dmitry Bivol (#1) and Artur Beterbiev (#2),
- Super Lightweight between unbeaten Champions Josh Taylor (SCO, #1) and José Carlos Ramírez (USA, #2),
- Super Bantamweight between unbeaten Mexican World Champions Luis Nery (#1), Rey Vargas (#2) and Brandon Figueroa (#3), and
- Light Flyweight, between unbeaten Japanese World Champions, Kenshiro Teraji (#1) and Hiroto Kyoguchi (#2).
Certainly not all will take place but let’s hope that at least some do.
