Just as in January 2021, The Sportspedia’s Editorial team has elaborated a year-end / year-start Boxing Ranking in January 2022 to make sense of the panoramas in the each division and pound for pound.
This year we have released the rankings for all the Men’s and Women’s Divisions, including the new Bridgerweight.
Below you can find the rankings for January 1st, 2022. Here you can view the rankings for January 1st, 2021, which only included the Men’s Divisions.
Men's Rankings
Former and now #1 Fury beat #5 ranked Wilder to become undefeated World Champion. Joshua defeated former #1 Andy Ruiz, who had Knocked him out when he was #1 but Ruiz has still never been knocked out unlike Wilder, who suffered a TKO against Fury. Usyk cleaned with the Cruiserweight and now has three titles after beating then-#2, Joshua.
Boxers are ranked if they have chosen to be listed as Bridgerweights and if in their last fight they were within the weight limit. Rivas is the only World Champion in this new weightclass. Chamberlain’s KO1 of Dilan Prasovic last time out is bigger than any other rated fighter and only lost to #2 Cruiserweight, Okolie. Rozanski comes off a KO1 over Artur Szpilka and is unbeaten with an almost perfect KO ratio. WBC’s #1-rated Romanov is also unbeaten in 16 fights, while Rozicki was unbeaten with a perfect KO ratio, before losing to Rivas.
Breidis beat former #1 Glowacki and current #3, former World Champion Dorticos, who has only lost to him and now-Heavyweight Gassiev. Okolie also beat Glowacki, a bigger win than any other fighter on the weight has, except for Bredis’s. World Champion Makabu hasn’t lost in 4 years and Goulamirian is an undefeated World Champion that defeated Constantin Bejenaru, who himself beat strong Thabiso Mchunu. Glowacki is now out after his loss to Okolie.
Bivol and Beterbiev are both undefeated World Champions. Beterbiev holds two belts and has an impressive 100% KO rate but Bivol has faced better opposition, having defeated #5 Smith Jr and former ranked Jean Pascal. Kovalev is still there in the mix and gave Saúl Álvarez a good fight until he was knocked out. Unbeaten former World Champion Ramírez beat Jesse Hart and Sullivan Barrera, who beat Smith Jr but Smith jr then beat Hart, who beat Barrera.
Pound for Pound #1 Álvarez has defeated #3 Plant and #4 Jacobs on his way to a total unification. Jacobs’ fight was closer, hence their respectice positions. Benavídez is still undefeated, with a good KO ratio. WBA Champion Morell is unbeaten as well with a good KO ratio.
Álvarez beat former #1 Golovkin the second time around after a draw in 2018, but he has since left the weight. Unbeaten World Champion Charlo has beaten Sergiy Derevyanchenko via UD as Golovkin did. Unbeaten World Champion Andrade is yet to fight an opposition as the top 3 have but comes off an impressive TKO, while unbeaten Munguía barely edges unbeaten World Champion Ryōta Murata out due to his stronger wins against Sadam Ali and Liam Smith (both at Superwelterweight) and his win by RTD6 against Tureano Johnson, who lasted 12 rounds against Derevyanchenko, as well as his win against Rosado.
A division with a clear #1 -Charlo- that has most of the belts. Castaño has the other belt as they tied in their unification bout. Third is Fundora, who beat Gallimore by KO in 6 unlike #4 Lubin, who beat him in a 10-round decision. Lubin also beat then-#2 Jeison, who is now out of the rankings after two losses via KO. Fifth is Tim Tszyu, who is unbeaten. Williams and Hurd are out amid their losses. Lara moved up to Middleweight.
Unbeaten World Champion Crawford has been the #1 Lightweight and Super Lightweight by beating the best in those divisions. He has still not beat the very best Welters but did beat Kell Brook in 4 rounds, while #2 Erroll Spence Jr took 11 to beat him. Spence has unified against Porter and also beat former #5 García. Former Pound for Pound #1, #4 Thurman has been ranked since beating Guerrero, Porter and Garcia, and only lost to Manny Pacquiao, who lost to now #3 Yordenis Ugás, before retiring. Vergil Ortizhas won all of his fights by KO, including one against former #1 Mauricio Herrera. Miguel Ángel García lost to Sandor Martin and is out.
Taylor is an unbeaten World Champion and has defeated three of the top 5-rated boxers, and has every single belt. Ramírez was an unbeaten World Champion until he lost to Taylor. He has defeated two of the top 5; he defeated Postol via MD unlike Taylor’s UD. He also barely beat Zepeda in a close Majority Decision, and Zepeda has five wins in a row. Prograis was also able to lose just by Majority Decision against #1 Taylor, his only defeat. Postol remains in the ranking since beating Matthysse back in 2015 and his only defeats since have been a Unanimous Decision against #1 Taylor and a Majority Decision against #2 Ramírez.
Davis beat Santa Cruz last year by KO6 and remains unbeaten, and was Super Lightweight World Champion at some point but will stay in Lightweight. López beat then-Pound for Pound-rated Lomachenko to earn four World Title belts and was unbeaten until Kambosos Jr defeated him to take most title belts. Haney beat former top 5 Gamboa to also remain as an unbeaten Champion. Commey lost to Lomachenko and is out.
The top two are unbeaten World Champions. Valdez beat former #2 Berchelt, who had great wins against Francisco Vargas. #2 is Shakhur Stevenson, who has had two convincing wins as a World Champion. Santa Cruz stays in the rankings and Rakhimov enters, after drawing to former #5 Díaz, who is out as a Lightweight. #1 Davis is out as he will stay as a Lightweight.
World Champion Emanuel Navarrete hasn’t lost since 2012 and has given great fights and beat Dogboe, who beat Magdaleno, who beat Donaire, Maurio Lara beat then-unbeaten World Champion Warrington, who beat Frampton via UD while Santa Cruz lost one fight and won the other one via MD against Frampton. Both Santa Cruz and Russell Jr beat Kiko Martínez in 5 but Santa Cruz also beat former-rated Ábner Mares twice, while Russell Jr has not has names as big as Mares in his résumé. Galahad gave #1-rated Warrington a big fight that ended in a Split Decision but he could have won. He lost to Kiko Martínez and is out.
Stephen Fulton Jr enters at #1 as he beat Brandon Figueroa in a close decision. Figueroa knocked out then-#1, Luis Nery. Figueroa had won 9 of his last 10 fights early and he beat Moisés Flores in 3 rounds, unlike former World Champion Daniel Roman’s win in 12. Nery defeated then #1 Shinsuke Yamanake twice in 2017-18, although he was overweight in one. He was an unbeaten World Champion and has ended 10 of hist last 11 fights early, before encountering Figueroa. World Champion Akhmadaliev, who only has 10 fights but already beat Iwasa, while non-Champion Hovhannisyan has a 20-3 record including only losing to Rey Vargas in the last six years. He beat Ríos in 6, while former #2 Vargas went to the distance with him, and he also beat Manzanilla in 4, unlike Vargas’ 12. But again, he did lost to Vargas via UD.Champion in recess, Vargas, is also unbeaten and has defeated #4 Hovhannisyan, former rated Kameda, and Ronny Ríos. he is out as he is now a Featherweight.
Inoue is one of the top Pound for Pound boxers and had beaten several top 10 fighters (at the time), including #4 Nonito Donaire, the only one he did not Knock Out. Former Pound for Pound-rated Donaire gave #1 Inoue a very good fight and beat #5 Oubaali for the World Title. World Champion Casimero had won his six fights in this weightclass by KO/TKO, including one against Zolani Tete until he beat Rigondeaux via a controversial split decision. Rigondeaux has only lost once, against Vasyl Lomachenko, three weightclasses above Bantamweight, and when both were rated Pound for Pound. Oubaali was an unbeaten World Champion before losing to Donaire.
Former Pound for Pound-rated González lost to Wangek (twice), who lost to Estrada (in a second convincing fight, after losing the first one) and Estrada also beat González in their second fight. World Champion Ioka lost to Donnie Nietes three years ago. He has four consecutive World Title bout wins, including frustrating unbeaten three-weightclass World Champion Kosei Tanaka on December 31st, 2020. World Champion Jerwin Ancajas was able to beat Israel González by TKO unlike González’ UD but has not faced names as strong as the five fighters above him.
World Champion Martínez has convincingly beaten top 10-15 fighters and should have a win against interim Champion McWilliams Arroyo which was deemed a No Contest. World Champion Mthalane hadn’t lost since Donaire in 2008 and had been World Champion for eleven years, including wins over Bantamweight-rated Casimero, and Akira Yaegashi, who he retired; before losing to now #2 Sunny Edwards. Unbeaten Nakatani beat former Light Flyweight-rated Milan Melindo and then became World Champion. Artem Dalakian is also an unbeaten World Champion that beat former Super Flyweight World Champion Luis Concepción. Sho Kimura has lost a MD against former #1-contender Kosei Tanaka and also went to the decision aganst Light Flyweight-rated Canizales but he had three strong World Title bout wins before his losses. He then beat veteran Merlito Sabillo in 2 rounds. He did not fight this year and is out, though, as Edwards enters the rankings.
Kyoguchi is an unbeaten World Champion and has beaten #5 Hekkie Buddler. Then-unbeaten Teraji had 9 consecutive World Championship fight wins, including names such as former top 5 López and Melindo and came off two consecutive early TKO wins before losing to now #2 Yabuki. Champion Alvarado hasn’t lost since 2014, including a TKO win over Petalcorin in 7 Rounds, a bit less impressive than Teraji’s TKO over Petalcorin in 4, but he is on the mix. Budler now hasn’t fought in 2 years but it was justified not to fight this year amid a pandemic. A former Minimumweight #1, his win over now retired Ryoichi Taguchi put him up in the ranking of this weightclass although he lost to Kyoguchi (TKO) last time out. Canizales is out after losing to Bermúdez.
Moonsri was the highest rated with a 54-0 record until his loss to now #2, Moonsri. Niyomtrong is new #1 with his unbeaten record and 13 consecutive World Championship wins since 2014, which include a win over #4 rated, Byron Rojas, who has only lost to Niyomtrong (2xUD) in the last 8 years, including a win over former #1, Hekkie Budler. Érick Rosa enters at number 5 after his two World Title fight wins, including beating Victorio Saludar, who has beaten WBO Champion, Taniguchi. Taduran is out after losing to Rene Mark Cuarto.
