Usyk is 38 now. He knocked out Dubois twice. He defeated Fury and Joshua respectively. The Wilder fight is considered an event, which tells you how thin the heavyweight division is when a fighter with four losses in six years is considered a reasonable step for an undisputed champion.
#2 Naoya Inoue fought four times in 2025. The fourth was a decision to David Picasso that set up a fight with Junto Nakatani. No one fights this often anymore, and if Inoue beats Nakatani, he will be number 1.
Dmitry Bivol defeated #3 Artur Beterbiev in a rematch, then had back surgery. He’s been gone since February.
Jesse BAM Rodriguez is 25 years old and one of the youngest boys. He defeated Fernando Martinez in ten rounds. Rodriguez doesn’t get the attention he got because of his fight at 115 pounds, but he’s smaller than everyone before him and has time to move up without forcing anything.
Actions on Conditions
David Benavidez moves up to cruiserweight in May to fight Gilberto Ramirez. If he wins, he will be a three-division champion and a choice in the light heavyweight division that is still playing. Shakur Stevenson hit William Zepeda in July, showing he can trade if needed. He has now moved up to 140 to fight Teofimo Lopez at the end of the month. A win over Lopez would push Stevenson higher on this list.
Nakatani earned a controversial decision over Sebastian Hernandez in December. The Inoue fight will tell us if Nakatani is on top or if he is a very good fighter who came close but couldn’t finish. Devin Haney defeated Brian Norman Jr. to win the WBO welterweight title. He’s 27 years old, a three-division champion, and the Ryan Garcia fight hasn’t slowed him down.
Lopez fights Stevenson on January 31st. He’s shown he can beat top fighters when locked in—the reigns of Lomachenko and Josh Taylor were the strongest. Other fights are less interesting. If Lopez goes up against Stevenson, he wins. If not, you lose.
The pound list changes when someone retires, but that doesn’t change the fact that these ten fighters are the best in the sport right now. Crawford’s departure creates opportunities, but not one more than last week.
ESPN Men’s P4P Awards
Oleksandr Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) – Heavyweight
Naoya Inoue (32-0, 27 KOs) – Junior Wrestler
Dmitry Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) – Light Heavyweight
Jesse Rodriguez (23-0, 16 KOs) – Welterweight
Artur Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) – Light heavyweight
David Benavidez (31-0, 25 KOs) – Light heavyweight
Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) – Lightweight
Junto Nakatani (32-0, 24 KOs) – Bantamweight
Devin Haney (33-0, 1 NC, 15 KOs) – Welterweight
Teofimo Lopez Jr. (22-1, 13 KOs) – Junior welterweight