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“Terence Crawford challenges #5-ranked Jr. Middleweight Israil Madrimov and takes a close decision in a tough fight. Crawford enters his fourth division’s rankings at #3. Madrimov drops to #5.”

See the problem there? If Madrimov was #5, how can it drop to #5? Madrimov was actually #5-ranked.

I ain’t no pundit, but I do doubt Crawford’s chances against Canelo. I’d rather he go after the Jr. Middleweight crown 👑 (whatever becomes necessary to accomplish that)

18 month will be elapsed by Nov 15th since Charlo last fought in that weight. If he does not have any concrete plan to return, a new king should be crowned. I doubt Fundora will go for a rematch with Tim. It is more likely that Crawford will go for top guys one by one.

Ah, it was in 2022, not 2023. So it is already almost 27 months, so the new king already may be crowned. Smells like abandonment…

Hello, Board!
Please come back to strawweight and redo the rankings, there is a mixup. Yudai Shigeoka lost his latest bout to Melvin Jerusalem back in May. Taduran recently defeated not Yudai, but his brother, Ginjiro. As it stands now, Ginjiro is ranked above the official winner Taduran.

With Lomachenko stating that he’s not motivated to fight Tank Davis in a bout that would crown a Lightweight champion, will the Board consider ranking someone else at #2 so that crowning a champion is even possible?

Was about to ask the same thing. Shakur is rated as #3. If the fight gets done, will it be enough to fill the vacancy?

Wasn’t suggesting an “appointment.”. Was really about whether someone is truly contending if he says he’s not motivated to fight for the crown. But I get what you’re saying

You guys really do an extraordinary job here. You keep the successions as – in my opinion – they should be.
Just want to leave a word of appreciation from my part.

If Daniel Dubois is a top 5 heavyweight contender the division is down even worse than I thought. Not one singular shred of defense, head movement, footwork, or technique on display by either man in that Hrgovic fight. There can’t seriously be anybody out there who wants to see Usyk v Dubois II. Besides the low blow round Dubois lost every second of the fight and got stopped on a jab. Usyk should fight the Fury rematch, fight Joshua if he wins, maybe Parker if nobody else has beaten him again by that point, then retire. Dubois should fight Zhang or Kabayel or Andy Ruiz (if he beats Miller).

You guys do a great job but why is Nakatani still ranked at 115 pounds and Isaac Cruz not ranked at 140 pounds?

You can expect Nakatani to be removed from the rankings at 115 after his bout with Astrolabio and Cruz to be removed from the lightweight rankings after his bout with Valenzuela,

You have a ton of incorrect records on your rankings page. At first I thought you just forgot to update Fury and Usyk’s records after their fight, but there are several guys all up and down the page that are 1-2 fights behind. Half the heavyweights, Opetaia, Tszyu, Beterbiev, etc.

Isaac Cruz (Lightweight)and Junto Nakatani (Junior Bantomweight) are still ranked in the wrong divisions. Why?

Board not voting on results of yesterday morning’s Tokyo Dome card till next week?

… Also, with welterweights #’2 and #3, Jaron Ennis and Cody Crowley, now scheduled to fight on July 13 in Philadelphia, will you be reaching out before that to Champion Crawford and #1 Spence about whether they intend to ever fight at welterweight again?

Correct; last Monday’s results are in this week’s update. As for Ennis and Crowley, we’ll be monitoring that, but it’s unlikely that division boss Crawford will be considered abdicated unless he says so or before 18 months elapses. See the charter championship policy for more on that.

Any reason why Nakatani is still ranked at 115 pounds? It seems like he clearly has moved up to 118

It’s too bad TBRB doesn’t have a podcast. Guess that’d be tough for an all volunteer (which I respect so much) organization. Maybe funds could be raised to pay just the necessary tech people 🤷

How can Ryan Garcia be ranked at 140? He can’t make the weight. And the belt was not on the line for that reason.
By the same token wouldn’t Crawford be ranked at number 1 at 140. And so on…

That was a lengthy and close debate on the board last week. If the question was either to rank Garcia at JWW, however briefly given that he’ll likely be out after his next bout, or not ranking him at all, which would get your vote?

I’d vote for not ranking him at all considering he failed a PED test and missed weight by 3 pounds. How is this even a question, and why is he still ranked after the test results became public?

Jason, we always exercise caution when it comes to removing a fighter from the rankings. Garcia has yet to be suspended and no ruling has as of yet come from NYSAC, so the chairs voted to wait on addressing the Garcia situation.

Shouldn’t Isaac Cruz be ranked at 140 pounds? He just won a title at that way and has a upcoming defense scheduled in August. It seems that he is not going back to the lightweight division.

Garcia ~ Stick around and see how the WBS “titles” warrant no mention in these parts. They’re bought and paid for like any other decoration. Neither Cruz nor Romero were ranked at JWW before that phony title bout. He didn’t earn a ranking because he won a decoration -we don’t operate like that.

Since Ryan Garcia missed weight, will the outcome of his fight with Devin Haney still affect the 140 lb rankings? The fight is effectively at welterweight now.

Love the fact that you placed Barboza on the robbery clause. That alone
, is enough to keep following the cause. Keep up the noble work!!!!

I kinda don’t get why Tyson Fury is still no. 1 rated contender in your rankings. You guys don’t respect Fury’s lineal claim and considered him retired from August to December 2022. This is 100% fair. But, would any other retiree be a no. 1 contender after coming back and beating Derek Chisora and edging a decision against a boxing novice?

Some members considered his big wins still fresh enough to justify it. Others, and I can fall into this camp at times when it comes to the P4P List, allow for a bad style match-up or an off night.

“We expect to see him and #2-ranked Leigh Wood go round and round to crown the first featherweight king since Manny Pacquiao abdicated in March 2005.”

Unfortunately unlikely to happen as Wood believes he’s unable to make Featherweight again and has binned his alphabet belt. Hopefully we see Lopez fight the next no 2 when Wood moves up officially

Would TBRB recognize Vitali Klitschko as THE heavyweight champion from his victory over Sanders until his retirement in November 2005? There are conflicting views regarding his coronation by The Ring Magazine.

Negative. And it’s an easy question because that bout was a #1 vs. #3. You don’t crown a new champion under an empty throne with anyone other than the two best. It defies common sense and it is unjust to the #2 or #1 guy who is skipped as if he didn’t earn his top-tier ranking.

You can make a solid argument for Sanders being the number 2 heavyweight on the planet at that time. Wlad was ranked as number 2 for 2 years before his loss, so he could claim number 2 by beating number 2.

Mark, I see your logic but that’s not the way it works. In order to make sense, rankings placement have to be both objective and systematic, not subjective and winged, you know? The plain fact is, it was a #1 vs. #3 bout that was recognized as a championship bout …and that flunks the common-sense test.

And yet you guys legitimize the light heavyweight lineage starting with the Pascal win over Dawson, while they were number 1 and number 3 rated light heavyweights at that time.

Not quite, Mark, though you got me sweating and scrambling to remember the reasoning behind it! Recall that The Ring had Dawson and Pascal rated at #1 and #3 as of July 25, with Glen Johnson at #2. But Johnson lost to Tavoris Cloud on August 7, before the August 22 ratings came out. Considering Dawson and Pascal #1 and #2 for their August 14 bout as a result of that is justifiable or more than justifiable.

Are you comfortable with giving the title to W Klitschko after his fight with Povetkin in October 2013, when in August 2013 you only ranked Povetkin at #4? It seems to me the only reason that was a #1 vs #2 fight is you removed Haye and Vitali in order to manufacture that situation. It seems inconsistent given Vitali was only given 1 year of inactivity before removal, when Haye had been given over 2 years. If you were being consistent, wouldn’t Vitali still have been #2, meaning Wlad never won the title?

Simon, you’re assuming a nefarious motive and missing the obvious. The charter said then and now that after one year’s inactivity, a contender is subject to removal from the rankings. Klitschko vs. Povetkin was in October 2013. Haye’s last fight was in July 2012 – he didn’t fight again for 3 1/2 years. Vitali’s last fight was in September 2012 – He never fought again. We’d have been a collection of dunces had we not removed both from the rankings as per the Charter.

Thanks for the reply. I doubt Nakatani will return to jr. bantamweight but appreciate you following your rules.

You’ve probably answered this before but…
David Benavidez has been the #1 Super Middleweight Contender since November of 2021 (since Canelo won the Crown 👑) and – as far as we know – Alvarez still hasn’t agreed to face him.
I know TBRB doesn’t strip Champions willy nilly like WBS orgs, but I think you said that TBRB would make some noise if Beterbiev didn’t agree to fight Bivol this year (which he now has). Is there ANY action that can be taken regarding Canelo?

Hello Guys, great work doing what you are doing! I’ve got couple of questions as you are one of the best in following the championship succession/lineage.

1. Would you consider Ezzard Charles the heavyweight champion of the world after beating Jersey Joe Wallcott or Joe Louis? He was only recognized as the champion by NBA after the Walcott fight but they were clear no. 1 and no. 2 at that point.
2. When was exact moment Larry Holmes was in your opinion crowned as the heavyweight champion? The Ring Magazine started to considered him as such after Weaver, whom Holmes already defeated, won the WBA belt. Some still take Ali fight as the crowning moment.
3. Why didn’t you consider Wlad as the heavyweight champion after Ruslan Chagaev fight like basically all outlets?
4. What exact moment did you consider as Fury’s abdication in 2016? The Ring Magazine considered him the champ until the early 2018 and they were as quick as you guys to strip Tyson of the tile in August 2022.
5. What do you think about the LinealBoxingChampion.com and what flaws do you see in their methodology? They have been considering Fury the rightful lineal champion non stop since November 2015.

Answers:
1. Ezzard became Joe Louis’s successor after Ez beat Jersey Joe. There is no counterargument worth a nickel. Ez became the legit champion with that win. Those “linealists” who hold that Ezzard only became champion after he defeated Louis expose the weakness of the whole “linealist” system. Louis retired; period. You don’t keep the throne warm for retired champions just in case they decide to unretire. Any system that doesn’t acknowledge an official retirement isn’t a viable system at all; it’s a mess.

2. Larry Holmes -and this is strictly me holding this- was never legitimately crowned the heavyweight champion of the world. The Ring decide to employ magical thinking to upgrade him after he beat Norton because of the consensus, which I get, but strictly speaking, he never defeated the man who beat the man who beat the man because Ali was officially retired by the time Holmes got to him. Again, recognizing Holmes after he beat Ali exposes a major weakness in the linealist argument: Ali was on a comeback! Worse, though, for the Holmes legacy is that he never once faced and defeated the next best heavyweight in the world. They were right there staring at him in the Ring rankings: Mike Weaver in ’80 into ’82; to be sure, Holmes beat him in ’79 (when Weaver was #8) in a war but he could’ve and should’ve given him a rematch once he became “the next best.” Dokes was right there for a year or so too, but Holmes never fought him. So, was he the legit heavyweight king? Strictly speaking, no. Many recognize him as having become it by acclaim and I understand that, but wish that he removed the question mark. It isn’t all Holmes’s or Don King’s fault; boxing has been an idiotic mess for a long time.

3. We don’t follow the herd; especially given that those at the front of the herd in this sport are drunk. Chagaev was rated #3 at the time; it doesn’t make any sense at all to proclaim that anyone other than the winner of a bout between the two best become champion. Correction: it does make sense if you want to make sure boxing remains the only sport in the world with more ex-fans than fans.

4. We recognized Fury’s retirement in 2016 on October 18, two days after his official announcement. The wisdom of waiting until early 2018 fell down once again on July 17, 2017 when he wrote, “Thanks to all the fans that supported & believed in me along the way. Hope you enjoy [sic] it as much as I did. THE END.”

5. Well, there you have it. See points above re the retirement of Louis in ’49 and Ali in ’79. I can promise you this: they were chewing their fingernails down to the nub when novice Ngannou dropped their retirement-immune “lineal” champion.

Thanks for the quick reply.

So, if Holmes wasn’t THE champion in your opinion, how does the succession goes? Ali retires in ’79 and then Mike Tyson grabs the vacant crown when he beats Spinks?

Would you consider the champion coming after the retirement to still have at least a claim to the crown if the throne is still vacant?

What about the brief retirement of Corbett? He retired for a quick bit, then Bill Fitzsimmons beat Peter Maher for a vacant crown, but I hardly see people considering him the champ from that fight. He then lost to Tom Sharkey but was dubbed the champ again after he beat Corbett.

What about Ali’s short lived retirements from 75′ to ’78?

Appreciate the responses! Keep up the good work!

1. Yes.
2. No. Why? Either the divisional championships are what they are or they are the property of individual champions. The latter invites chaos.
3. Things were very murky before NY’s Walker Law in 1920, so applying the same rules before boxing had achieved a sense of order is problematic. Corbett retired in November 1895, and “resigned” his championship to Peter Maher. Fitzsimmons would go on to knock out Maher in 95 seconds while Corbett returned to the ring in June 1896 to fight contender Tom Sharkey to a draw. The winner of Fitzsimmons-Corbett was “acclaimed” world champion. “Acclaim” back then was arguably enough given the lack of order.
4. Whimsical retirements have to be treated especially carefully. It’s happening increasingly these days, which is why we wait a week or more before declaring a divisional throne open.

Didn’t Fitzsimmons lose the “title” he won from Maher to Tom Sharkey before he beat Corbett? And then Jeffries beat Sharkey, so we can say the Fitzsimmons vs Jeffries fight finally answered the question who should be the rightful champion? Sharkey and a minority of the boxing public considered him the champ and that distinction was passed to Jeffries.

Wyatt Earp was the ref for Sharkey-Fitzsimmons who gave the bout to Sharkey. Earp was nothing like Kurt Russell in “Tombstone” and that call dripped with controversy. Had boxing been more organized then, I’d agree with your version of the succession there. My understanding is that Fitz-Corbett was understood by the general public as the passing of the torch -it was succession by “acclaim” if you will.

Hello all, sorry for joining in on this one late.
Ali retired in July 1979. Holmes had beaten Norton and Earnie Shavers had given Ali hell in September 1978 and KO’d Norton in one.
In my mind this puts Holmes and Shavers at numbers 1 and 2 respectively making their rematch in September 1979 as being for the vacant world title.

Hello Frank ~ Ali -I believe- retired on 9/6/1979 and though Holmes at #1 and Shavers #2 at that time is not unreasonable, it is unreasonable to not abide by the most authoritative ratings at the time and go with subjective opinion instead. The authority at the time was The Ring ratings, and they had Holmes at #1 and Gerrie Coetzee at #2.

Ok, but ratings are largely subjective are they not? Consensus opinion has its merits, but In a sport where rival governing bodies, rival promoters and the business of boxing are constantly getting in the way of common sense and the best interests of the sport, shouldn’t we recognise top fighters fighting each other and relegate those that hide behind the business of boxing to a “you had your chance and didn’t take it”, box.
I appreciate what you guys are doing, I just believe that a more pragmatic approach is necessary. Many number one contenders never got a shot at the title throughout the decades due to barriers such as racism, boxing politics, corrupt management/promoting, the influence of organised crime etc.
Not being flexible on anything other than numbers one and two fighting to fill vacant titles is an ideal for a perfect world and we all now the boxing world is far from that.

There was not. We usually don’t drop or remove a fighter from the rankings if they win. Looking back, I might’ve proposed it considering that the P4P rankings are looser, and should be, and Lopez looks to me like he’s slipped. The reasoning not to, though, is not unsound: Fighters have off-nights or run into a style that makes them look less than what they are. Robinson himself provides an example. Let’s assume that he’d be in the P4P List after his comeback win against Boston’s own Joe Rindone in ’55. But then he drops a decision to Tiger Jones (who was coming off a 0-5 streak).

Surely Rene Mark Cuarto should be out of the 105 rankings following his loss to Shokichi Iwata in Japan last Saturday? I think Iwata has a good case for being ranked at 108 too

Agreed. I suggested both of those changes- Cuarto being removed from the rankings at 105 with Hasanboy Dusmatov entering at #10 and Iwata entering the rankings at 108 at #10 with Elwin Soto being bumped out. Neither suggestion was brought up to the membership.

No. These are divisional rankings. Cuarto is ranked at strawweight and lost a fight at jr. fly –we can’t propose removal for Cuarto for losing a bout in a different division. I checked to see if it was an over the weight bout, but it was not. As it is, he’s on track for removal in April for inactivity in the division.

Cuarto has moved up. He weighed in at 108 for that fight and lost to a fighter you don’t have ranked there. I see very little argument for keeping him ranked at 105, particularly considering Dusmatov has done more at that weight recently. Removing him in April is 3 months too late

Joe, see the Charter. If Cuarto announced that he will be moving up before his last fight at 108, then he would have been removed after his fight at 108. We found no record that he had made such an announcement -did you? Barring that, the charter requires us to refrain from removing him from the ranking (that he fought for and earned, keep in mind) until after he has 2 consecutive bouts at 108 or is inactive at 105 for one year.

Hello TBRB.

Just wondering, how would you retroactively have the Fight of the Century situation? Who would be the champ in your eyes? Ali or Frazier?

Also, would you retroactively respect the light heavyweight championship line created after Hill vs Maske fight (passed down to Michalczewski, Gonzales and Erdei) or go with The Ring Magazine line after Roy Jones Jr unified 3 alphabet belts?

I’m speaking for myself here, and not the Board at large …. The 1971 Frazier-Ali situation would be a tough one but for the fact that Ali himself recognized Frazier as the champion. Madison Square Garden held an elimination match between Frazier and Buster Mathis on 3/4/1968 which Frazier won. Frazier was thus recognized by the NYSAC, 5 states, and Mexico and Argentina. Before Frazier-Ellis, Muhammad Ali sought to present The Ring championship belt to the winner at the end of the fight and asked the public to recognize the winner of Frazier-Ellis as his successor.

As for Ring Magazine and its recognition of Jones -it was a real head-scratcher given their justified attacks on the WBS organizations and all the problems caused by multiple faux championships. To turn around and make a Jones-inspired allowance to get him recognized as champion, when it was his own fault he wasn’t fighting the next best contender in the top two (and didn’t at middle or super middle either -and certainly not at heavy) was and remains illegitimate. Jones was the best fighter in two divisions and arguably three (though McClellan’s presence at middleweight #1/#2 right next to Jones makes that one unclear), but let’s face facts: As great as he was, Jones was a belt collector. He was chasing trick titles. No, the Hill-Erdei succession is the one any self-respecting boxing historian is going to acknowledge.

Overall I think your rankings are excellent. However there are some standout WTF’s in my opinion. For example why is Soslan Asbarov ranked number 5 cruiserweight?? He’s had 5 fights and yes 5 wins, but only 1 win by knockout what makes you believe he’s the 5th best cruiserweight??

First, a question for you: What is the fasted route into the top 10? It certainly isn’t the number of one’s fights. Answer: defeat a contender. Asbarov beat Aleksei Papin in October when Papin was ranked #4. That earned Asbarov a debut in the rankings at #5. I’m confident that you see the reasoning there…

To drop one fighter (Yuniel Dorticos) for inactivity & have an even more inactive one (Charles Conwell) enter the rankings the same week makes no sense whatsoever. This kind of thing should be checked and it’s not that hard to do

i would have thought Ryan Rozickis 1st rd stoppage on last saturday would have put him in cruiserweight picture. i hope you guys didnt overlook his fight. hes had 4 fights this year all stoppages. not many cruisers can say are that active.

I know this organization don’t recognize alphabelts. But with the recent announcement of WBA recognizing a division between Cruiserweight and Heavyweight with a similar weight range to that of WBC, I wonder how TBRB view this “new division”.

Is it intentional or an oversight that neither Jaime Munguia, Jermall Charlo nor Ryan Garcia are in the latest rankings?

It reflects how rational rankings work: Jaime Munguia exited the middleweight rankings in June because he is now campaigning at super middle; we don’t offer an honorary ranking to name fighters like the WBS bozos – Munguia has to earn his way in like everyone else. Same for Ryan Garcia – he exited the lightweight rankings this week because he is now campaigning at jr. welterweight. Jermall Charlo was removed due to inactivity.

Your write up says-

O’Shaquie Foster advances from #5 to #4 at Jr. Lightweight with a good win over the #3-ranked featherweight contender, Rey Vargas.

It was back in February he beat Vargas. His win this weekend was over Eduardo Hernandez (which for some reason is not on boxrec yet)

How much of Fury keeping the #1 Contender ranking is because the Ngannou fight wasn’t an official bout?

And let’s not forget that he won. Unimpressively, but he did win.

Would be interested to hear more about the discussion regarding Fury dropping down the rankings. Had he lost, I’m guessing this would have been a sure thing.

But there has been precedent regarding controversial decisions. If I recall, Fury himself was elevated significant by TBRB after he was considered by the TBRB to have been unfairly denied a win against Wilder.

Was there much discussion about whether he deserved the win?

See my post from a few minutes ago. The chairs did not propose a drop for Fury, as none of them believed that that fiasco ended in a robbery. No member brought up the robbery clause either, nor was Ngannou considered for a “good loss” entry.

It was an official bout, but the board is reluctant to drop a fighter after a win. A good loss has historically proven to earn a fighter an advance or an entry at times, but a bad win has rarely resulted in a drop. I for one, allow for “off nights” … if they’re singular.

You guys changed the MW rankings after this week’s fight but forgot to update the records. Janibek Alimkhanuly is now 15-0-0 and Vincenzo Gualtieri is now 21-1-1, but in the rankings page the older records are still displayed.

David Benavidez is now 28-0-0 after stopping Demetrius Andrade who’s now 32-1-0.
Not surprised Andrade wasn’t dropped from the top 10 though.

Next week, Deontay Wilder should be removed from your heavyweight rankings. He has not fought since October 15, 2022. TBRB’s rules state that if “a contender is inactive for one year or more, he will be removed from the rankings until such time as he fights and earns back a place in the top ten.” Thank you in advance for your consideration.

I just came on here to make that very point. It’s now been a year… with no fight in sight. I’ve no doubt at all that it will happen. It’s a rule they’ve held pretty firm on.

hello, thanks for your great work.

i think the welterweight section on your “successions” page needs to be updated
with crawford if i’m not mistaken.

thanks!

hello and thanks for your work!

i think i’m your “successions” page you need to update welterweight with crawford if i’m not mistaken. thanks!

Hi, I hope you are well and thank you for your great work!

I have held your monthly archive of TBRB rankings in extremely high regard. The archive is an invaluable storage of knowledge in looking at fighters´ records and the relative level of their opposition during the last decade that you have been publishing your rankings.

For the year 2023 the latest divisional rankings in the archive are from 9th January 2023 and the last P4P rankings are from 5th December 2022. Is it possible to get them updated again for the year 2023? Once again, thank you for your work!

Thank you Mikko. The monthly archives are there because boxing historians made sure of it on behalf of boxing historian like you out there. I apologize for the delay and will contact Tech about it.

Regards to you.

Is there ever much thought given to dropping fighters who ‘sneak’ up the rankings by doing very little?

For example guys like Otto Wallin since entering hasn’t took a competive fight since entering the rankings. Should Whyte get slung and Wilder be removed for inactivity then he’ll find himself as high as 4th and doing very little to deserve it.

I always find it slightly unfair that guys like that end up being ranked higher for not challenging themselves that the ones that do and suffer a defeat. In the example of Wallin – is it really fair that by feasting on journeymen, he has done enough to claim that entitles him to be ranked above Joyce by the virtue of Joyce taking on competive fights and losing. It was merely a year ago that Joyce knocked out Parker. And Parker is also someone I feel that belongs above Wallin.

I know in Wallins case he does now have a decent fight scheduled at long last. But I do think this issue does sometimes stink up the rankings.

Not sure what the solution would be. But perhaps when a fighter is bumped for inactivity/moving weights /pissing hot etc, rather than simply everyone jumping up a spot it could be asked what have you done for me lately and the fighter entering can enter higher than 10th? Or perhaps reviewing the red looking at the rankings every once in a while to reorder them?

This would also likely help rerate fighters who have had victories that have had wins that appear much better with the benefit of hindsight. E.g. Hrgovic (ranked below Wallin) over Zhang?

Hello Sam,

That phenomena has been noted, discussed, and argued. I’m on record arguing strenuously for a rule of thumb that says contenders who lose need to drop more than 1 or 2 spots in ordinary circumstances. Some members like to look a bit more at “recent career as a whole” and have less of a focus on what just happened; which means they don’t count losses as much as they should. And that accounts for a lot of “floaters (floater-uppers?).” It can be remedied easily enough and I think we have been getting more together on that.

Your suggestions are interesting, but risky. Allowing an entry because someone is bumped to come in higher than #10 indicates that we overlooked them earlier. It’s a corrective, and correctives (adjustments based on something other than actual merit determined from a fight result the previous week) are something we avoid. Arbitrariness has to be avoided, which is why this is called a rankings system. As for reviewing the rankings, that was proposed for P4P at the end of the year. P4P can be looser, but not the divisional rankings. We simply have to work hard to get them right every week. I think we do well; there aren’t too many rankings that are objectively unjustifiable. They are and should be arguable, sure, but that’s the nature of the beast.

Hey Springs, there must have been some decent debate around keeping Wilder ahead of Zhang?

Wilder has one win in 4 years against Helenius. Surely he struggles to still be ranked so highly? At what point do he and Joshua (who I’d rank above Wilder on slightly more activity) start to fall for lack of meaningful activity?

Granted the chasing pack aren’t exactly making that decision too difficult, except for Zhang.

There were a few (US and Russian) members who wanted to see Zhang over Wilder. One member argued that Zhang should be the #1 contender. As for me, I went back and forth. I was very tempted to vote him to #2 and Fury’s shenanigans are getting wearisome. Zhang looks like a #1 contender waiting to happen. Could he beat Usyk and take the crown? That’s a real possibility.

Andy Ruiz should be removed from your heavyweight rankings. He has not fought since September 4, 2022. Your rules state: “In those instances where a contender is inactive for one year or more, he will be removed from the rankings until such time as he fights and earns back a place in the top ten.” Thank you in advance for your consideration.

I know officially they weren’t recognised as triple champions, but Mickey Walker and The Sugar man can feel slightly aggrieved that they’re not on that list.
Ray Robinson as a kid, defeated Sammy Angott before Sammy won the lightweight title, then defeated him as lightweight champion, slightly over the weight limit.
Mickey won a no decision bout against Light-heavyweight champ, Mike McTigue.
But rules are rules. That’s why the TBRB rules!!!

Ah, an historian graces the feedback tab! You can add Tony Canzoneri to that shoulda-been list. And consider this: had Duran somehow defeated Hagler on points, he would have taken the lighweight, welterweight, and middleweight championship, and that jaw-dropping feat would have moved him over Armstrong in my book. Given the level of competition, it would have exceeded even Fitzsimmons triple crowns at middle, light heavy, and heavy … and not by a little.

Definitely not a historian, I just love reading books by them. Gods of war and Murderer’s Row were outstanding.
How could I forget Canzoneri?!
Duran’s feat would have been out of this world, but Marv was having none of it.
Where do you rank pacquiao’s triple crown? The fact that he did it in 3 separate decades, and in 3 non-consecutive weight classes blows my mind!!

Are we in a “modern golden age” of True Champions? When was the last time there were 10 active True Champions?

You know its a mad week when Inoue produces a performance like that and drops down the pound for pound rankings.

By the way when listing the 3 weight world champions you’ve called Mayweather ‘Floyd Pacquiao’ lol

Sam! What?! You must be imagining that typo. I see no typo. I am incapable of typos.

As for Inoue at P4P, look at it like this -he didn’t drop down so much as get bumped down. Crawford edged him with a bigger win over a fellow P4P fighter, which Fulton was not.

Mr. Toledo, Lawrence Okolie’s record should be 19-1 & Chris Billiam-Smith’s record should be 18-1.

Weird that Briedis got removed from rankings due to inactivity just couple of weeks before his schedulled bout with John McCallum on July 21.

If Inoue beats Fulton at Junior Feather does he move to king of the division? Normally it would need to be #1 vs #2 but as Inoue is new in that weight class he is not in the list (yet). By beating Fulton he would leapfrog ahead of him to (at least) #1 spot. Which would leave Fulton at #2.
So by default the new #1 just beat the new #2 so must become king of the division. Logical right?

Just my opinion:

Inoue will probably land at #2 since he’s new to the division, unless he knocks Fulton out (#1 isn’t farfetched if that’s the case). Fulton will be #3 (or lower if his performance is worse than Akhmadaliev against Tapales).

That would constitute an appointment. It’s bad practice. I know that it’s routinely done by the sanctioning bodies, but we should cast a suspicious gaze on anything that is common practice among those sport-wrecking mooches. Inoue is not ranked in the division and so cannot possibly become the champion unless he defeats the present champion -and that division has an open championship. There’s a decent chance that Inoue will be ranked after the fight and if it’s a good fight, he and Fulton could quite possibly be #1 and #2. In that case, the rematch would decide who’s who and what’s what.

Does the Inyoue/ Tapalas winner now become champion at 122? Appointments indeed are “ bad practice “

I wonder how would Lopez’s retirement claims will be handled? Seems like a case similar to Pacquiao and Fury.

I think this is a wise decision. In 2023, there are a lot of opportunities and incentives for fighters to state that they are retiring. It generates headlines, yields social media attention, possibly increases leverage in negotiations, and it could also enable a fighter to postpone or duck a worthy challenger by stating that he is retired. There also may be contractual language around retirement that can increase a fighter’s flexibility moving forward. Who knows what the implications of “retirement” are for Teofimo’s nasty divorce and child custody battle. I’m sure there will be a large settlement and alimony involved. For custody, Teofimo can now state that he will be a fulltime dad, no longer engaged in a risky profession. For settlement/alimony, if Teofimo states that he is no longer a fighter, how does a judge estimate his future earnings? More favorably for Teofimo, that’s certain.

Have you contacted Lopez or his team? My guess is they would vacate the title (as they did with the WBO)

Fightnews reported it as such, but they were wrong. BoxRec has Jose Javier Torres (who was supposed to have beaten Gutierrez) actually losing his fight that night

Sir or Madam:

The way I keep up with news and website is through RSS feeds. The TBRB website has one at http://www.tbrb.org/feed/ , however it has not been updated in several years. Can you make sure the RSS feed is up to date?

Thank you,

hardindr

I am sorry for the long time between the reply. I would like to have an RSS feed to that if I subscribe to it, it just tells me when there is an update, and I don’t have to navigate to the website. I was able to do this with X before they removed RSS feeds, but now I can’t do that. RSS is pretty simple and would be easy to put on the website. You already have one, but it is not being updated: https://tbrb.org/feed

“Beterbiev is voted by a majority of the members to move up from #9 to #10, over Jermell Charlo”

There’s clearly a mistake there because it doesn’t make sense.

I gather Errol Spence Jr. will maintain his #1 ranking at welterweight even if he fights at junior middle next, but will lose that status if his following fight is also at junior middle. Is that correct?

Generally speaking, any fighter who announces that they are switching divisions and then fights in the new division is removed from the previous divisional rankings after they fight. If it is a foray or no announcement is made, then yes, we’ll remove at second bout in new division– unless they are campaigning in two divisions.

Hey guys, I have a question. How does your pick of succession work? I respect your rankings and mostly agree with a lot of your top 10s but I’d imagine you guys don’t follow the lineal championship line. If you did then Tyson Fury would be the clear champion. He claimed to retire back in August but everyone knew that it wasn’t gonna last long. He never even relinguished his WBC belt. Lo and behold, he’s now fought recently and is still in the roster of active heavyweights.

How can you claim Usyk to be champion when Tyson Fury is still around? Do you simply ignore the true lineal claims? To be the man you got to beat the man. Do you in any way follow that rule or code?

Fury retired, he didn’t die. Don’t be led astray by the fact that he didn’t turn in his WBS belt. I’m sure he and them had behind-the-scenes shenanigans going on where Fury said he wouldn’t rule out a comeback and if he held on to their silly belt, there’d be more money for him and them. Do you think those profiteers can be counted on to do what’s right for the sport? They do what’s right for their pockets. Those who point to the fact that he is still a WTF champion don’t consider that, but should.

When a fighter announces his retirement, we have to take it seriously. Fury, though he plays games and is erratic, made the announcement and then confirmed it again and again. We usually wait a week after an official announcement is made, but we waited -months- before taking Fury at his word and declaring the championship open. Keep in mind, we only did so after he turned in his Ring championship. Also keep in mind that there was an imminent #1 vs. #2 coming up fast (Usyk-Joshua II), the idea that we should have overlooked that after an official announcement repeatedly made and acted upon would’ve been reckless. Fury, by the way still insists that he was retired and is now on the comeback, though even if we wasn’t insisting this, we’d still be on solid ground given what’s stated above.

There has been a parade of heavyweight champions who retired and then came back. Think about it. Keeping the seat warm for them would make a total mess of the successions. There are “linealists” who insist on a “man-who-beat-the-man” as if retirements and abdications don’t exist, and who are on record claiming that Ezzard Charles became heavyweight champion after defeating Joe Louis in Sept’50 despite the fact that Louis retired in ’49, officially, and was on the comeback. Charles became champion after beating Walcott a few months after Louis retired when they were both ranked #1 and #2.

What say you? When did Ezzard become champion?

PS/ Thank you for supporting this initiative and especially for coming straight here for a confrontation.

Great reply and I understand the conundrum. I agree with everything you’ve said and understand your point.

Retirement in boxing is always such a slippery slope and I respect that you guys take a hard and defined stance on it. I guess I follow a more undefined view of the boxing landscape needing to move on. Give a chance for the division to clear itself out and decide on a true champion. Usyk did not fight enough heavyweights in my eyes to be called champion. In an ideal scenerio, the top 8 or at least 4 would need to duke it out to see who the true champion is. Bracket style or something like it.

I’m not a boxing historian so I can’t give you a straight answer on whether Ezzard Charles deserved to be champion after beating Walcott or Louis. Did Charles already beat the top guys before facing Walcott? If so I would say yes he did deserve. If he didn’t and mostly just skipped the line, then I would say he became lineal once he beat Louis, which is a much more defined win to become champion.

Thanks for the reply guys. Appreciate it!

IronBerserk is a name that doesn’t suit such an intellect as yours. Boxing, like any sport, needs not a stance so much as a system. Said system needs to be fair, reasonable, and binding to prevent the sport from devolving into chaos which is where the sport is right now. I would encourage you to rethink your opinion that a sitting champion can be determined only by examining who he beat. That’s fine for a P4P list, but the true divisional champion can only have 2 paths to the divisional throne. 1. He officially defeats the sitting champion (“man who beats the man”) or, #2, in the event of a retirement or abdication, he is ranked #1 or #2 and defeats the next best contender in the division. That’s why we are here, to freely offer uncompromised, objective, and authoritative rankings based on merit.

Those are the only 2 paths to the divisional championships. Anything else lurches toward chaos and confusion. Keep in mind, the best fighter in the division isn’t necessarily the champion. Those are different concepts; they usually combine but not always.

Y’all have to be out of your damn mind to have Davis at the bottom it’s got to be racial got to be are y’all sick who’s the pay-per-view star on there other than hell give me a break

It’s got to be racial to have Davis at the bottom

Am I to assume the reason Jermall Charlo is not included within the middleweight rankings is due to inactivity? Can you shed any light on what’s happened to him?

I have to say while acknowledging P4P rankings are in many ways just a “fantasy league game”, I am astonished Josh Taylor does not feature. He’s beaten the very best in the super lightweight / junior welterweight division. While recognizing P4P ratings are not division related I’d suggest he’s a more clearcut choice based on his recent record than some of the other chosen members of the P4P top 10.

I can shed some light, Skrimmers. Before he faced Catterall early this year, Taylor was in at P4P, at #6. After that bout, which I’m sure you’d agree took some luster off Taylor, he dropped to #10. Then he was bumped out with Roman Gonzalez’s return in March. I can tell you that I think he’s a very formidable fighter and I’m looking for an excuse to cast my vote for him at P4P. Let’s see what happens in the rematch in February.

Hello FM, we are not tracking contender bouts but appreciate your efforts to do the same. I can promise you, though, that however many there were, there would have been many more if boxing was run by rational beings.

Thats incredibly insightful thank you for compiling and astonishing at the same time. So just 35 fights between top 10 ranked fighters year to date?

Do you have a record of how many fights there have been this year that have included at least one top 10 fighter to allow a comparison to the 34 that have been between two?

Man it must be annoying for you guys to deal with a man like Fury lol – However, he still has the WBC and vacated the Ring on his own (which was odd, so I understood the move initially)….. but its pretty obvious what he is doing as of today he wants to fight anyone dec 3rd (as a tune up and whats to know who his opponent is ASAP so he can prepare for x .. hence why he jumping from possible opponent to opponent, smh, he want someone, anyone by that time) and hence then fight usyk within the first 4 months of 2023 — and I am a fan of Usyk (who isn’t) – but as annoying as he can be outside that ring but within the ropes that man strictly business, he is something different – he would be a nightmare for Usyk stylistically because paradoxically though not also just “bigger” but also not chiseled out (mans got the body…of not a boxer) lol but somehow (and this is not subjective) he has better head movement than AJ, knows how to use that weight of his to drown opponents better, has spectacular feet work for such a guy his size… and somehow that mans gas tank is like that of a light heavyweight….. and now he is starting to use power than only his gifted abilities for a guy that long and big… I see a long night (if he makes it long) for my man usyk – but see, we all know Furys dumb games (AND i can see why taking him out after vacating the Ring….) but its quite obvious that man is not going anywhere… i assume he wont be back on the list until he actually fights? but at the same time, the WBC has that deadline so they must know “yep he is fighting”

Hello Rasheed. The WBC knows nothing and their assertions are written in sand –they’re written with bank notes and bank notes blow away easily when bigger bank notes blow in. Fury may be only spouting off and going here, there, and everywhere just to stay in the news. I for one won’t believe that he is unretired until the first bell rings in his next bout –and it isn’t in a wrestling ring or an exhibition ring.

As always, thank you for your mission and common sense. While the mainstream boxing media obsesses over what Fury will do next, TBRB provides clarity to anyone who wants it: Joe Joyce is the #1 contender for Usyk’s crown.

Let’s get it on

Yeah I agree – Joyce takes a lot to give a lot and has a crazy chin — but Fury as annoying has he freaking is — seems to be obviously gearing for a simple tune up to then fight Usyk at some point early in 2023 (well at least first half) — So, I feel bad for these guys making rankings having to take x out then x back in etc….it must be annoying (but if he was done, WBC would pulled his belt, hence they know more than we know…because they ALWAYS strip if a man is inactive – hence something is up – hence why he wants a tune up before the undisputed fight) —- and when these men put it back on the list, hence I assume when he actually fights, they seem to know what there doing and will not have Joyce over Fury…. no one would …. One thing about Wilder (talk about annoying tok) no one has a freakier right hand then him, its actually odd, hence I am with you Joyce is should be UP there, but he is not knocking Fury out, (which is the only way he wins, but if Fury gets up from Wilder FLUSH rights… like a zombie… he is getting up from a nice one by Joyce)….BUT Joyce does not have the best feet work nor defense (ESPECIALLY compared to Fury) and for sure is not as fast as Wilder (which no one should deny….Wilder will always be up there because of that kiss of death, he has bad feet work, half a** defense, rarely goes for the body, and will lose rounds JUST to hopefully get that Right to land…..hence if u do that, well it will land, no matter how unskilled he is compared to these other men….BUT … HE IS FAST, and he does HAVE A LOMG REACH….) hence has gritty and fun as Joyce is to watch…. u just cant put him above Fury…whenever Fury has a OFFICIAL FIGHT, so these guys dont have to go back and forth with him lol

Yikes, I was typing along on this iPhone and it submit, sorry for the 3 spelling mistakes (like LOMG REACH) and the one syntax mistake (like “Joyce is should be..” smh)- Though its not confusing to read per se….BUT STILL, simple spelling errors like “has gritty as …” rather than “as gritty as” .. can be annoying at times, so I apologize on those few.

As you say, after Fury fights he’ll be ranked. Simple, and not that much of a pain. The pain goes to those who fight

How on earth did Shakur Stevenson not lose his TBRB championship on the scales? Making weight should be the minimum requirement of any champion and having a champion that can’t make weight is farcical, even if he is going to move up next fight

Sure it did, Joe: “We have a standard practice of waiting a week” -because strange things happen in boxing and it’s better to wait a bit than have to overrule ourselves, even if there is only an outside chance of that.

No it didn’t. The alphabets rightly took Stevenson’s belts from him when he failed to make the weight. If you want to be seen as an alternative you need to be better than them. This was worse

I don’t follow your reasoning, Joe. There was zero risk that we were going to maintain Stevenson as the true divisional Jr. lightweight champion. We merely waited 7 days for a reason you may not agree with, but which is not unreasonable nonetheless.

What was going to happen in that week anyway? Was he going to find a time machine and be able to make the weight he was champion at?

So would the championship have been declared vacant if Stevenson decided to give 130 another try? This won’t be the last time this happens so I’m interested to know

No it would not. We acknowledge a champion losing his crown on the scales, and this was the first time we’ve had to move on it so we applied the 7-day norm we usually do. Call us/me paranoid but the chance of shenanigans can never be ruled out in this sport –not in this sport. Next time, we’d probably move faster but paranoid, cynical me would probably be wincing.

1. I don’t seem to be able to find a list anywhere on your site of past champions.
2. Looked your list of current pound for pound champions https://tbrb.org/p4p I see that four fighters have asterisks by their names. Yet no reason is given for the asterisks.

Hopefully, JC Martinez vs. Sunny Edwards will also materialize. Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford, if only they can set their egos aside.

Fury has doubled down on his retirement, and it’s now been acknowledged by The Ring and WBC.

Does it now make sense to conclude AJ vs Usyk is for the lineal title?

Hi Springs, when is there likely to be a TBRB decision on Fury’s retirement? He’s held steadfast and doesn’t appear to be seeking any fights. If he does fight, it seems incredibly likely it would only be to be drawn out of retirement to face the winner of August’s rematch.

Logically, it seems that Usyk v Joshua should be for the title. They’re a clear remaining 1 v 2.

I’ll offer another perspective. TBRB made the call to remove Klitschko from the rankings for much less than Fury has said (in fact he said he was trying to make fights – albeit he wasn’t a champion so different standards may apply). That decision was significant and changed the destiny of the lineal title – instead of currently residing with Usyk, it is with a probably retired Fury.

This seems a chance to, if not ‘right’ that, to at least bring it full circle with similar justification.

Hello Ted (et al.),

News is coming tomorrow evening. We are, and have taken, great pains to get this difficult situation right. Fury has a good time spinning heads around, but we are obligated to do this right. Ignoring a #1 vs. #2 match is never something we seek to do, but we don’t strip champions either.

Thank you, stay tuned.

Thanks Springs, the message on the home page is well considered.

I know you’ve gone to great pains previously to stress that the TBRB and Lineal title are separate, but would be interesting to hear your view as a boxing writer and historian.

Is Fury still lineal? Or is is this fight to crown a lineal champion?

Usyk is now the true heavyweight champion of the world and thus Fury’s successor. By my count, he’s the 37th since the Queensberry era began, if you count John L. Sullivan. The “lineal champion” idea became popular because the myriad WBS clown cars and their belts made confusion the norm. It served a purpose, though at times it got silly; there were very strange assertions regarding Jack Johnson and Joe Louis in at least one publication. My view is that the lineal champion concept is no longer necessary and in fact, can contribute to confusion because boxing (or at least serious fans, purists, and historians) now has a system. It’s right here, presented in the charter, and takes the best of past efforts while excising the dopey tendencies and completely removing the financial factor. Clarity is available for those who value it.

You may have noted our “Successions” tab. I find that term more useful than “Lineage,” which suggests a bloodline. A succession points toward combat, and succession by combat is what the sport is all about. Think the Battle of Hastings, or even Duncan I and MacBeth.

Two thoughts:

Has CP Freshmart (the convenience store chain) ever stated whether they’d allow their two sponsored fighters to face each other (guaranteed loss for one fighter carrying their name)?

Is the board more terrified of or excited for the rankings chaos that will ensue from Garcia-Davis at 140?

Arthur Kinney is both humorous and astute. As for the Freshmart issue, we have members that would know more than I do. But either way, #1 and #2 is what it’s supposed to be. No #3 exceptions here.

Now this would be interesting. Potential championship matches for more vacancies are being negotiated: Edwards vs. Martinez in October, and Spence vs. Crawford in November.

This year seems to be the year with the most championship changes.

Hello Rick, your question regarding women’s boxing rankings and, for that matter, MMA rankings- has been asked numerous times. We’re at our limits now and expanding beyond what we’re already doing is out of the question for the foreseeable future. Keep in mind that not all of the members watch women’s boxing (or MMA) and that this is all-volunteer –few of us have extra-time on our hands.

Thanks for the reply Springs. I would not have considered rankings for MMA since your mission statement specifies boxing. However, women’s boxing is probably the best it’s ever been, and ranking them is just as important as the men. TBRB’s mission statement doesn’t specify the definitive rankings for men’s boxing, just boxing in general. Boxers in all divisions should be ranked regardless of gender. Just look at the Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano fight. That wasn’t just a great women’s fight, that was a great fight full stop. Hopefully in the future, the 50 or so volunteers will come around on this issue.

Hi, is there goona be an official policy where if a champ “retires” they are given a certain amount of time to change their mind?

E.g. After Pacquaio “retired” after beating Bradley, the title was immediately vacated but he was back in the ring later in the same year. Had he been given the same amount of time Fury has, Crawford would currently be champion. However had Fury been taken at his word then Joshua and Usyk should be for the title.

Obviously I know there was no reason not to believe Pacquaio, and every reason not to believe Fury, but taking one at their word and one not seems a little murky.

It is murky though you correctly stated why we did what we did with Pacquiao and not with Fury (keeping in mind that he has yet to give up his WBS belt or turn his license into the BBB of C). There’s no answer easy here. Fury is playing games and it’s unfortunate because there’s a #1 vs. #2 coming up. We’re leaving things as is for now but will revisit in a month, as Usyk-Joshua draws near.

What if Fury reiterates that he’s retired and vacate his WBC belt and surrender the license, minutes or even hours after Usyk vs. Joshua 2?

Or Fury vacates the WBC belt and surrender the license without reiterating his retirement, before the Usyk vs. Joshua 2 card begins, only for him to retract and say that he’s still fighting minutes before the official winner of Usyk vs. Joshua 2 is announced?

Or same situation as the aforementioned. But with Fury saying that the comeback is just a prank a week after.

Sounds ridiculous but it’s Fury we’re talking about.

As stated, Bruce, we’ll look at every possible scenario and make the best decision we can. We have some good minds involved on the board. I can tell you that we don’t make “appointments” of any kind and that includes retroactive ones like those you bring up. We make the best decision we can and then live with it. No waffling here. We leave the waffling to the wafflers and boxing has too many of those already.

These days top boxers rarely have more than two fights per year. That is one every 6 months. So, to be fair, Fury should at least be given 6 months before being stripped of his status (by either TBRB or WBC)

Hi,

For the Championship bouts do they need to be scheduled for 12 rounds?

For example, lets say Rigondeaux can only get cleared by a commission that just hand licensing out to anybody (ala Danny Williams), he returns in a 6 rounder at super bantam against some club level fighter and losses. Would the said club fighter then become champion? I feel it would completely devalue a title if its getting passed about between bums in some forgotten corner of the world.

Also if a fighter who fails to make weight defeats a champion, would the champion retain his title?

Hello Sam,

You have an interesting scenario with Rigondeaux. We are on record (somewhere) as stating that a championship bout has to be recognized as such by both fighters. A 6-rounder would not be recognized as such. As to a challenger who fails to make weight, he cannot take a divisional crown -because there are weight divisions for a reason- and that’s how it’s been historically.

What if the following weird scenario happens:
-Rigo announces a comeback fight and fight an unknown guy with a horrible record in a 12 rounder
-Fight is in a 120-pound catchweight
-Rigo states that he’s still the “lineal champion” at 122
-They are both overweight at 120.5 and 121
-The unknown guy beats Rigo

And then a week after is Fulton vs. Akhmadaliev.

How would TBRB handle the situation?

Hi TBRB,
I was wondering what your thoughts are with regards to Tyson Fury’s ‘retirement’. It has been a couple of months now and Fury has pretty much stuck to his ‘guns’.

With the #1 and #2 contenders (Usyk and AJ) fighting in August, I was wondering whether this fight should crown a new World Heavyweight Champion? It will be 4 months since Fury said he was ‘done’ with boxing, and surely Fury shouldn’t be allowed to hold the true Championship hostage. He is either retired or he isn’t. If he is retired, the Championship should be vacated and fought for between the #1 and #2 contenders.

I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on this.

Regards,

Anthony

We’re monitoring it closely. It’s not an easy call, as you know, because Fury is -and seems to enjoy- being purposefully confusing. The fact that he has not given up his WBS belt contradicts what he has been insisting. We have two options as I see them, at least:
1. He has announced, repeatedly, that he is retired. That’s official enough to take him at his word and declare the heavyweight throne open.
2. We wait until he moves on his words –that is, gives back his WBS belt. Until then, he’s the champ. A game-playing champ, but the rightful and singular champ nonetheless.

When the #1 vs. #2 gets closer, we’ll zero in on the critical question as to whether to recognize the winner as Fury’s successor. No need to answer it now as a lot can change between now and August.

Hi Springs, many thanks for your well thought out and written response. It shows very clear possible ways to proceed when required.

Regards,

Anthony

Good. Congratulations on this project, boxing needed something like this, but I don’t understand why Artur Beterbiev is number 1 in light heavyweight. What has he done to be?

Thank you Pavoni. Beterbiev isn’t ranked #1, he’s the divisional champion. He beat Gvozdyk who beat Stevenson who beat Dawson who beat Hopkins who beat Pascal who was ranked with Dawson at #1 and #2 when they fought in 2010. See the SUCCESSION tab for details.

Looking forward to Crawford vs. Spence, potentially the 12th reigning champion. I wonder how would this match affect the P4P ranks.

By the way, since Fury is insisting that he’s retired, how would Usyk vs. Joshua 2 affect the throne?

Let’s hope the winner of Martinez vs. Arroyo fights Edwards this year. Also Teraji vs. Kyoguchi.

Update: Fury will return to the ring to defend title later this year. I think this is a good news as to avoid confusion on the Heavyweight throne.

Kudos to Inoue to winning the real World Bantamweight Title and becoming #1 Pound-for pound in the process. I concur 100% with his placement at #1 overall.

Was Pulev considered to reenter following his recent win over Jerry Forrest who number 10 Michael Hunter failed to beat in his last fight (and was very lucky not to lose).

Pulev is someone who’s best days are obviously behind him but think he has a better overall resume than the bottom 3. And has arguably more comfortable wins against fringe contenders like Chisora and Hughie Fury than other guys currently in the top 10

Hi, big supporter of your project, I am fed up with the sanctioning bodies. I think this reply box should be moved to the top of the page because as comments accumulate it will get progressively lower down the page. Also, I think your welterweight rankings show an error at the top and should read “since 4/2016 when Floyd Mayweather retired” instead of Manny Pacquiao.

Daniel, Good point about the placement of the replies. I will contact Tech. Also, the welterweight rankings’ last champion is correct. Pacquiao and Bradley were ranked #1 and #2 when they fought in April 2016.

Shouldnt Loma be the no. 1 contender at lightweight Springs? I don’t think Teo will fight at 135 again, and loma is more deserving than kambo, having come back with 2 good wins since his defeat?

Several members asked the same thing. When he defeated Krasniqi via a split decision back in October, Krasniqi was #9. Boesel thus entered in at #10, and then it looks he floated up due to attrition. He has been voted out, however, based on his loss to Ramirez.

Brian Castano is listed as ranked #3 in your “Upcoming Bouts” tab. In reality, he is ranked #2 which would make his bout with #1 Charlo a title fight. Correct?

Assuming there would be winners on the upcoming championship fights (130, 154, 118, potentially 200+ successor as well), we will probably have the time this year wherein more than half of the 17 divisions have each own champions at the same time. Then there’s the potential fights at 112 and 147 as well. This year could be historic. Though I’m sure it will be reduced again after a few days or months the last of them wins before this year ends.

Kudos to all those Top 2 contenders who will fight each other.

I was surprised there was no mention of Saturday’s 130 lb title fight in this week’s update. That should be a good one!

The one responsible on updating the front page probably forgot? It’s in the front page now, kinda too late but it’s always better than never.

More importantly, there’s a champion now. In 2 weeks there’s another one to add.

Hey TBRB team! As a younger boxing fan and just a fan of your writing I really truly appreciate your work for the sport.

With that being said, and of course this is is just an idea, when could we expect a potential expansion into women’s boxing? This is after what may have been a classic bout just recently between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor.

Just curious really and all the best

Hello Brodin, that question -regarding women’s boxing rankings and MMA rankings- has been asked numerous times. We’re at our limits now and expanding beyond what we’re already doing is out of the question for the foreseeable future. Keep in mind that this is all-volunteers and only a very few are retirees with extra time on their hands. That’s the way the bell rings! (?)

And the big question… how long will Fury need to claim he’s retired before it will be accepted? A month? 18 months?

If he’s retired then there’s a 1 v 2 fight coming up in July!

They just need a firm statement, no buts nor ifs, not even maybe. Even a tweet would do just like the last time, even if he retracts it in a few seconds, as long as it’s unconditional.

Thanks for what you do, TBRB! You’re a breath of fresh air in a too often foul-aired sport.

This is probably against your current rules, but if Fury doesn’t schedule a fight before Usyk-Joshua II, and then announces his retirement *after* they fight, I think you should name the winner the new champ (if you decide against this, we should still recognize your champion status designation as definitive; I would just disagree with your decision/rule)

Keep up the great work

Thank you Solomon, for the wisdom you express! The chairs and I will be discussing Fury and the heavyweight throne later this morning. Given what he has said and confirmed already, I think it would be goofy if we didn’t recognize Usyk-Joshua II as his successor if nothing changes between now and then …

Interesting call on Whyte. Drops below the likes of Parker (who he beat) and Joyce.

Is that fair considering all he did was lose to the number 1, which was entirely expected.

You can talk about the performance, but surely Fury had some input into how Whyte performed.

Would be interested to understand the thinking behind him dropping so low, particularly in relation to Parker.

Well, different members had different reasons, but one of the more consistent reasons expressed was, as you pointed out, how poor that performance was. Fury’s neutralizing power is one thing but Whyte did not even seem to be trying. As for the loss to Parker, that was 4 years ago and one pattern I’ve detected is that members are less apt to factor such things in after a couple of years, especially given the wins -or consistent winning- since.

That is a little unfair on Whyte. He was fighting Fury who just dominates when he is on his A game. Whyte probably WAS trying… That said I think the (seemingly) rejuvenated and more aggressive Parker deserves to be above him. He would beat Whyte in a rematch. And Joyce certainly would.

Aggression is hard to judge. Your level of aggression can be determined by the attributes of the fighter in front of you.

It’s easier to be aggressive against Chisora than Fury. That’s straight forward isn’t it? Chisora isn’t banging you with jabs before you can even get in range.

Whyte V Parker would still be close. I remain a fan of Parker though and think he looked improved against Chisora.

Why does Gervonta Davis appear in two weight divisions while Canelo is not in the light heavyweight list?

Canelo has only had one foray into the division, and that was back in 2019. He was ranked #3 after defeating Kovalev, but was eventually removed due to inactivity. If he defeats Bivol, he’ll be ranked there once again –and high.

Based on the Record, KO wins ratio, Nationality and outcome of the last fight the name of the fighter ranked as No. 7 between Welterweights should be Eimantas Stanionis, not Radzhab Butaev. Could you please clarify that? Thanks.

Why was GGG vs Murata not mentioned in this week’s update, and why isn’t Murata back in the middleweight top 10? Are we to believe based on his performance that the likes of Felix Cash or Sergiy Derevyanchenko, who has lot 4 of his last 5, are better than Ryota Murata?

Hello J,

The update is for rankings changes; for the sake of brevity, we avoid a sport-wide synopsis. As to why Murata is not in the top 10, it’s pretty to tough to enter or re-enter the top-ten after a decisive loss. Murata was valiant, absolutely, but we consider a good loss (which can and has seen contenders enter the rankings or not move down in them) to be more than that. A good loss usually means a close fight.

But Murata, by your own admission leading up to the fight, was only unranked in the first place due to inactivity. I think it strains credibility to have a top 10 without Murata in it. Would any member of the voting panel actually pick Felix Cash, Maciej Sulecki, or Sergiy Derevyanchenko to beat Murata if they were to fight in the second half of the year? Derevyanchenko has lost four of five and has taken a progressively worse beating each time out.

Fair points, but remember, these aren’t hypothetical H2H rankings. They’re based on what is done and what is not done. One of the patterns noted over time here is that fighters who are KO’d do not always remain in the rankings, and it’s certainly no a way to return into the top ten.

Hi I was reading this weeks rankings and after watching the Warrington vs Martinez 2 fight, I was curious as to why the board felt Warrington should have been disqualified? Other than the occasional head clashes I didn’t see any reason for a disqualification
Thank you
Tom

You seem to have taken a bit of a left turn in your latest update.

You’ve decided that Warrington should have been Disqualified and allowed that to impact your rankings. If the eye injury had been worse in the first 4 rounds it would have resulted in a no contest. But Kiko opted to carry on.

There was no real suggestion of anything but accidental head clashes. You can call Warrington reckless in the way he leads… but then that would apply to every fight he has. Why even rank him at all?

It’s an unusually subjective call this one, and one that puts TBRB in a slightly different role than where I had them.

Hello Ted,

Greetings Ted,

Well, “we” did not decide that Warrington should have been DQ’d. That was the opinion of a handful of members. Even if all 50 members of the board decided that Warrington should have been DQ’d, it would not have mattered because we are bound by the official decision unless the robbery clause is applied. The concern of those members -and many others- was that the head butt/s unfairly diminished Martinez, despite his fighting will to carry on, and it cast a shadow on the win. The chairs proposed that Warrington move up no less than 3 spots; that was not very supported by the majority.

Ancajas is leaving 115 according to his recent interview.

By the way, I’m aware of the Charter and whatnot, but can Rigondeaux hold onto the Jr. Featherweight Championship if he doesn’t schedule any fight within a year or at least until the third anniversary of his last defense on June? He seems to found a “loophole” in the Charter.

Jr. Lightweight rankings would be very interesting in the next few weeks. I wonder if Valdez can make it back to the championship ranks going into the Stevenson fight.

I wouldn’t say the Charter has a loophole for a Rigondeaux case; we have a failsafe. If a champion doesn’t defend over an extended amount of time and doesn’t retire or otherwise abdicate, the divisional championship is not held hostage –if #1 signs to fight #2, a successor can be crowned.

Valdez returns to the rankings this week. His 180-day suspension ended March 12 and the board has voted him at #2 due to Stevenson’s recent win. When Valdez was exited due to PED issues, he was #1.

Regards to you and yours, Bruce.

Thanks for clarifying!

Also, it’s nice to know that Valdez returned to the championship ranks. 2 vacant thrones are being contested in the next 2 months, another 1 being brewed. May these upcoming vacant championship fights end with a proper victor.

Another situation would be interesting. If Valdez vs. Stevenson would be materialized, would the winner be recognized as the new Jr. Lightweight champion? IIRC, this situation already happened before with Canelo vs. GGG 2. Valdez is in a similar position as Canelo was.

What is the length of suspension for Valdez? And what if his re-entry bout will be with the current #1 in the division, considering that before PED suspension he was #1 as well?

Hello Roarman ~ the length of Valdez’s suspension is 180-days from the date of his removal from the rankings. This was determined by the chairs and oversight with input from board members some months ago. Valdez will therefore return to the rankings on March 12. Whether he will return to #1 or end up behind the current #1 (Stevenson) is to be determined.

Why is Rigo still considered the 122 champion? I get that it’s because the lineage but he’s fighting at 118 in his last 2 fights, the last time he fought at 122 was 2 and a half years ago. Nothing particular against Rigo it’s just sticking with someone as the champion of a division when he long stopped being a factor in that division and competes elsewhere seems a bit removed from reality to me.

Other: If I know it right Danny Garcia will compete at 154 from now

Similarly, Gervonta Davis’ team announced he will compete at 135 going forward, vacated his belts at 130 in August and his 140 title as well, after his last fight. Considering this, shouldn’t he be only ranked at 135?

Hello, the Charter tab will answer your questions, or at least shed some light on them. In sum, Rigondeaux has not abdicated the championship he earned. We are, unlike almost everyone else except the “linealists,” reluctant to strip a champion of something he earned while those who are doing the stripping just sit around. We will, however, declare a divisional throne open given strict conditions. Now, Rigondeaux has not defended in more than 18-months, and it’s looking like abandonment. We have recourse that is just and fair: If #1 signs to fight #2 and Rigondeaux is still idling, we’d likely recognize the winner as his successor.

As to contenders declaring “intentions” -intentions are words, not action. This is boxing, a place where such declarations mean very little. We lean toward exiting a contender from an earned ranking -after- he fights in his new division.

Hello all , I check everyday to see the rankings we are still missing November & December. (Ok I see the updates) I hope all is well at TBRB!
You have put my faith back in the system & sport . You’re the only rankings and champions I acknowledge.
I do wish you would change your name to THE REAL WORLD CHAMPIONS because basically that’s what you are doing , cutting out the nonsense fragments , the corruption, the cancer that is the alphabets .
It would make it easy when spreading the word and explaining your concept to the more casual fan or younger audience .
TBRB is a bit of a mouth full & anything with trans in nowadays raises eyebrows unnecessary.
I prefer say this is the real world champion in that division…anyhow much love and hope to see December posted soon .
Keep up the great work.
Thanks for the work you’ve put in this year for us the fans benefit. Its really appreciated .

Ps Springs love your articles in Boxing News & your book on Harry Greb I’ve read recently..

We’re in out 10th year now and it’s a little late to change our name, don’t you think? Back in the summer of 2012, I suggested we call ourselves the Red-Light Rankings Board. As in let’s put a stop to all the wearisome nonsense that has me watching boxing broadcasts on mute. I also liked the not-so-subtle nod to Jimmy Cannon, and let’s face it –he was right. Boxing will always be the red-light district of sports.. Alas, I was the only one of the co-founders who liked that name.

(And thank you for the nod.)

I noticed that your Successions page is missing a few lower-weight divisions. I don’t believe we have had a legitimate World Champion in some of those divisions in a decade or more (e.g.; Bantamweight, Junior Lightweight) but for clarity’s sake, I would recommend that those divisions be addressed rather than omitted entirely.

Keith, rest assured we discussed that. We decided to only include those divisions where we “crowned” the legitimate champions since 2012; the reason for that is that the historians on the board would be unlikely to agree on those successions –it’d be a battle royal. That being said, if you look at the rankings themselves, you will see identified the last legitimate champion in all of the divisions where the championship is open.

Just want to know if a clear loss for Niyomtrong aka CP Freshmart against an unranked Paradero can potentially affect and elevate Pradabsri aka CP Freshmart vs. Moonsri aka Menayothin rematch into a championship?

I wondered because if I recall correctly when Pradabsri won, he wasn’t elevated into #1 spot right away because Niyomtrong has better recent resume.

I can’t predict how the board would vote, but if CP Freshmart looks terrible and loses against Paradero than yes, he could go down a more than 2 spots. Take a look at what happened this week at jr. bantamweight with Donnie Nietes after a draw against an unranked contender.

Really enjoy studying the transnational rankings but I have to ask how does John Ryder qualify as the fourth ranked super middleweight in the world? His two fights in the last two years were against 39 year old Mike Guy in a 10 rounder and an 8 rounder vs Joseph Jurko (8 and 4) at light heavy!

Mr. Skrimmers, thank you for the support. Ryder floated up because of attrition. In 2019, he was ranked #7, but with Canelo becoming champ and a few others ranked over Ryder moving out of the division for one reason or another, he floated up. Since he’s had two fights in a row out of the division, however, he may be exiting soon.

Hi, great website and certainly the ranking system the sport should apply. I have a couple of questions. How do you decide a lineal/divisional champion after it has been vacant for a while? Is this when and if #1 fights #2?

Also I see the welterweight division has been vacant since Pacquiao retired but he was beaten by Jeff Horn a couple of fights later. I know Jeff Horn is no top class fighter by any means but should the lineal championship not have been passed to him?

Hello Ryan,

Thank you! When a divisional championship is open due to abdication or retirement, a successor is crowned with the official winner of a #1 vs. #2 championship match. Note, once a champion retires as Pacquiao did, he relinquishes any claim on his divisional championship. We don’t keep the seat warm! Also note that we list the legitimate champions, not necessarily the “lineal” champions as even those who still think that’s a thing don’t agree on it means. Our standards are simplified, clear, and based solidly on common sense.

Man I hope Demetrius Andrade steps up one day, been a pro for almost 15 years, 33-0 or something, and best opposition is like Liam William and Sulecki.

Liam Williams’ record still reflecting as 22-2-1 (17). It should be updated. It made me wonder if the rest should be updated too. Do you guys still update every Tuesday?

Hi,

Where has the rankings archives gone? I managed to find it via google, but when I click on a date, it takes me to the home page?

In the Pound for Pound rankings it says Golovkin’s record is 38-1-1. In the rankings it says 41-1-1.

I guess not only did Canelo steal his two best wins, he took three more for good measure! 🙂

Going into the new year, Luis Ortiz’s best wins in the last 5 years will be Dave Allen or Chris Hammer, pretty weak. Has only beaten 1 top 10 fighter his whole career and that was 6 years ago. He seems to be eternally rated top 10 just for that.

Worry not, it’s highly unlikely in the meantime. Only WBC and IBA recognize a division in between Heavy and Cruiser. As we all know, TBRB doesn’t and will never recognize Alphabet orgs.

We’re just as lucky to recognize the “bridgework” class given all these 50-something retirees who keep coming back. No, we won’t be recognizing that abomination unless forced to by the sport-at-large. As for me, I’m always rooting for the small heavyweights to toppled the giants. Where have you gone, Mickey Walker?

It would be good to list those who has just dropped out of the top 10 lists (from previous week). Is that possible?

When are Gary Russell, Julian Williams and Wilfredo Mendez being dumped through inactivity. None have fought since before the pandemic

Greetings Samuel,
Gary Russell exited this week, Julian Williams fights in 2 weeks, and Mendez had a fight scheduled in August but his opponent (Carlos Buitrago) failed to make weight. We cut breaks for things like that. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

Now that it’s been about 28 months since Rigo last fought at 122 against Ceja, is it finally time to remove him from his lineal championship?

Remember, we don’t strip champions. That activity has a long and ignoble history. In July, Rigondeaux verified on a conference call his intention to eventually return to 122 and he still regards himself as “the best in the world at 122 pounds.” In August, he said “I’m the father of all the little chickens in that division. Everyone knows that’s my division until someone takes it from me. I’m the Lineal 122-pound champion.”

That will make it tough to abdicate him now. However, if a #1 vs. #2 is announced we may well have to move on him because his inactivity could be considered abdication -as in abandonment.

Love your work . Brilliant stuff ..just wondering..

Is it at all possible to see the rankings beyond the top 10 & champion ? I’d love to know the top 30 so I could see who’s knocking on the door on way up or down etc . You must have them ? Maybe you could post every 6 months or so your full rankings like boxing news does with British rankings.

Also, look at the upcoming bouts list. When they list a bout of unranked fighters, you know that one or both are on the TBRB’s radar.

Please could we have say the top 30 in each division, which would help greatly fans with less experience than the business pros when looking at fights

Ian, we wish we could say “Sure! No problem” but this thing is all-volunteer and all of us are pretty strapped for time because we have to eat and feed families too. I tip my hat to your (new?) devotion to the greatest of sports however.

Good ranking list,

Except I can not put Canelo Alvarez at #1. His two biggest fights against GGG he should have lost, and Canelo you could make a case for losing against Trout, (close) and Lara (close) The thing is Canelo is tough. But he has never had a dominant win over a prime fighter in his whole career. GGG should be above him. Juan Estrada should have lost against Gonzalez. (close) Ringo should not even be ranked after stinking out the joint against Casamero!

Speaking for myself, I was not a believer in Canelo at #1, P4P, when those GGG fights were more recent. But they’re history now –he’s had 6 good to very good wins since then. I can’t see much of an argument for anyone over him right now; and keep in mind, he’ll soon fight the next best super middleweight in the world to contest his second legitimate divisional championship.

Why has Gary Russell Jr not been removed for inactivity? Last fought the same day Artem Dalakian did

Stopping Dubois in the fight before was also far superior to anything Ortiz has done in years.

In fact, in the past 2 years Ortiz’s only win was over mediocre Alex Flores! That is terrible.

Joyce banging out Takam is another result better than any win Ortiz has in years and years. Again, your rating are letting the old Cuban hang on way too long in the top 5

No, the rankings are updated on Tuesdays after 3 days of input and/or debate among the membership. So far, it doesn’t look like Ortiz will be in the top 5 come tomorrow evening. Few members are arguing otherwise but it isn’t over yet. Either way, it’s important to understand that the question isn’t only whether such-and-such a contender “deserves to be ranked at #” but also who has earned a place over him in terms of achievements. Hunter? Parker? Wallin? So far, no. You offered one name, which is, as demonstrated, debatable. Now, Joyce just stopped a tough guy and a former contender in his 13th bout in the division. He has an excellent argument to move up from #7 to #5.

You should definitely try to bring BoxRec.com on board. Theirs is the “go to” site for boxing fans and reference point for anyone interested, yet they seem to be using their own bizarre ranking system when there is no need – They could use yours!

Boxrec’s ranking system works so that it can apply a ranking to every active boxer in the database, TBRB only offers rankings for a small fraction of that, it wouldn’t be the right match.

Yeah I get that, but they could still keep that for the purposes of ranking ALL boxers. They could also be persuaded to include TRBR lists as the “official” top ten in each division. BoxRec is a go to site for boxing enthusiasts as well as casuals who want to know more about boxers’ records etc. It would be great if they bought into this realistic ranking.

Hi Springs, I’d be interested to know how the TBRB see the current Fury situation?

Inactive for 18 months and with no date set. Is he that different to the Klitschko November 2016 decision we previously discussed on this page?

Fury is the rightful heavyweight champion of the world; he either has to officially retire or abdicate like he did then in order for there to be an open championship in the division. Barring that, we typically will reach out to his camp after 18-months without a defense, though Covid has caused us to extend the inactivity. If several more months go by and a #1 vs. #2 match is signed, then we’ll consider recognition due to abandonment, which is a form of abdication. Given that his third fight with Wilder has been rescheduled for October, that looks unlikely.

I hope all is well with you and yours.

Thanks for the response. I guess we’ll see what happens between now and October. If that fight gets pushed again I’d question whether he’s an active fighter anymore.

Excellent work guys. I hope this takes off in a big way. Judging by the fans comments it should catch on quickly enough. One of the comments I read here asked about getting a boxer’s ranking read out when they are introduced to the ring before the fight. The biggest problem is the sanctioning bodies and promoters. It is unlikely that promoters who are closely aligned to a sanctioning body will allow that to happen. That said it may be worth approaching some of the top promoters asking them to do this on their shows. I think Eddie Hearn might be in favour. If they start doing it on his promotions/shows then many will follow.
I would urge all boxing fans to write/text/tweet (whatever) the top promoters asking them to do this. Pressure form the fans will hopefully pay off.

Good morning from the UK

I was checking the P4P rankings and noticed that some of the boxers have an asterisk (*). However there is nothing on page to denote what this means, can you please explain?

Keep up the good work.

Regards
Hardip

Greetings.
New to your website, makes for a great conversation starter.
I always find ratings, especially P4P are very very subjective and they will take form of what the individual compiling them likes, which is why this is a great site – they are discussed by a panel before publication much like the Ring ratings.

👍🏼 Totally agree with the majority, my talking point: personally can’t see how Lara sits above Navarrete, does one victory eclipse a finer body of work?

Hello Jaime, and thank you for your support. Mauricio Lara defeated the #2-ranked contender in the world in Josh Warrington, and that can indeed be expected to be a shortcut to the top of the rankings. Navarrete is among the busiest fighters around and we all appreciate fighters who fight, but he has yet to fight and beat a ranked contender at featherweight. Being active is one thing, beating top contenders quite another.

In your P4P, why is GGG still in the top 10 and removes Loma? GGG hasnt fought better opposition for the last 2 years. I think, TBRB is the only site now where GGG was placed in Top 10. Kindly check your list. Loma lost to Teo but he was previously number 1 and when he lost, he was removed completely? And now he’s back, better than ever – will he be able to join the list too? I think he should be.

Hi,
I appreciate what you guys do here, bringing some sense of order and clarity into the dysfunctional sport of boxing. I find your organisation to be consistently the most fair and objective rankings.

That said, in your latest P4P list Golovkin is still present. Why? What’s the reasoning behind this, because I don’t recall him fighting anyone of note since Canelo. Surely Jermell Charlo should be there instead.

Best Regards

Rohan and DJ Bianca Frost,

The P4P list is there to be critiqued. I critique it all the time, and recognize that there are a few guys getting stale on it –GGG, Usyk, and Crawford. The eye test should never be enough for any rankings system; placements should be based on merit -on what is actually achieved. As for GGG, he is down at #9 and on his way out unless he reverts to his younger form. However, many members count both Canelo losses as “good losses” and many believe he should be 1-1 with him. That is something to consider.

Lomachenko lost to Lopez, who was nowhere near Canelo at the time, and few of us believe that Lomachenko had as much of an argument as GGG did for beating a top guy. As for Jermell Charlo: that Harrison loss hurt him, though beating Castano to become jr. middleweight king later this month would certainly improve his chances of entering the P4P list.

When is the last time Luis Ortiz beat anyone relevant? He is hanging onto a top 5 contender ranking without really delivering, while Usyk is way at the bottom despite having just beaten Chisora and having beat #6 Hunter in 2017, more recently than Ortiz has beat any contender.

Usyk has yet to beat a contender at heavyweight. The Hunter win was at cruiserweight. Ortiz has beaten contenders, though not for a while. But “not for a while” is better than “has yet to.” I’ll give you this though, Ortiz is getting a bit stale up there and as those beneath him fight, look for him to be overtaken. I think Usyk is very stale at P4P though. Come September he can make you “right” and me “wrong” depending on how he competes against AJ.

How many guys has Ortiz beaten who are better than Chisora?
Thompson was ancient and in his last fight when Ortiz beat him (and Tony had previously been beat by Malik Scott), Scott was Ko’d by Chisora prior to going the distance with Ortiz. Hammer is like a lower level Chisora, losing to bigger names.

Jenning was a nice win but that was like 6 years ago and Jennings is more of a 2nd rate contender. I just think Ortiz at #5 is a bit generous considering his lack of any meaningful win for years.

Chisora and Witherspoon, both unranked, aren’t necessarily enough to cancel out King Kong’s 34 heavyweight bouts. I don’t disagree that Ortiz is stale up there, but keep in mind that movement has been stunted by Covid and heavyweights don’t fight nearly as often as they should. Ortiz will be overtaken unless he reclaims old form and accepts bolder challengers. Usyk’s bold challenge could launch him up and over Ortiz come September.

New to your website / rankings ..looks brilliant…forgive me if you said why before but I can’t see no super fly ranked any reasons ?

Hi! Just want to know if the Rosario-Lubin and Williams-Mendoza fights this weekend can still potentially disrupt the #1 and #2 rankings and downgrade the upcoming Charlo-Castano championship fight which is only a few weeks away?

Looks off if they will interrupt the #1 and #2 rank at this point.

Bruce, you shall see tomorrow evening, ET. Keep in mind, we do not seek to preserve an upcoming #1 vs. #2 if another contender deserves to disrupt it. Such a scenario has happened before in these parts.

Your site looks great but I did notice that the word “annuncio” appears to be spelled incorrectly. I saw a couple small issues like this. I thought you would like to know!

In case you wanted to fix it, in the past we’ve used services from a websites like HelloSpell.com to keep our site error-free.

You guys are the most up to date and correct boxing rankings system imo, this shows why too. RING is good too but they are slacking with removing long inactive fighters from their rankings, not as up to date.

That was a middleweight bout and not an over-the-weight bout (and it happened to late to discuss last week). Given that these are divisional rankings, we can’t remove him from a division based on a loss that occurred in a different division from which he was ranked. These things tend to correct themselves however: he exits the jr. middleweight rankings anyway due to extended inactivity in that division.

Quick question… Fury and Klitschko were removed from 1 and 2 in the rankings around November 2016 as they hadn’t fought in a year and didn’t have a fight scheduled…

… but Klitschko almost constantly had fights scheduled. He was fighting Fury for most of that time. Then Browne, then the Joshua fight was announced in December 2016. Should Klitschko have been back at Ranking 1 when he fought Joshua?

Joshua was ranked 1 by TBRB ahead of the Klitschko fight. Should he therefore have been 2?

And if both of those are true… Should the lineage have commenced there, moved to Ruiz and then come back to Joshua?

Hello Ted,

I recall us wrestling with that decision after it was made and AJ-Klitschko was announced. But we had to stand firm, even if it meant going against the grain. (When it comes to legit championships, the “grain” is usually going off into outer space anyway.) The information we had at the end of November 2016 was that Klitschko was turning down fights around that time and in our judgment, based on what we knew and could find out from insiders on the board, the right call was to remove him due to inactivity.

Thanks for the response. I’ve always been of the view that the linear title is something that is often clear in hindsight but less so in the present. For example, people make a case that Fury never lost the title while others believe he won it v Wilder. Others can make a case that there’s no way you can rank him top 2 after coming back from retirements (and drugs bans) and not having a single notable win in his ‘second career’ prior to Wilder. That would leave the title vacant.

Personally I’d say Klitschko v Joshua was closer to a concensus 1 and 2.

Whichever path you prefer, there’s doubt. And there’s only one way to erase that doubt and that’s for Joshua and Fury to fight while they’re still at the top of the division.

Let’s hope, hey.

TBRB is ace, it’s my go to every time.

Springs Toledo is the man also, his stuff on here is fine, his books even better. The rest of the team are spot on too.

Thanks for the rankings, the hard work and all the rest.

Dear board,
a few questions from me:

1.) I really like your strict rules to become a champion. However, how do you justify that the P4P list is headed by two non-champions? I mean, I totally agree with Canelo and Innoue, but still it feels weird and one could make an argument, that a true P4P king should be a true division champion as well.

2.) Was the GGG-Canleo 1 bout officially declared a robbery by the board?

3.) Do you manufacture (any kind of) physical belts which the true champs receive?

Best regards,
Eugene

Hello Eugene/Evgeny,

1. A divisional champion is not necessarily the best fighter in his division. He is not necessarily among the best fighters in the sport either. Usually they are the best in their division, because heat rises if you will, but not always. Was champion Floyd Patterson the best heavyweight in 1961? Most would say Liston was. Was champion Hugo Corro the best middleweight in early 1979? Most would say Hagler was. Leon Spinks? Hasim Rahman? Sometimes, a guy has the style to whip the sitting champion and thus takes the throne, but everyone knows he isn’t the best. Consider it a rule of thumb: the divisional champion is not necessarily the best fighter in the division.

2. No. That was a #1 vs. #2/championship bout and the robbery clause only applies to non-championship bouts where the decision against the rightful winner is so egregious it warrants ranking the official loser over the official winner. The clause also does not apply to draws. We may consider a non-championship bout a “bad draw,” however, and rank accordingly.

3. No, we do not. This is an all volunteer initiative that has zero sources of income. We point to the rightful divisional champs. We’re looking at the truth, not the glitter.

As yet there is no archived ranking for April. I really hope that this is an oversight rather than a change in policy. Other than that, I like the new website. Good work!

Thank you Chris. There are still a few glitches on the editing end that we’re working out. The official monthly rankings have not been scrapped. We instituted that to continue a tradition that goes back almost a 100 years now. Note also that the names of the divisions are as they were originally named in The Walker Law. The only “Super” is super middleweight.

Hello! The new design/layout is pretty cool! Way better than the previous one.

Just some stuffs I noticed:

The rankings of Jr. Welterweight has a weird “10” in it.

It looks like:
1
0

instead of:
10

Also, the ranking tables have no uniform alignments (column width and whatnot).

Suggestions: Not sure if it’s feasible but I think it would be nice to have a feature which will show who, when, result and which weight did a boxer last fought when the mouse cursor is hovered to a boxer’s name in the rankings. And if the championship is vacant (open), when hovered, it will show the one currently enclosed in a parenthesis, just to make the rankings look more neat and uniform.

Yeah, it’s mostly UI suggestions instead of boxing stuffs this time.

The Tech is looking at it now. Thanks for the heads-up. I think we’re about maxed out in terms of what we can do as volunteers with a free Tech who is too generous with his time as it is. It would never end if we started adding too many bells and whistles!

Nice upgrade! No complaints from me.

I think that the current Rankings page should also show the last match of each boxer.

And of course I’d love you to make women’s boxing rankings.

Greetings from Uruguay!

Greetings to you and Uruguay. The record-keepers will consider your idea about including the last match of each contender. We’ve had requests over the years to include women’s boxing rankings and MMA rankings as well but as volunteers with many other things going on (like making a living!), we’re pretty much extended as much as we can be already. In addition, I don’t believe that most of our board members monitor women’s boxing nearly as closely. (And for that matter, even less follow MMA).

We appreciate your kind words about our upgrade!

I’m liking the new layout as well. maybe you can add a small flagicons for the fighters. just for the color. also I’m always been interested in prospects. maybe there can be like an additional 2-3 names per weight class like Notable Prospects looking to get in top10. just an idea. they dont have to be in order like ranked 11, 12, 13 or anything. just a few names in a list.

Thank you DJ. Not bad for an operation with no purse! Stewart Howe is a stand-up guy. As for Rigondeaux, he still claims the so-called lineal championship at jr. feather. However, that only means he was the last legitimate champ there, and does not necessarily mean he is the rightful champ indefinitely. We will be reaching out to him soon, as in very soon, to see what his intentions are. If he is staying at bantam, we’ll consider his throne abdicated.

I refer to tbrb for the rankings. But the only area where i fear it lacks influencential data, ducking. When a fighter is being avoided by those above him, which is increasingly a bigger and bigger problem, i feel the rankings should reflect that. Win and losses against which opponents should dominate, then ducking should then factor in.

Eugene, I understand the sentiment and proposed early on that members factor that in when considering the P4P List. We cannot, however, factor it into the divisional rankings. We can only rank fighters based on what they do, not on what they should do or would do if they could. Divisional rankings must be merit-based but they shouldn’t be speculative. Speculating is fun for all-time hypothetical match-ups but it would be ruinous here.

Like any true, knowledgeable boxing fan I hate the Aphabelt club — IBF, WBC, WBA, NABF, etc. But when are we going to start hearing your rankings announced before one, or two, of your top-ranked guys step into a ring? Seems there needs to be a ‘PR’ push to get you guys established, and start removing the “legitimacy” from these fraudulent entities.

We rely on you and your friends for that, Patrick. We are strictly volunteer and have no budget, which means we’ll never sell out and never become compromised but also means we can’t afford an ad in a high school newspaper, never mind the New York Times.

I am new to your ranking system and was wondering why some of your championship titles are vacant and been for a long time (one of them since 1987). How can such a long vacancy ever be filled? Thanks.

Greetings Mr. Fernandez and welcome to the land of common sense. Keep in mind, that’s why we exist: for clarity and common sense. We are not out for profit and have nothing to sell. We do not have the goal of “filling championships,” that’s precisely the goal of the profit-driven WTF organizations. To be sure, we would love nothing more than to see the championships filled, but we won’t defy common sense to force it. If a divisional throne is open, then only the top two can contend for it. Not #3, or #4, or #5, or in the case of the WTF organizations, the #9 or the #29. The top two are the recognized best in the division. They compete. That’s it.

The fact that five divisions haven’t had a legitimate champion in over 10 year and 2 of those since the last century serves to spotlight the disaster that is the current model. You can go right to the rankings and see what has to happen for the open championships to finally see an overdue successor: #1 vs #2. The best competing against the best. That’s what the idea of sport is all about.

When boxing was rational, it was a surprise to see an open championship and even then, it was for a brief time. Why is that? Because the contenders didn’t have the option of calling themselves “world champions” and having commentators and writers doing the same simply because a cadre of tin-can racketeers say so and had some stooge holding up a WBS belt. All of the contenders knew where to aim for -the top of the heap, the singular champion.

It’s been a few months since Callum Smith lost to Canelo Alvarez. When are y’all gonna update his record to 27-1?

Hello from England.
I applaud your ratings which are essential as the world boxing picture is more muddled now than ever before.

On the subject of successions, I agree with Ring magazine with “stripping” a fighter if he defends his linear title against nobodies or inferior alphabet challengers. For example the flyweight division: Canto beat Oguma which is fair enough as they were No 1 & 2 at that time. But Canto, and this is the problem, defended his title against WBC challengers and the WBA champ was frozen out. This went on from 1976 to 2016!! Very good fighters like Santos Lacier, Fidel Bassa etc never got a shot because the linear title was the WBC title. In my opinion, a linear champ should defend his title against a top 10 fighter in the independant rankings. If, for 18 months, he does not, then his title should be declared vacant.

Adrian,

I’m with you! In spirit, but not in practice. Not yet anyway. I’d encourage you to take a look at the champions throughout boxing history and consider how many of them had defenses against walk-overs and non-threats. You can go all the way back to the beginning -to 1920- and see Dempsey defending his title against Bill Brennan, whom Harry Greb had thrashed 4 times in 1919. In ’57, Joe Brown beat unrated Joey Lopes in a title defense and Floyd Patterson defended his crown against Pete Rademacher. Rademacher wasn’t ranked either–because it was his pro debut. You gonna strip two champions that year? If so, those segments of the two successions that gave us Ortiz and Duran and Liston and Ali are out the window.

Stripping champions is an ugly business and should be rare. There are a lot of Cantos in boxing history, but until the sport has some kind of centralized authority that isn’t bought and paid for, we should use other methods short of stripping what was earned. It doesn’t always have to be this way: Let’s say that the powers-that-be in the sport had an epiphany and decided to follow the Transnational Rankings alone. Using these rankings -uncompromised and authoritative as they are, all concerned then agreed to establish a universal expectation that said, “if a divisional champion fails to defend his crown against a top 10 fighter within 12/16/18 months then the throne would be declared open. Said throne can only be filled after a contest between #1 and #2…” Well, that’d be great for the sport, wouldn’t it. But we’re simply not there yet and to pretend we are would invite the chaos that the WBS gangs thrive from.

Springs, is there going to be any publishing of backdated successions, a list of historical Kings according to TBRB (as CBZ do for example)

Or if not, will there ever be a publishing of the list by yourself, even if not affiliated with TBRB?

Hello lufcrazy and I hope you are well. I really doubt there will be a TBRB historian succession anytime soon. The several historians on the board would not all disagree on who should be in or what fight enters them into their respective divisional succession. There would be irreconcilable differences! Perhaps bloodshed! I have a living document that traces each succession back to the first Queensberry champion; the beauty of it is that it proves (again) that the WBS organizations are nothing but leeches; they contribute nothing to boxing’s championship history -they only detract from it. I cannot publish it though. Despite the fact that it took many months of research (and not an inconsequential expense) to get it right, it isn’t mine, properly, because it was commissioned. I was paid. It wouldn’t be right to publish it.

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