My Boxing Rankings: Light Heavyweights

[jnewt]

Light Heavyweight

1. Artur Beterbiev
   • Beterbiev is one of the best P4P boxers right now. He has a 100% KO rate and I think that’ll continue even with his fight with Joe Smith Jr. coming up.
2. Dmitry Bivol
   • Bivol just dominated the previous P4P king (and still almost fell victim to the Canelo judging bias). A showdown with Beterbiev is one of the most important fights that needs to happen.
3. Callum Smith
   • Smith has a lot of great wins and his only loss came fighting Canelo at 168. He’s only fought once at 175 now, but I think he’ll win a light heavyweight belt sooner than later. I’d love to see him challenge Beterbiev, Bivol, or Joe Smith when he finally gets a chance.
4. Gilberto Ramirez
   • Ramirez has been impressive fighting at 175, but he still hasn’t fought anyone in my top 10 rankings in his first five fights at the weight limit. He really needs to fight some better competition before he gets a shot at one of the major belts.
5. Joe Smith Jr.
   • Smith has quite an impressive resume and has a shot at jumping to at least the two spot here if he can beat Beterbiev in their upcoming fight. Probably won’t happen, but Smith is a great fighter regardless.
6. Marcus Browne
   • Browne’s a good fighter, but the only big name he’s collected a win against is Badou Jack.
7. Jean Pascal
   • Pascal beat Browne by technical decision, but knocked him down twice in the fight anyways. Since then, though, Pascal has been mostly inactive. Combining that with his age, lands him at number 7 in my rankings.
8. Joshua Buatsi
   • I can’t say much on Buatsi other than that he’s 16-0 with 13 KOs. He’ll need to face better competition before getting a world title shot.
9. Eleider Alvarez
   • Alvarez was one of the best light heavyweights a few years ago, but hasn’t fought since 2020. His resume includes a KO of Kovalev though, which is impressive enough to slide him in at the bottom of the rankings.
10. Anthony Yarde
    • Yarde is 22-2 with 21 KOs with his only losses coming against Sergey Kovalev and Lyndon Arthur. Other than them, though, Yarde really hasn’t faced much competition, which is why it’s difficult to rank him higher. He very well could be a contender in the division, but he needs to go out and beat someone who actually matters before we know that for sure.