Usyk is now 38. He knocked out Dubois twice. He beat Fury and Joshua back-to-back. The Wilder fight is being mentioned as a possibility, which tells you how thin heavyweight has become when a shot fighter with four losses in six years is considered a logical next step for an undisputed champion.
#2 Naoya Inoue fought four times in 2025. The fourth was a decision on David Picasso starting a fight with Junto Nakatani. Nobody fights at this level that often anymore, and if Inoue beats Nakatani, the no. 1-place his.
Dmitry Bivol at #3 beat Artur Beterbiev in the rematch, then had back surgery. He has been out since February.
Jesse BAM Rodriguez is 25 and unifies in junior bantamweight. He destroyed Fernando Martinez in ten rounds. Rodriguez doesn’t get the attention he deserves because he fights at 115 pounds, but he’s younger than everyone before him and has time to move up without forcing anything.
Movement in the rankings
David Benavidez moves up to cruiserweight to fight Gilberto Ramirez in May. If he wins, he’s a three-division champion with options at light heavyweight still in play. Shakur Stevenson beat William Zepeda in July and showed he can switch when needed. Now he moves up to 140 to fight Teofimo Lopez at the end of the month. A win over Lopez would push Stevenson higher on this list.
Nakatani got a controversial decision over Sebastian Hernandez in December. The Inoue fight will tell us if Nakatani belongs at the top or if he is a very good fighter who came close but couldn’t finish. Devin Haney beat Brian Norman Jr. dominated to win the WBO welterweight title. He’s 27, a three-division champion, and the Ryan Garcia fight hasn’t slowed him down.
Lopez fights Stevenson on January 31st. He’s shown he can beat elite fighters when he’s locked in, the Lomachenko and Josh Taylor wins were dominant. Other fights were less impressive. If Lopez plays Stevenson, he wins. If he isn’t, he loses.
The pound-for-pound list shifts when someone retires, but that doesn’t change the fact that these ten fighters are the best in the sport right now. Crawford’s departure creates space, but it doesn’t make anyone better than they were last week.
ESPN Men’s P4P Rankings
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Oleksandr Usyk (24-0, 15 KOs) Heavyweight
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Naoya Inoue (32-0, 27 KOs) Junior Featherweight
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Dmitry Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) Light Heavyweight
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Jesse Rodriguez (23-0, 16 KOs) Junior bantamweight
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Artur Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) Light Heavyweight
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David Benavidez (31-0, 25 KOs) Light Heavyweight
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Shakur Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs) Lightweight
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Junto Nakatani (32-0, 24 KOs) Bantamweight
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Devin Haney (33-0, 1 NC, 15 KOs) welterweight
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Teofimo Lopez Jr. (22-1, 13 KOs) Junior Welterweight
