B/R Pound-for-Pound Boxing Rankings: July 2024
It's official. One half of both the boxing and calendar years are behind us.
And as 2024 moved past the midway point, it made sense for the B/R combat team to reconvene to discuss recent goings-on in the ring and where exactly the best fighters stack up against one another.
It was a busy stretch in late June with three of last month's ranked fighters winning, which enabled two of them to stay put while the third dropped out in favor of another entry who fought and won earlier in the month and leapfrogged in.
As usual, the team put their heads together and consulted some respected sources such as The Ring and others to come up with a definitive collection for July.
Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the comments.
10. David Benavidez
Weight Class: 168 pounds
Major Titles Held: None
David Benavidez has built up quite a resume since turning pro more than a decade ago. He has won 29 straight fights, stopped 24 opponents and completed two reigns as the WBC's champion of the super middleweights.
The 27-year-old has been unable to land a cinnamon-haired fish named Canelo Alvarez at 168, though, which may prompt a full-time move to 175 pounds, where he debuted on June 15 with a wide decision over former title claimant Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
9. Jesse Rodriguez
Weight Class: 115 pounds
Major Titles Held: WBC
Ladies and gentlemen, let us introduce you to the future of American boxing.
His name is Jesse Rodriguez. He goes by the nickname "Bam." And he's the most exciting lighter-weight fighter the U.S. has produced in what seems like a long time.
The 24-year-old from San Antonio had already been a champion at 112 and 115 pounds, but he reasserted himself in the latter weight class on Saturday with a seventh-round stoppage of divisional stalwart and future Hall of Famer Juan Francisco Estrada.
It's the first truly transcendent win of his career...but it won't be the last.
8. Shakur Stevenson
Weight Class: 135 pounds
Major Titles Held: WBC
We mentioned earlier the tumult in the back half of the rankings that saw two fighters from last month hold their positions while a third was replaced by David Benavidez.
Shakur Stevenson gets his chance at rankings validation this weekend.
The unbeaten 135-pound ace will defend his WBC strap for the first time against Artem Harutyunyan in Newark, where he's fought and won three times since 2019.
Another victory will keep the 27-year-old in the running for a series of potential big fights with the likes of Vasily Lomachenko and/or Gervonta Davis.
7. Gervonta Davis
Weight Class: 135 pounds
Major Titles Held: WBA
Oh, did we mention Gervonta Davis?
He's the second of the two fighters who stayed in the rankings thanks to big wins in June, which, in the "Tank's" case, meant a vicious eighth-round KO of previously unbeaten Frank Martin in an Amazon Prime pay-per-view main event in Las Vegas.
The win was the 30th in a row for Davis, yielded his 28th finish and further stoked the fires for a showdown between the 29-year-old and fellow 135-pound claimant Shakur Stevenson.
6. Dmitry Bivol
Weight Class: 175 pounds
Major Titles Held: WBA
And now, we wait.
The long-awaited showdown between Dmitry Bivol and fellow title claimant Artur Beterbiev was on the agenda for June before the latter pulled out with an injury.
Bivol, 33, went ahead and fought anyway, though, and improved to 23-0 with a sixth-round KO of no-hoper Malik Zinad.
It was the Russian's first win inside the distance since 2018, a stretch of nine fights, and added a measure of intrigue to the Beterbiev bout that is now scheduled for October 12.
5. Artur Beterbiev
Weight Class: 175 pounds
Major Titles Held: IBF, WBC, WBO
The bad news? They didn't fight in June.
The good news? They're supposed to fight in October.
Presuming Artur Beterbiev has no setbacks while rehabbing his knee following a meniscus injury during training, he'll put the sport's only perfect finish rate among champions—20 KOs in 20 wins—on the line against a fighter who's never been beaten and rarely been punished.
An interesting note, Beterbiev will have fought just 15 rounds in 28 months prior to meeting Bivol, who will have had three fights and 30 rounds in the same stretch.
4. Canelo Alvarez
Weight Class: 168 pounds
Major Titles Held: IBF, WBC, WBO
It's good to be Canelo Alvarez. And that's not likely to change anytime soon.
But the wolves are howling at the door of the Mexican superstar to fish or cut bait on a fight with fellow 168-pounder David Benavidez, who's done everything needed to warrant a title shot but has so far gone unsatisfied in his pursuit.
If Benavidez is not in the plans, it'll be interesting to see what Alvarez does, given that most recent conqueror Dmitry Bivol is already committed to a unification bout at 175 in October.
3. Terence Crawford
Weight Class: 147 pounds
Major Titles Held: WBA, WBO
It's been less than a full year since we last saw Terence Crawford in a ring, though you're forgiven for suggesting it feels far longer than that.
He's a now-former undisputed welterweight champ thanks to the IBF stripping him in favor of Jaron Ennis and the WBC hanging the dreaded "in recess" tag on him, but he'll try to till new ground at 154 pounds when he faces one of the sport's most anonymous belt holders—Israil Madrimov—for the WBA's title at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on August 3.
A win there and who knows? We might just see Crawford again before 2026.
2. Naoya Inoue
Weight Class: 122 pounds
Major Titles Held: IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO
It's hard to ask anything more of Naoya Inoue.
He's won titles at four weights, reached undisputed four-belt status in two, and he hasn't come particularly close to losing in any of his 27 pro bouts, 24 of which he's won by KO.
And he still seems to be in the prime of his career at 31 years old.
But we'll toss an idea out anyway:
How about a fight with Jesse Rodriguez?
1. Oleksandr Usyk
Weight Class: Heavyweight
Major Titles Held: IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO
If anyone tells you boxing isn't ridiculous, don't listen to them. It is.
If you needed any proof, consider the IBF's apparent plan to strip Oleksandr Usyk of its share of the heavyweight title because he plans to go through with a December rematch against Tyson Fury rather than fight its so-called mandatory challenger in the meantime.
Presuming it happens, the divisional championship will go back to being splintered within months after it was finally wholly unified for the first time in the four-belt era.
But pay it no mind. Usyk is the champion. He's the man who beat the man. And, thanks to that and his previous record at both cruiserweight and heavyweight, he deserves full marks as the best fighter in the world no matter what some geniuses in New Jersey might suggest.