B/R Boxing Pound-for-Pound Boxing Rankings for February 2024

The holiday season has come and gone. And with its exit comes boxing's awakening from an early-winter nap into a particularly important second month on the 2024 calendar.

Nine world title fights with varying levels of legitimacy are on the February docket, but none more important than a true 21st century novelty in Saudi Arabia.

Dueling heavyweight claimants Tyson Fury (WBC) and Oleksandr Usyk (IBF/WBA/WBO) will get together on February 17 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, where the winner will be the undisputed champ of the four-belt era and the first universally recognized kingpin in the big-boy division since Lennox Lewis held the IBF, WBA and WBC straps in 1999.

That's all the reason the B/R combat staff needed to convene and discuss the best of the best in the sport, which we've done by applying our own eye test and gauging the opinions of respected sources such as The Ring and Boxing Scene, among others.

Click through to see who made our top 10 and let us know how you'd have done it with a line or two in the comments section.

Weight Class: Heavyweight

Major Titles Held: WBC

What better place to start than with the guy who occupies one side of the marquee in the sport's most important fight?

An undisputed heavyweight title fight is a guaranteed lead item across all forms of modern sports media, and it's a perfect time for Fury to prove his desultory effort against former UFC menace Francis Ngannou in October was a one-off due to half-hearted training.

It'll be the fifth fight and fourth official title defense for the 35-year-old Brit since he vaporized Deontay Wilder to win the WBC title four years ago. He'd not heard a final bell since that bout until Ngannou pushed him to the brink before dropping a 10-round split decision.

Weight Class: 140 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBC

Teofimo Lopez, by any account, had a pretty good 2023.

He fought just once, but the magnitude of that fight—a one-sided 12-round thrashing of previously unbeaten (and heavily favored) Josh Taylor—netted him the Scot's 140-pound title belt and a lower-half spot in many pound-for-pound lists.

Just how long he holds it will depend on how he fares when he returns to the ring to defend against 10th-ranked contender Jamaine Ortiz, who's 17-1-1 as a pro but certainly best known for giving former three-division champion and Lopez victim Vasiliy Lomachenko quite a competitive scare before dropping a narrow 12-round nod 15 months ago in New York.

Weight Class: 135 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBA

Gervonta Davis has been a champion on one level or another for the last seven years, moving from his initial celebration at 130 pounds to a dubious claim at 140 in 2021 to the lightweight laurels he currently holds after Devin Haney vacated the division.

And given that success, his next fight is certain to be an event, regardless of foe.

Joseph Santoliquito of The Ring reported last week that the 29-year-old may cross the Atlantic in search of a venue for his first appearance since KO'ing Ryan Garcia last April in Las Vegas.

That fight generated more than one million pay-per-view buys, cementing Davis' status as one of the sport's premier drawing cards.

Weight Class: 175 pounds

Major Titles Held: IBF/WBA/WBO

Welcome to the newest member of the pound-for-pound elite.

Artur Beterbiev had been an occasional inclusion on the lower half of lists throughout 2023 by virtue of a light heavyweight title reign stretching back to late 2017, but he's a must-have name now that he's score early 2024's most impressive championship defense.

The Canada-based Russian handled once-beaten former 168-pound champ Callum Smith with alarming ease when they met on January 13 in Quebec City, defeating the long, lanky Englishman into a corner surrender inside of seven full rounds.

Now 20-0, he's the only major champion with a 100 percent KO rate.

The win instantly elevated the calls for a unification with long-term WBA claimant Dmitry Bivol, who first wrapped a second-tier belt around his waist one week before Beterbiev's reign began.

Beterbiev's promoter, Bob Arum, told ESPN's Bernardo Osuna (h/t Sean Nam of Boxing Scene) that he's optimistic a showdown will occur later this year in Saudi Arabia.

Weight Class: 140 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBC

If Devin Haney wasn't high on your list for 2023's fighter of the year, there's an outstanding chance that you don't know what you're looking at.

Still just 25 years old, the Californian opened with a close but fair decision over Vasily Lomachenko in defense of his four-belt lightweight title claim in May, before vacating the division to thrash champion Regis Prograis to win the WBC title at 140 in December.

The lofty position makes him a frequent callout of every ambitious fighter in the sport's most active corridor, but the most recent tea leaves suggest he may be considering an opportunity to lock horns with a tough-talking Ryan Garcia.

"People will be shocked but I will not be shocked and then Devin will be destroyed," Garcia told Fight Hype. "His daddy's gonna have to help him up."

Weight Class: 175 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBA

Where the aforementioned Beterbiev story ends, Bivol's story begins.

The Russian is based in California these days and has been pristine in limited action since arriving to the big stage with a shocking decision over Canelo Alvarez in 2022.

The one-sided nature of the fight with boxing's highest-profile superstar seemed to guarantee instant stardom for the 33-year-old, but he's fought just twice since—pitching a near-shutout against unbeaten former 168-pound champ Gilberto Ramirez six months after the Alvarez win and returning to whitewash Lyndon Arthur over 12 rounds in December.

For him, it's unification or bust.

"It's easy, to be honest," he told The Matchroom Boxing Podcast (h/t Keith Idec of Boxing Scene). "We don't need to think about too much. Just do your work, and I have to do my work. And I know I could win if I do my work well."

Weight Class: 168 pounds

Major Titles Held: IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO

Being Canelo Alvarez means never having to do what you don't want to do.

The Mexican superstar has reigned over four weight classes and is the current four-belt champion of the super middleweights these days, and, like others elsewhere on this list, is never lacking for foes eager to share a ring with him.

The cinnamon-haired veteran fought twice in 2023 and scored wide decisions over Jermell Charlo and John Ryder. He's rumored to have Charlo's twin brother, Jermall, on a short list of would-be foils for a return in May and may have the man who subsequently beat Ryder last weekend, Jaime Munguia, on the radar for Mexican Independence Day in September.

Oscar De La Hoya, who used to promote Alvarez and now works with Munguia, suggests a showdown between the two could break the bank come late summer.

"Canelo's gonna walk right through (Charlo) and hopefully it can set up an all-Mexican showdown for September," De La Hoya said, per Keith Idec of Boxing Scene.

"We haven't seen an all-Mexican showdown at an elite level since Erik Morales-(Marco Antonio) Barrera, (Juan Manuel) Marquez, you know? I'm a gringo. I'm a gringo. (Julio Cesar) Chavez-De La Hoya wasn't considered all-Mexican."

Weight Class: Heavyweight

Major Titles Held: IBF, WBA, WBO

What's a good heavyweight fight without a live underdog?

Oleksandr Usyk fits that bill and more when it comes to his imminent showdown with Tyson Fury, whom DraftKings has installed as a -140 favorite compared to Usyk's line at +110.

The Ukrainian doesn't rival the stature of his 6'9" rival, but he is unbeaten in 21 pro fights, has gone 5-0 with two KOs since moving to heavyweight in 2019 and easily had the measure of Fury's 6'6" countryman, Anthony Joshua, over consecutive fights in 2021 and 2022.

And if he's not supposed to be confident going in, no one's told him.

"I want to tell one story that looks very similar to my story with Tyson," Usyk told reporters in November. "It's called David and Goliath. When the Lord gives me Tyson in my hands, I will [do] my job."

Weight Class: 122 pounds

Major Titles Held: IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO

You've almost got to feel sorry for Naoya Inoue.

The Japanese "Monster" has done every single thing asked of him since turning pro in 2012, including a world title at 108 pounds in just his sixth fight and subsequent belts at 115, 118 and 122, where he's become the second active fighter to win four belts in two weight classes.

So, if not for the other guy to do it, Terence Crawford, the No. 1 position would be his.

But as No. 2s go, he's about as good as it gets.

Only three of 26 foes have heard a final bell and the only one to do so since 2016, Nonito Donaire, was smashed to bits inside two rounds in a 2022 rematch. Inoue's most recent win, in 10 rounds over Marlon Tapales in their 122-pound unification on the day after Christmas, added the IBF and WBA belts to the WBC and WBO straps with which he'd arrived.

Word on the street recently is that he'll return to the ring in May to fight once-beaten Mexican southpaw Luis Nery, a former WBC champ at both 118 and 122 pounds, perhaps at the Tokyo Dome.

"As a boxer, being able to fight in the main event of any given day at Tokyo Dome would provide extra motivation," Inoue told reporters.

Weight Class: 147 pounds

Major Titles Held: WBA, WBC, WBO

Yes, they've stripped him. But no, they haven't beaten him.

Which is why Crawford, who, like Inoue, remains unbeaten at 40-0 with 31 KOs and titles in three weight classes, remains ahead of his equally prolific Japanese rival.

The Nebraskan was a four-belt champ at welterweight after a shockingly one-sided beatdown of Errol Spence Jr. last summer, but he's not fought since and fell victim to sanctioning body silliness when the IBF rewarded his belt to top contender Jaron Ennis.

Crawford was contractually obligated to take a rematch with Spence, which apparently forced the hand of the New Jersey-based organization, which does not include him in its rankings because he still possesses the WBA, WBC and WBO titles.

Where he'll go with them now remains a question.

He could follow through and fight Spence. He could change course and fight Ennis. Or he could pay off months of rumors and skip two rungs on the ladder to challenge 168-pound king Canelo Alvarez.

Tim Bradley, a recent International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, says the latter isn't unreasonable because of Crawford's all-time preeminence.

"I don't think we've seen anything like Terence Crawford. I do study history. I never seen anybody that has everything," he told Fight Hub TV (h/t Boxing Scene).

"Good speed, power, timing, can switch the way he switches. That has the toughest, the meanness that he has, the way he finishes guys, the way he breaks down guys. He's one of the smartest guys that I've ever seen in the ring, right up there with Floyd Mayweather."