What’s up guys! Dan here and today I will be covering my Rankings for the Top 10 Pound for Pound Boxers of 2025. I had already done my Top 10 Heavyweight Boxers of 2025 so now it’s time for the P4P Rankings. I wanted to wait for The Ring 5 card with Inoue, Nakatani and Garcia vs Teraji to wrap up. Unfortunately, the fight between Garcia and Teraji got cancelled due to Garcia having an illness that hospitalized him. Now that the card has concluded, I can start posting the 2025 Top 10 Pound for Pound Boxers of 2025

DISCLAIMER: This is solely my opinion based on the matches I've seen this year and I do my best to be impartial giving every boxer here a fair shake. I look at many things including Activity, Wins/Loses in the year, quality of the wins, quality of opponents they faced and overall record in their careers. P4P criteria requires them to have been a world champion at least once as well as compete and win in multiple weight classes. With all that said, let us begin.

10. O'Shaquie Foster 24-3-0 (12 KO)

I'm not gonna lie, I was not expecting to add O'Shaq to my list this soon. I knew O'Shaq was one of the best boxers at 130 pounds and honestly I was debating how good of a boxer he was. However, his last fight truly showed how good he was and how he overcame all odds against him. Now he only had one fight this year and that was a few weeks ago against two division champion, Stephen Fulton. Now O'Shaq was featured on a PBC card and he's signed with Top Rank who is still looking for a broadcasting deal. Fulton is a PBC fighter so obviously Fulton was the A side of this fight and they were fighting for O'Shaq's WBC championship at 130. However, Fulton came in two pounds heavier in the weigh in and was ineligible to fight for O'Shaq's title. Originally, the title fight was gonna proceed with the title only being on the line for O'Shaq, then the WBC (being the shady and greedy organization it is) decided to make it a WBC interim fight at lightweight. O'Shaq had made weight at the 130 limit like a true professional yet was subjected to this bullshit because Foster (the PBC's fighter) couldn't make weight...if this isn't a sign of favorites, I don't know what is. It was clear that Fulton was who the PBC and the WBC were betting on in this fight. Fight night came and O'Shaq put on a master class display of the sweet science, out boxing and out working Fulton the entire fight. I don't think anyone gave Fulton a single round in that fight resulting in a pretty lopsided victory for O'Shaq who now became the WBC interim lightweight title holder and Shakur Steveson's mandatory (btw Stevenson wants no part of that). O'Shaq overcame a lot of adversity in this fight; He fought a two division champ who is signed to PBC and fought him on a PBC card, The PBC fighter came in two pounds heavier than obligated to and was given another opportunity despite missing weight like a novice. O'Shaq defeated a bigger guy and outclassed him in every department you can imagine making him a mandatory at lightweight and still keeping his 130 pound belt. After that performance, I had to make O'Shaq a P4P top 10 because no one saw that coming. He's a true boxer through and through and now he dropped that interim belt and decided to call out Jazza Dickens who now holds the WBA belt at 130 to fight in a unification bout. the guy has balls and is what all fighters should aspire to be. I hope they get this unification fight going because in a couple months, the IBF and WBO champions are gonna fight to unify their titles. Eduardo "Sugar" Nunez and Emanuel "Vaquero" Navarrete are gonna fight in my hometown of Glendale, Arizona to unify the 130 pound division. The 130 pound division has an opportunity to aim for an undisputed champion by end of 2026 or beginning of 2027. I would love to see an undisputed clash between Navarrete and O'Shaq, those two have ruled over the divison for a long time and have been with Top Rank for years and have never unified against each other for their two belts. Now they have an opportunity to fight each other for undisputed and for the 130 pound weight class to finally have one champion. Vaquero was already a top 10 P4P fighter on my list these last two years in 2023 and 2024 and isn't on the list this year due to inactivity and not winning his fight this year. Ironically enough, O'Shaq took the 10 spot where Vaquero was last year. I hope O'Shaq can get the unification fight with Dickens and I hope down the line we finally get an undisputed champion at 130.

9. Gilberto "Zurdo" Rameriez 48-1-0 (30 KO)

Zurdo is a fighter I had high hopes for in 2024 after he unified two titles last year. However, all of his recent moves this time around have just been flat and not really ambitious in terms of boxing greatness. He has had only one fight this year and granted it was against a mandatory for his WBA belt so I can't hold that against Zurdo. His fight against Yuniel Dorticos was kinda flat as Zurdo struggled against him and was able to pull off Unanimous decision win against his mandatory as they were the Co-Main for Paul vs Chavez Jr. back in June. It was reported shortly after that Zurdo suffered a shoulder injury during that fight and had undergone surgery which would partially explain his kinda flat performance. Due to this injury, Zurdo was basically done for 2025 and was gonna resume things beginning of next year. You would think that he would take time to recover and start next year off with a tune up fight to get himself active again and would then set up a unification fight against Jai Opetaia like everyone had been wanting him to do. Unfortunately for us boxing fans, that was not the case. Zurdo had originally planned to comeback next month to fight Robin Safar so he can get the year going. Not long after the announcement, Safar suffered a right hand injury in his last fight in November so ultimately the fight was postponed and might just get cancelled all together because Zurdo has an even bigger fight for Cinco De Mayo weekend. The big mega fight Zurdo is planning for is against none other than....David Benavidez. This caused a mixed reaction, on one hand we would get a chance to see two P4P elites of Mexican descent duke it out on Cinco De Mayo weekend, on the other hand we would also not be getting the Mega unification fight between Zurdo and Jai like we've been wanting to see. Me personally, I actually think the Zurdo vs Benavidez fight would be interesting and even entertaining. However, I would much rather see Zurdo vs Jai for an epic unification clash. Benavidez is a P4P elite but him jumping up another weight class against a much bigger guy is quite a challenge for Benavidez who relies on speedy flurries and power punches. Benavidez power didn't translate well going from super middleweight to light heavyweight and that was only a seven pound difference. Light heavyweight to cruiserweight is a whole twenty five pounds in difference so I know Benavidez speed and power are gonna suffer more when he gets up to cruiserweight. Now people will argue that Zurdo himself started at the lower weight classes as well going from middleweight all the way to cruiserweight. Zurdo did start off small but he's a big guy and was able to fill that out naturally over time. He moved up from light heavyweight to cruiserweight in 2023 and has had four fights in that span at cruiserweight making Zurdo a full fledged cruiserweight now. Benavidez became a light heavyweight last year and has had three fights making him a full fledged light heavyweight but has yet to step in as a cruiserweight so a sudden jump like that against one of the best cruiserwieights in the division is super risky. I give credit to these two for making a Mega Mexican fight for Cinco De Mayo, but I feel that they should have waited a bit longer on making this fight imo. I hope Zurdo makes the Jai fight soon because we want to see the best cruiserweights go at it instead of them fighting average fighters and a I pray we get that unification bout next year.

8. Junto Nakatani 32-0-0 (24 KO)

I am so happy for the Japanese boxing scene right now and I am more grateful to be able to watch and experience this Japanese boxing renaissance were in right now. Generations before this one you couldn't watch these Japan fighters unless you knew a guy or had a boxing magazine but now in the digital age we can watch and admire these fighters. Let's start off with Junto Nakatani, has fought in four weight classes starting from flyweight all the way to super bantamweight, became a champion in all three weight classes prior to his super bantamweight debut including being unified WBC, IBF and lineal champion in Bantamweight. He has fought three times this year, THREE! American boxers barely do one or two a year and yet the Japanese fights will three or even four fights in a year. Nakatani's first fight was in February where he knocked out David Cuellar in round 3, then his second fight was a unification bout back in June against then IBF champ Ryosuke Nishida where Junto stopped him in round 6, and his last fight was this past Saturday against Sebastian Hernandez in his Super Bantamweight debut. Now the Hernandez fight was definitely a rough and ugly affair for Nakatani. Junto had him in the first half of the fight but Hernandez came back in the second fight which ultimately lead Junto to getting a close but Unanimous decision. I thought it was an entertaining fight and I thought it was too close to call, I honestly thought it was a draw and they should run it back. However, one judge had it at 118-110 for Junto which was just foul bro. This is why I hate judges in boxing, there is always that one judge who scores it for the A side in some ridiculous manner that doesn't reflect the fight itself. If all three had it close for Junto I wouldn't complain, but that Saudi judge tainted Junto's win especially because this is meant to lead to a Super Mega fight between Junto Nakatani and Naoya Inoue. After that scorecard, I think it made the fight lose some of its luster but I would still love to see those two clash next year. I will say, I think Junto's power has taken a dip going into Super bantamweight. I know it's only a four pound difference, but some of these guys are bigger and can take those punches better than the lower weight classes. Junto is really gonna have to rely more on his boxing ability now that he can't hurt these guys the same way like he did before. I hope the fight between Inoue and Nakatani still happens and I believe it will still be an epic showdown for undisputed Super Bantamweight supremacy. If it doesn't happen next, I think Nakatani should give Hernandez a rematch because I feel there's unfinished business there.

7. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez 63-3-2 (39 KO)

This one hurts me the most because I loved watching Canelo especially when I first got into boxing over a decade ago. I loved watching Deontay Wilder, Danny Garcia, Manny Pacquiao, and Canelo Alvarez when I first got into boxing. None of these guys are champions anymore and Canelo was the last of that era to lose all of his titles. Though to be fair, he should have lost all of his titles a long time ago but because he is the face of boxing he was given special treatment, especially by the WBC. Canelo didn't wanna fight any of his mandatory challengers or true P4P elites when they were at their best, he only actually fought them when they were starting to decline like Triple G for example. Ironically, he would also get a mega fight because he was showing signs of decline and that ultimately led to his downfall back in September. Canelo had two fights this year per his trademark of fighting on Cinco De Mayo and Mexican independence day. He fought William Scull in May and that was such a snooze fest. I didn't even pay for that fight and I still wanted a refund. His second fight would be in September when he took on fellow P4P elite Terence Crawford. I honestly thought it was gonna be similar to the Jermell Charlo fight where jumping up two weight classes would be too much for Crawford, but damn it he proved me wrong and out boxed Canelo to win the Undisputed Super Middleweight crown leaving Canelo without a belt for the first time in years. This truly marked the end of the Canelo era, when he lost to Dmitriy Bivol it was at light heavyweight and still had his 168 crown to go back to. Now Canelo has nothing to defend, no crown, no belts, nothing and this time no one feels bad for him. In fact, I'd argue people are happy Canelo lost so he wouldn't be holding the titles hostage like he's been doing since the Bivol loss. Canelo only fought competition he knew he could easily beat and never gave real contenders a shot, most notably David Benavidez who was Canelo's mandatory for the WBC belt and never once gave him a shot. Benavidez did everything he was told to do and Canelo never had any intentions of giving Benavidez a shot. This was the most blatant duck we've seen in boxing in a while and this is when people started to lose faith in Canelo and realized he was no longer the P4P king we all saw when he made that Undisputed Super middleweight run back in 2021. The sad thing is, back then I would have said Canelo would have beaten Benavidez because Canelo was far more experienced and fought stiffer competition than Benavidez did at the time. If they fought now, I would be more incline to favor Benavidez now that he's more experienced, fought better competition and is in his prime right now. They could have still fought now at light heavyweight for Benavidez's WBC title but now I think that fight is truly dead and will never happen which is such a shame. I know Canelo is recovering from a recent surgery but honestly, I think Canelo should just retire man. There's not really much left for him at this point and he's on a real decline. Even he said his body isn't doing what he wants it to do which is not a good sign for a fighter. There's no shame in losing to Crawford and he's had a pretty long career that's lasted two decades. Canelo is a first ballot Hall Of Famer no doubt and if he continues now, I feel he's only gonna tarnish his legacy more with meaningless fights, even if it is for a title or two. We'll just have to wait and see but I do hope Canelo thinks long and hard about this man. I know it's not easy to admit you're not the guy on top anymore but I think he should hang'em up and call it a career, he has nothing left to prove and should enjoy the wealth he's earned and enjoy time with his family. I loved watching him come up and he helped me get into boxing but I think it's time. I appreciated the Triple G trilogy, I appreciated that savage knock out of Amir Khan in 2016 and I appreciated watching his Undisputed run. His legacy is just as great as Pacquiao's, Mayweathers, Chavez and so many more and it's time to close the book on his boxing career.

6. David Benavidez 31-0-0 (25 KO)

Now this is the new face of Mexican and American boxing, David Benavidez. The Mexican Monster is finally in the discussion of P4P elites and has announced himself on a global scale. He may have been robbed of his fight with Canelo for Undisputed Super middleweight status, but now he's made a name for himself as a P4P elite by moving up and defeating some of the best competition at light heavyweight outside of Bivol and Beterbiev. I honestly feel bad for David Benavidez because bro is always getting snuffed by every champion at every weight class. First Canelo at 168, then he got snuffed by Dmitriy Bivol at 175. The Bivol fight would have been for Undisputed at light heavyweight and Benavidez was Bivol's mandatory for the WBC belt. Benavidez wants to fight these guys but they never wanna fight him whether its money or they just don't want the smoke. Either way, this hasn't stopped Benavidez from having entertaining and meaningful fights. He's had two fights this year, February he took on David Morrell which was a super risky fight for Benavidez and it was grueling. Morrell knocked down Benavidez towards the end and Benavidez kept fighting on to win a Unanimous decision as well as the WBA regular belt and the WBC interim belt for Bivo'ls WBC championship. Later in the year Bivol dropped the WBC rather than face Benavidez so that he can fight Beterbiev a third time making Benavidez the new WBC champion. Normally, I'd rather fighters fight for a title but since Benavidez already defeated the top guys the WBC had to offer so in this case it made sense. Later he would get his chance at a Riyadh show when he faced Anthony Yarde last month and knocked him out in dominant fashion. Where Benavidez goes from here is a possible match with unified cruiserweight champion Zurdo Ramirez on Cinco De Mayo weekend. Benavidez seems keen on taking the Mexican fanbase from Canelo as revenge for not giving him a shot at 168 and I think it's working. I look forward to Benavidez fighting the top P4P fighters and continuing to build his legacy in the sport especially as an Arizona native.

5. Jesse "BAM" Rodriguez 23-0-0 (16 KO)

Another year, another sensational year for BAM! Bam has fought twice this year and in that time went from having The Ring and the WBC belt to now having the WBA and WBO belts in his possession making BAM a three belt unified championship. I know Bam has what it takes to be a future P4P star and hes slowly but surely starting to put eyes in the lower weight classes here in America and is trained by trainer of the year, Robert Garcia. Bam is on his way to becoming undisputed at 115 and honestly, I don't see anyone in or around his weight class that can actually beat him. People say he's ducking Nakatani and Inoue and I don't think that's at all the case. Both Nakatani and Inoue are in higher weight classes and Bam would have to move up to fight them (in Nakatani's case would have to come back down to 118 so they can meet and fight at Bantamweight). Bam often gets criticized for fight guys who are past their best which is unfair and false because Bam has fought guys at their peak or champions who have reigned for a long time. At the end of the day you can only face the best available competition regardless of where they are in their career and Bam has fought his best available competition. He beat prime undefeated Sunny Edwards, Beat legends in Cuadras, Sor Rungvisai, and Estrada. Even this year he's beaten two undefeated champions. He beat Phumelele Cafu in July to win the WBO belt and outclassed and knocked out Puma Martinez last month to win the WBA belt in a fight Bam was supposed to be challenged in and Bam outclassed Martinez. The final step to becoming undisputed is to fight the IBF champion and unfortunately the fight between Garcia and Teraji got cancelled due to Garcia's illness. Hopefully Bam can still fight Garcia next year to become undisputed but the IBF could still enforce a mandatory defense which would force Bam to wait even longer so hopefully by next year we'll see Bam as the Undisputed Super Flyweight king. Honestly with the run of form Bam has had he should be higher in the rankings and he was at number four after he beat Puma Martinez. He would have ended the year at number four had it not been for the fight that happened after his fight and would knock Bam down back to five an hour later.

4. Devin Haney 33-0-0(1) (15 KO)

The Dream has come back, Devin Haney is a champion once again and I cannot be mad at this one. People are most likely gonna hate me or think I'm a lunatic for putting this high in my rankings but I gotta be honest with myself, he deserves to be here at number four. Yes I said it, he belongs at number four over BAM and it's not easy for me to say that. Plus I told myself if Haney beats Norman Jr. and becomes champion again, I will put him above Bam in my rankings. What you guys have to understand his Haney has quite the Resume. I know he can be boring to watch sometimes but at least he's not Shakur Stevenson levels of boring, at least I can watch a Haney fight all the way though than a Stevenson fight. Haney has achieved more than most of the boxers on my list. He was Undisputed at lightweight, beat a top champ at Jr. Welterweight to become WBC champion, and he defeated arguably the number one guy at Welterweight to become the new WBO welterweight champion. I gotta give Haney credit where credits due, He has the talent there to become a top P4P elite even though his style isn't all that exciting. He's been active this year as well fighting twice this year. His May fight against Jose Ramirez was a snooze fest I'll admit but that fight was suppose to lead to a Ryan Garcia rematch. Devin helped up his end of the bargain with Unanimous decision win, Ryan however got dropped and out boxed by Rolly Romero which is just sad thus killing the highly anticipated rematch. Then last month he fought the undefeated WBO Welterweight champion, Brian Normal Jr. in a fight Devin was projected to lose, I actually put a bet on this fight for Haney to win. It was expected to be a competitive match that favored Norman's punching power and instead, Haney would knock down Norman in round two and dominate the fight. Haney looked similar to how he looked when he dropped and beat Regis Prograis to win the WBC Jr. Welterweight belt. It was a bad beating because Haney broke Normans nose and out boxed him. Yes, Haney was on cruise control the rest of the fight which annoyed everyone, but he thoroughly out classed the number one Welterweight champion who everyone thought was gonna beat Haney down. I tip my hat to Haney and Hopefully he'll continue this run of form at welterweight. I hear he wants to unify with IBF champ Lewis Crocker and honestly I think Haney could make another Undisputed run at welterweight. Especially if Ryan wins the WBC belt from Mario Barrios and Rolly chooses to drop his WBA belt instead of facing his mandatory. A Haney vs Garcia rematch for Undisputed at Welterweight would be HUGE!

3. Oleksandr Usyk 24-0-0 (15 KO)

Nice to see you again, Oleksandr Usyk in my P4P Rankings. I already had Usyk at number one in my Heavyweight rankings. Last year, He was number one for both the Heavyweight Rankings and P4P Rankings since he became the first Undisputed Heavyweight champion of the world in the four belt era and the first in twenty five years since Lennox Lewis. I already talked about Usyks 2025 campaign in my heavyweight rankings so I'll briefly go over it here. He has only fought once this year and that was an undisputed heavyweight rematch against former IBF champ Daniel Dubois. The IBF belong to Usyk before and was only stripped from him because he rematched Fury again instead of facing his mandatory challenger for the IBF, Daniel Dubois. Usyk would go on to dismantle Dubois once again and reclaim the IBF title that belonged to him to begin with and would become a two time undisputed heavyweight champion. Not quite as exciting the second time but Dubois was the second best heavyweight at the time so it was still an entertaining and compelling fight. After that Dubois win, Usyk had suffered an injury and would basically be out the rest of the year giving him time to rest and put off the WBO mandatory at the time Joseph Parker. Parker would go on to lose to Fabio Wardley and when Usyk refused to face Wardley, he was stripped of his WBO belt and Wardly was elevated to the new WBO Champion. Usyk is still the unified WBA, WBC, and IBF champion as well as the lineal champ so he'll still have other options. Though like I said before, Usyk doesn't seem to want to take on any of his mandatory challengers and should either vacate all his belts to do big money fights or just retire because he has nothing left to prove or accomplish. Usyk is still a top three P4P elite but hopefully he takes time to think long and hard about what he wants to do next and hopefully he'll make a decision that doesn't hold up the belts and stall the division.

2. Naoya Inoue 32-0-0 (27 KO)

The Japanese monster, the man that kicked off this resurgence in Japanese boxing and carried it on his back. Naoya Inoue is truly a special talent in the lower weight classes. All those good things I talked about with smaller fighters like Nakatani or Bam, Inoue has it all. Nakatani fought three times this year, Inoue fought FOUR times! Bam defeated the top competition in or around his weight class, Inoue cleaned out his entire division...TWICE! He's a four weight champion earning belts at jr. Flyweight, Super Flyweight, became Undisputed at Bantamweight, and became Undisputed at Super Bantamweight! He fought in January knocking out Kim Ye-joon, fought in May saving a boring Cinco De Mayo weekend when he knocked out Ramon Cardenas, fought MJ Akhmadaliev and out boxed him in what was suppose to be Inoue's toughest to a Unanimous decision, and out classed David Picasso this past weekend. There's literally almost nothing left for this man to do, he's suppose to fight Nakatani next year and even that fight looks like he'll win that one without breaking a sweat. There's event talks of BAM and him fighting it out in the future which I love BAM but I feel he would lose to Inoue right now. Funny enough BAM is at five like last year and Inoue is at two like last year as well. Inoue is always number two in these rankings but next year I feel he is guaranteed a number one spot since we'll have one less P4P elite next year.

1. Terence "Bud" Crawford 42-0-0 (31 KO)

The accolades this man has is so vast that I need a separate place to put it but I'll do my best to compile it all here. Five weight classes, champion in all five weight classes including Undisputed at Jr. Welterweight, Undisputed at Welterweight, and Undisputed at Super Middleweight! He may not have been the most flashy or eccentric champion, but damn it he was a true champion through and through. Defeated guys like Shawn Porter, Errol Spence Jr. and Canelo Alvarez. Now I know there's always gonna be an asterisk at his undisputed win at Super Middleweight because he didn't pay the sanctioning fees for the WBC (and apparently didn't pay the fees for the WBA when he beat Israil Madrimov) but honestly it doesn't matter now because a couple weeks ago, Crawford announced his retirement from boxing. Normally I wouldn't include a retired boxer in the rankings, but because this happened a couple weeks ago and he did beat Canelo recently in September, I decided to give Crawford his final send off in the rankings. Hopefully he doesn't try to come back because there's nothing left for him to do. Unlike Usyk, Canelo or even Inoue to a degree, Crawford is retiring at the top of his game and I hope he stays that way. Thank you Crawford for the memories and the entertaining fights and I wish you the best of luck in what you do next in life.

There is my list for the Top 10 P4P fighters of 2025. 2026 already has some fights that might land some guys in the top 10 like Lopez vs Stevenson, Navarrete vs Nunez, and many others in the works.

Hope everyone had a great 2025 and I look forward to 2026!

As Tyson Fury said:

HAPPY NEW YEARS!