Boxing is certainly one of the most popular sports, and there is a lot of sports news concerning the details of diverse long-awaited fights appearing every day. Of course, given the number of professional athletes in this field, determining the best boxers is not an easy task. However, the Login Casino team took on such responsibility and made a list of seven best boxers of the present time and three legendary fighters who can soon return to the ring. Continue reading the material to find out who was able to get into our pound-for-pound ranking.
Who are the best boxers in the world at the present time?
“Canelo” Alvarez
Alvarez was born on July 18, 1990, in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. Growing up in a large family, the future boxer was the youngest child: he had six older brothers and one sister. All the brothers were engaged in boxing, and “Canelo” also decided to try his skills at this sport.
He started entering the boxing ring when he was thirteen years old, and immediately, he began to show incredible results. In just one year, Alvarez reached the finals of the adult championship of Mexico, and a year later, he managed to win a gold medal there. After that win, the boxer decided to become a professional. Thus, at the age of fifteen, “Canelo” made his debut in the professional boxing ring. Firstly, he had a few fights within the light-welterweight limit, then moved to the welterweight, where he got the first serious achievements: the WBA Fedecentro championship title.
Overall, in his boxing record, there are already fifty-four wins as of 2021 beginning. However, the Mexican aims to step into the ring four more times in 2021 and increase the total number of appearances to 61. Taking into account that he will be only 31 in the middle of this year, he can achieve an astonishing number of fights until the end of his career.
Alvarez’s boxing style is called counterattack. He is a hard puncher, and due to this, he can determine the course of the fight with one exact punch, as, for example, it was in his bout against Russian Sergey Kovalev. However, he is a rather flexible boxer, and in the following fight against Callum Smith, he was totally dominating over the Britisher.
Alvarez takes our number one position due to his excellent run in the past years. Thus, his only loss was to Floyd Mayweather eight years ago, and since that time, “Canelo” overcame 13 opponents in three diverse weight divisions. If he continues such a perfect streak in 2021, his place at the top of the rating will be undoubtful.
Naoya Inoue
Being a title-holder in three different divisions and having a 20-0 winning streak, the Japanese boxer Naoya Inoue isn’t the most popular name in the fighting world. At the age of 27, he has already earned and proved his nickname the “Monster” as he has won 17 bouts by knockout. It sounds crucial for the bantamweight division as traditionally, the lower-weight classes lack punching power, but this guy is the exception to the rule.
Naoya started his unbeaten record in 2012 when he was only 21 years old. He came to the WBC light-flyweight title fight in just six matches, which means that his record at the beginning of 2021 is 14 successful title bouts in a row. Moreover, he made at least two steps ahead and delivered the dominating power in junior-bantamweight and bantamweight divisions.
Inoue receives his second place in our boxing rating due to several reasons. First, he is one of the fighters dominating a few divisions and is still unbeaten. Moreover, his flashy style of throwing punches usually caught the opponents unprepared, which allows Nayoa to knock out the majority of them even in the lower-weight classes. Having such a dominant manner, Inoue is still at the perfect age to make even one more step and deliver the quality in four diverse weight divisions.
Terence Crawford
This is another three-division champion in our list who is still unbeaten in his 33. The American boxer is the perfect representation of how a professional career should look like. Thus, the “Bud” was rather active on the amateur level and was going to visit the 2008 Summer Olympics; however, he lost the spot to his rival Sadam Ali. Nevertheless, such an obstacle made him stronger, and he made a professional debut in 2008, even before the Olympiad.
He needed six years and 22 victories to receive the right to fight for his first serious title. However, getting a WBO lightweight belt made him even hungrier since had another 14 title bouts in a row since that time and won each. His lightweight title career was rather short, as, in just three bouts, he switched to the light welterweight class and managed to grab the most prestigious awards there and collected all the belts in the division. In three years, Terence decided to take another step and won the WBO welterweight title in the middle of 2018.
Even though Crawford has only one belt in the welterweight now, he has been able to retain the title four times and is still unbeaten. He deserves the third place in our P4P rating due to several reasons. First of all, his flexible boxing manner can be activated anytime in the ring. Fast legs and arms are combined with perfect boxing IQ, while the ability to deliver strong punches from both orthodox and southpaw positions makes opponents frustrating in the ring. However, it’s hard to place him higher in the ranking as he still has enough serious opponents in the welterweight division to face. And as his promoters are expected to organize a few unification bouts in the future, Crawford’s position in the ranking might be changed.
Gennady Golovkin
Golovkin was born on April 8, 1982, in Karaganda (Kazakhstan). He started to learn boxing at the age of eight. When the young athlete was eleven, he participated in his first official boxing match at a regional tournament. There he had to box with opponents who were a few years older than him, but in the end, Golovkin managed to become the winner of those competitions. During the amateur boxing career, he achieved great results, namely:
- first place at the Junior World Championships in 2000;
- first place at the East Asian Games in 2001;
- first place at the World Championships in 2003;
- second place at the Olympic Games in 2004.
For the talented athlete from Kazakhstan, the career in one of the most popular sports in the world started in 2006. He immediately became a world star, competing in the middleweight. A lot of fans liked Golovkin because of his spectacular boxing style and the great skill to finish boxing matches with impressive knockouts. Gennady’s professional career was developing incredibly successfully, and he was dominating in the division for eight years. However, his undefeated status became irrelevant in 2018, when he lost to our rankings leader – “Canelo” Alvarez (although their first clash in 2017 ended with a draw). Overall, Golovkin’s boxing record features forty-three fights at the moment, while thirty-six of them ended with a knockout.
Speaking about the fighting style, Gennady can be called a boxer-puncher. This style implies the average-distance fighting with the utilization of a combination of techniques to knock out an opponent with a series of punches or even just one shot. Often called “GGG,” he received our praise for his almost perfect career and real dominance in the middleweight division for so many years. Having titles in only one division and one loss in his record pushes him away from the top-three, but there are no doubts that he is a great boxer. In his 38, he looked perfect against Kamil Szeremeta, which even led to the rumors that the third bout between him and Alvarez can happen in 2021 (if the Mexican is ready to return to the middleweight division).
Tyson Fury
The future boxing star was born in 1988, on August 12. His hometown is Wythenshawe, which is located in the UK. In spite of the fact that when the boy was born, his weight was about four hundred and fifty grams and doctors were afraid for his life, Tyson’s father, at first sight, saw in his son a real fighter. And it was his father who instilled in his son a love of sport from an early age.
During his amateur career, Fury had a number of significant achievements, among them are:
- third place at the World Youth Championships in 2006;
- first place at the European Union Boxing Championships in 2007.
Fury made his professional debut in 2008 when he was twenty. That time, his opponent was Hungarian Bela Gyongyosi, who Fury defeated easily via TKO in the first round.
Since then, Tyson Fury has continued working on his career, earning new titles while regularly defending the old belts. However, the athlete’s life changed dramatically in 2016, when he managed to defeat Wladimir Klitschko, was charged with doping and received temporary disqualification. After that, Fury voluntarily relinquished three of his titles. He said he would not be able to defend them due to depression and drug problems.
In 2017, Fury announced the end of his career. However, soon, he returned to the boxing ring and still remains engaged in professional boxing. In total, during his career, Tyson Fury took part in thirty-one fights, out of which only one fight ended in a draw – all the other bouts were won the well-known boxer.
As for special features of his boxing style, it should be noted that Fury is a tall heavyweight boxer with a large reach, and, like many other athletes of a similar physique, he takes advantage of this. However, Tyson does not prefer a monotonous defensive tactic from a long distance, and in most bouts, he has resorted to close-distance fighting. His position in our rating could be higher if there were no controversy he faced in 2016 by losing multiple titles in the heavyweight division. Still undefeated, the “Gypsy King” is going to return all the belts fighting Anthony Joshua, which is probably the most awaited boxing match for 2021.
Anthony Joshua
Joshua was born in Watford (England) on October 15, 1989. During the first years of his life, Joshua lived in Nigeria, but later, with his family, returned to the UK. At the age of seventeen, he decided to move to London. For a long time, he was seriously interested in football, but in the end, he decided to pursue a career as a boxing fighter.
For a long time, he did not manage to achieve great results, and the athlete even wanted to leave boxing, but the coach persuaded Joshua to stay and continue his attempts. And eventually, this brought good results. Thus, in 2012, the boxer from Watford became an Olympic champion.
In 2013, Anthony Joshua went into professional boxing, having signed his first promotional contract with Matchroom Sport. In the professional ring, Joshua had twenty-five fights. He lost only once (to Andy Ruiz Jr.) and, as a result, he was deprived of the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles. However, six months later, their rematch was held, and Joshua took all the titles back.
Special features of Joshua’s boxing style are great punching force, good speed, as well as high accuracy of punches. His main tactics consist of applying constant pressure at a reasonable pace while expecting the opponent to make a mistake. Being a 31-year-old boxer, he has had a pretty small number of professional bouts, while some fans don’t believe in his talent as he hasn’t punished top contenders in the heavyweight. His probable clash with Tyson Fury actually will show who of them is the best in the division.
Vasyl Lomachenko
Lomachenko was born in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (Ukraine) on February 17, 1988. It should be noted that the future star was born in a completely sports family. At that time, Vasyl’s father worked as a boxing coach (later, by the way, he became his son’s personal trainer). And his mother was a master of sports and an acrobat.
Lomachenko started boxing at a very young age, and at the age of six, he held his first boxing match. Vasyl won the bout, but, officially, the boxing match ended with a draw so as not to upset the older Lomachenko’s opponent. Then there were many city’s, regional, and country championships, in all of which Vasily came out as a winner. Overall, during the amateur boxing career, Lomachenko participated in three hundred and ninety-six fights and lost just once. His main achievements in that period of his life are considered to be two gold medals won at the Olympic Games in Beijing and London. At that time, many industry experts, including Mike Tyson, expressed their opinions that Lomachenko would be able to become a real star of professional boxing.
Prior to becoming a professional boxer, Lomachenko competed in the lightweight division of the well-known World Series of Boxing from January to May 2013. However, in October of the same year, he held his first professional boxing match against Mexican José Ramirez in the featherweight division. Then there was a bout against another Mexican – Orlando Salido, which ended in a painful defeat for Lomachenko. However, this event further hardened the character of the famous boxer: in the next thirteen fights, he did not give his opponents any chance to win and grabbed titles in two other divisions: super featherweight and lightweight.
Even though Lomachenko faced a painful defeat to Teofimo Lopez in his last bout, his impressive 6-year dominance across three divisions matters. At the same time, he insists on revenge with Teo, as the bout was really close and the American wasn’t so persuasive to grab the place in our rating. He is known for his creativity at the boxing ring, impressive hand speed, timing, accuracy, great defense, and footwork in terms of his style.
The ranking of the best boxers in the world 2024
Thus, the rating of the best boxers of our time looks like this:
| P4P Ranking’s Place | Boxer |
| 1. | “Canelo” Alvarez |
| 2. | Naoya Inoue |
| 3. | Terence Crawford |
| 4. | Gennady Golovkin |
| 5. | Tyson Fury |
| 6. | Antony Joshua |
| 7. | Vasyl Lomachenko |
Top three most awaited boxing returns
“Manny” Pacquiao
Pacquiao, the future boxing star, was born on December 17, 1978, in Kibawe, Philippines. His family was extremely poor, and already at the age of 13, the boy was forced to drop out of school and start working as a street vendor to make some money. And after work, in the evenings, he was boxing. The young boxer tried so hard to show his best skills in the ring that he started to get paid one hundred pesos for every fight. Since this was enough to purchase twenty-five kilograms of rice, the mother allowed Pacquiao to quit his work and focus on this sport.
After some time, the “PacMan” moved to the United States, and his first coach became Freddie Roach. The first fight in Manny Pacquiao’s professional career took place in 1995. He managed to receive his first title in 1997. During his impressive career, Pacquiao took part in seventy-one bouts, sixty-two of which ended in victory for the Philippine athlete.
Pacquiao is still the only boxer in the world to win championships in eight different weight classes. Special features of Pacquiao’s fighting style are high speed, accuracy, great reaction, timing, excellent footwork, as well as strategic thinking. Moving from smaller weight classes to heavier ones, the boxer managed to increase the punching force, maintaining lightning speed.
Even though Pacquiao is a Senator in the Philippines and is already 42, rumors concerning his return to the ring are quite regular. Interestingly, but possible opponents represent diverse weight classes due to PacMan’s flexibility in this regard. As his return can happen for charity only, he was discussing the clash with MMA superstar Conor because McGregor fights always have great PPV ratings.
Floyd Mayweather
The future boxing superstar was born on February 4, 1977, in Michigan. Since early childhood, Floyd was a dedicated boxer with a great passion for only this sport. After receiving vast recognition on the national level, he decided to turn to professional boxing in 1996, being only 19 years old.
Mayweather has a quite controversial reputation in the boxing world. Being a champion in five diverse weight classes (from super featherweight and up to the light middleweight) and holding a unique 50 wins record without a single loss or draw, his boxing style is widely criticized. Floyd’s super effective defensive work allowed him to overcome numerous famous opponents, including “Manny” Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, and “Canelo” Alvarez. However, he has a relatively low knockout rate as he sent to the canvas only 10 of his 26 title contenders.
Mayweather is also considered the most attractive boxer in terms of pay-per-view as bouts with his participation collected more than 24 million buys and brought more than $1.6B in revenue. Ending the active career in 2015, Floyd is ready to return to the ring for earning extra cash. That is why one of his nicknames is “Money,” and he was gladly boxing with UFC’s star McGregor in 2018, while at the beginning of 2021 is going to face famous Youtuber Logan Paul.
Mike Tyson
This is another great boxer that is interesting for the fans all over the world, even in his 54. Mike Tyson set numerous records in the former century, smashing his opponents with incredible passion. He became the youngest-ever heavyweight title-holder, beating Trevor Berbick for the WBC belt being only 20 years and 145 days old.
Being rather small for the heaviest boxing division with only 178 cm (while most of the top boxers are closer to 2 meters high), he had to activate extra speed and power. However, he was able to do this and received the nickname “Kid Dynamite.” His undefeated streak was almost five years when he lost to Buster Douglas. Nevertheless, Tyson was able to return his title in a couple of years before losing to Evander Holyfield in 1996 and 1997 in the revenge bout. The latter became probably the most famous fight in boxing history, where the angry Mike decided to bite the ear of his opponent and was disqualified. Even though his active career lasted until 2005, he wasn’t as successful and lost three times in ten fights, and two times the bouts ended with no contest (due to Mike’s fault and failed drug test).
Simultaneously, the bad guy’s reputation allowed him to participate in several films and earn extra cash with his media popularity. Even though the community was actively discussing Tyson vs. Holyfield’s third bout in 2020, he returned to the ring with Roy Jones Jr. However, Tyson was rather angry with the split draw result, which seemed to be a synthetic decision. That is why he is actively working on another charity bout with other former legends, and Evander Holyfield has preliminary agreed to face his old opponent.
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