Who are the best boxers in each of the original eight weight classes? Check out Boxing Junkie’s “Great Eight” feature.
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The proliferation of titles makes it difficult for all but the most astute fans to determine the cream of the boxing crop.
That’s why Boxing Junkie came up with its “Great Eight” feature, which names the best fighter in each of the original eight weight classes –heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight and flyweight.
Heavyweight includes cruiserweight (and the WBC’s bridgerweight), light heavyweight includes super middleweight and so on.
It was easy to make our selection in some divisions. For example, heavyweight, which will continue to be ruled by Tyson Fury until someone takes him down.
Other weight classes took more thought. And you’ll notice that several changes have been made since the last time we posted Great Eight.
Here are our current rankings.
HEAVYWEIGHT – Tyson Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs): Who else?
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT – Dmitry Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs): The 175-pound champion delivered a break-through victory over Canelo Alvarez on May 7.
MIDDLEWEIGHT – Junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) claimed this spot with his victory over Brian Castano last Saturday.
WELTERWEIGHT – Terence Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs): Crawford edges out Errol Spence Jr. Will they settle it in the ring?
LIGHTWEIGHT – George Kambosos (20-0, 10 KOs): The Aussie earned it with his stunning upset of former 135-pound king Teofimo Lopez.
FEATHERWEIGHT – Unified junior featherweight titleholder Stephen Fulton (20-0, 8 KOs) supplants Gary Russell Jr.
BANTAMWEIGHT – Bantamweight star Naoya Inoue (22-0, 19 KOs): The Japanese star might be the best of any weight.
FLYWEIGHT – Junto Nakatani (23-0, 18 KOs): The 112-pound titleholder takes over from Julio Cesar Martinez.
