Devin Haney top welterweight, Conor Benn, David Benavidez, more: Boxing rankings for December 2025

Heavyweight (Limit: None)

Notes: Nothing big happened in the division in December in the ring, but we did see Oleksandr Usyk finally, officially give up the WBO title he definitely had no intention of obeying re: mandatory orders, meaning that Fabio Wardley is now the WBO champ and Usyk is once again no longer undisputed. I think we’ve really got to stop overstating what “undisputed” means in a four-belt era. Not only is it a collection of belts that are individually not all that respected and often not even all that credible, but the claim is hard to hold down, and basically by design. It’s a marketing gimmick at this point, like pretty much anything with boxing that used to really mean something.

Anthony Joshua will be back in the rankings in January if he handles his business with Jake Paul this month. It’s not that beating Jake Paul means much, but Joshua is out on inactivity, otherwise he would absolutely rank above a lot of the guys here and it’d be a tough ask for even the most ardent Joshua haters to make a decent case otherwise. I mean, Efe Ajagba? Grandpa Zhang? Hrgovic and Chisora, even?

We must prepare ourselves for the idea that Jake Paul will be ranked if he knocks out AJ, too. It’s unlikely, but better to be prepared than not.

Cruiserweight (Limit: 200)

Light Heavyweight (Limit: 175)

Notes: You could have David Benavidez at No. 2 after his wipeout win over Anthony Yarde, and I considered the bump up. There was thought that Benavidez would fight Artur Beterbiev next, but his intentions are to move up to cruiserweight to fight Zurdo Ramirez next May, though if you listen to him otherwise it doesn’t sound like he’s 100 percent set on leaving 175 behind, either. That might just be the best, biggest offer he had, and he sees it as a good fight. It is a good fight.

Yarde stays in, barely, but that spot is ripe for the picking if someone makes a statement, as is the No. 9 slot now occupied by Joshua Buatsi, who slips a little after a questionable win over Zach Parker. Actually, the entire back half is kinda there for the taking.

Super Middleweight (Limit: 168)

Notes: Much has been made of The Ring dropping Canelo Alvarez from their pound-for-pound list. Really, he’s been a questionable pound-for-pound top 10 guy for a few years. He’s clearly not who he used to be and that’s been the case for a while now. He’s still quite a good fighter, but he’s in the end days of his run.

Middleweight (Limit: 160)

Notes: Conor Benn probably isn’t staying at 160, as he’s talked about fights at 154 and 147, but for the moment he should be ranked here after trouncing Chris Eubank Jr, who stays in but probably wouldn’t have beaten any of these guys in the shape he was in for the Benn rematch.

Should Eubank retire? Yeah, maybe. Ultimately it comes down to two questions for me:

Is he still capable of being a viable fighter with a move back up to 168? Yes.

Is he capable of achieving anything he hasn’t already? And my answer there is no.

Eubank has never been a great fighter. He’s pieced together a fairly empty win column over his career. He’d beaten nobody worth their salt before losing to Billy Joe Saunders in 2014, building up entirely on the value of his name. To be fair to Eubank, he picked up better wins after he lost to Saunders, but he beat a lot of “OK for the moment” opponents and none of the wins aged well or anything, his most notable victories coming over guys on the way out (Arthur Abraham, James DeGale) or via fluke (Matt Korobov) before solid victories over Liams Williams and Smith in 2022-23, though he also first had to lose to Smith. And he also lost to George Groves in 2018 and now to Benn in a rematch.

He’s made money. He’s been an attraction. He is a good fighter and a tough man with an oddly-handled, scattershot career that featured near-constant turnover in trainers and promoters. He’s 36 now, he just took a beating, and it’s hard to envision a scenario where Eubank goes up to 168 and starts beating contenders, because he’s never really beaten contenders before.

So yeah, retirement is something he should consider. If he’s set financially, if he sees a path to do OK after boxing — and there will be options, he’s a well-spoken guy with a famous name and he looks good on camera — then maybe it’s time to get out while the getting is good, or at least not lousy.

Super Welterweight (Limit: 154)

Notes: Vergil Ortiz destroyed Erickson Lubin and now the sights are fully set on Ortiz vs Boots Ennis in 2026. It all looks doable and usually nobody has two guys get into a ring and talk trash without having a deal pretty well in place if not entirely. I know I can be a bit of a killjoy, and it’s not a bit, it’s just how I am because of how boxing is, but I’ll be super clear right away: Ortiz vs Boots is a great fight on paper.

Lubin’s out, Andreas Katzourakis bounces back into the No. 10 slot he briefly held before Boots Ennis hit the division. Now he’s back. What a roller coaster. The division will be quiet in December other than Tim Tszyu trying to get back on track, but heats up with world title fights in January.

Welterweight (Limit: 147)

Notes: Devin Haney is basically nobody’s favorite fighter, and his situation is odd in that we saw him lose a fight and get knocked around by Ryan Garcia, but Garcia 100 percent, absolutely failed a drug test, and while it’s not possible to truly, accurately understand the degree to which Garcia’s enhancement or not bothering to make weight improved his performance, the facts are the facts, that win was overturned — and should have been — and Haney remains officially undefeated.

He also looked sharp, smart, and reinvigorated winning the WBO title in November, and he just flat out-classed Brian Norman Jr. Haney may not have done a MASTER CLASS!!! as shill commentators always default to after a strong decision win, but he definitely gave B-Norm some lessons in the ring, taught him a little about levels, and may have given the Norman team a wake-up call that changes need to be made. They got to a certain level, and the next level was too much. Maybe it’s time to make a corner change.

Speaking of trainers, dads, trainer-dads, and the Haneys, Bill Haney is, like his son, not exactly a wide-scale fan favorite, but he deserves a lot of credit. While he has stayed in his son’s corner when Devin has long since been able to afford to pay an elite trainer, he famously took the younger Devin around to various top trainers in the formative years, where clearly not only was Devin learning various things and putting together a full package, but so was Bill.

And as a “controversial” mouthpiece, Bill reminds me of Angel Garcia, and I said this about the Garcias and I’ll say it about the Haneys. When Angel or Bill draw that fight week attention, do the trash talking, make call-outs, all that stuff, they are drawing that fire to themselves and letting Danny and Devin focus more on the task at hand. Danny talked a fair amount on his own, so does Devin, but it never becomes the focus, and they aren’t the ones media seek out or get drawn to, because that media knows the better, juicier quotes are going to come from the father, and especially now, nobody’s really looking for a good story, they’re just looking for a good headline.

Trainer-fighter relationships are a complicated thing. Not every fighter is the same and a huge part of their success is how they feel mentally. Some guys do well in big camps, lots of fighters around, a head trainer that maybe isn’t able to give them all their time, but they maximize what time there is. Some need that full focus from a particular trainer to stay focused and sharp. It’s all about chemistry, and it’s different case-to-case, there is not one thing that works for everyone. Could Devin Haney get a better trainer than Bill? Yeah. Are fathers often problematic as trainers? Yeah. But not always. And I think Devin is someone who just does better when he’s comfortable, and it’s a comfortable trainer-fighter chemistry for him with Bill. They’re on the same page, Bill’s focus is clear and thus so is Devin’s. Father-son corners don’t always work, for sure, but they also don’t always flame out spectacularly. I think this is one that works and will be career-long.

As for the division, Devin deserves the top spot right now. Rolly Romero, Mario Barrios, and Lewis Crocker are a weak crop of titleholders otherwise, but they’ll have their chances to better solidify themselves. I have the most doubts that Barrios can. Ryan Garcia says he’s going to fight Mario in early 2026, but Ryan Garcia has “announced” a lot of fights over the years that didn’t materialize, and frankly just likes to hear himself talk a lot of the time. It might happen, it might not.

There is the lingering presence of Manny Pacquiao, who could fight Rolly Romero but also might work out a major money deal for a Grandpa Scrap with Floyd Mayweather. The division lacks name power at the moment, and the biggest fight would definitely be a Haney-Garcia rematch, if Garcia can return and beat Mario Barrios, because right now Garcia pretty much totally lacks credibility after stinking out Times Square in his limp loss to Rolly. But Garcia beating Barrios would give him the win, a WBC title, and a unification grudge match with Haney. Boxing’s winds shift all the time, and can do so dramatically, and the most important thing to everyone involved in trying to make big fights is catching that wind at the right time. In reality, Garcia beating a guy who can’t beat Abel Ramos or old man Pacquiao may not say a whole lot about him, but it will quickly change the perception of him compared to his current standing, and then you have a wind to catch for the Haney rematch.

Super Lightweight (Limit: 140)

Notes: Teofimo Lopez vs Shakur Stevenson is now official for January 31, so that’s some big news to get 2025 off to a hot start in this division.

We’re in a wait-and-see scenario with Subriel Matias right now. He failed a drug test, but his fight with Dalton Smith in January is not officially off yet.

Lightweight (Limit: 135)

Notes: Abdullah Mason and Sam Noakes both raised their stock with their fight, which saw Mason win the vacant WBO title. That was really a great fight, if you still haven’t seen it, you owe it to yourself to watch two guys giving tremendous effort in a battle, both trying to win their first world title, both digging in and fighting their hearts out.

Shakur Stevenson is moving up to 140 to fight Teofimo but he’ll sit here until after that fight and he decides what division he plans to stay in. If he wins, probably stays at 140. If he doesn’t, could come back down.

Super Featherweight (Limit: 130)

Featherweight (Limit: 126)

Notes: Robeisy Ramirez is out due to inactivity, and given how his last fight ended and Top Rank’s, you know, inability to actually put on their own shows at the moment, not sure when or if he’ll fight again, honestly. Ra’eese Aleem comes in after a good win in Japan, and he sits as Angelo Leo’s likely mandatory after the eliminator.

Super Bantamweight (Limit: 122)

Bantamweight (Limit: 118)

Notes: Takuma Inoue wins another world title and is back into the top three; you could make a No. 1 case for any of those top three guys right now. Tenshin Nasukawa doesn’t slip much, he was competitive against Inoue and remains a contender who still might win a world title, even probably will so long as he stays competitive.

Super Flyweight (Limit: 115)

Notes: Bam Rodriguez now has three of four world titles, but Fernando Martinez doesn’t drop any. Rodriguez is just a lot better than everyone else in the division, and nobody else has made much of a strong case for the No. 2 spot instead of Martinez.

Changes elsewhere: Tomoya Tsuboi is in after a strong, clear win over Carlos Cuadras, he looks like a really solid pro after just three fights. Willibaldo Garcia, who holds the IBF belt, is in at No. 9, and Ryusei Kawaura at No. 10. Falling out are Kazuto Ioka, who is moving up to 118; Suzumi Takayama, who has gone inactive; and Cuadras, for the loss.

Flyweight (Limit: 112)

Light Flyweight (Limit: 108)

Minimumweight (Limit: 105)