2<\/p>\n Usyk remains the pound-for-pound king after another stellar year at the elite levelCredit: GETTY<\/p>\n The elite operator led the rankings for much of the year, but was replaced by Crawford, who jumped up to 168lbs to dethrone boxing icon Canelo Alvarez<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n But the American superstar has now announced his retirement<\/a> from the sport and vacating his belts, which sees him drop out by default.<\/p>\n As a result, Usyk has been reinstated as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world, finishing 2025 at the top of the tree just as he did in 2024.<\/p>\n In the most notable change after Crawford’s omission, strawweight Oscar Collazo has entered the rankings at No.10.<\/p>\n Read More In Boxing<\/p>\n Collazo has had a successful year winning two fights, flattening Edwin Hernandez in March before stopping Jayson Vayson in September.<\/p>\n Top five – who is behind Usyk?<\/p>\n As for the top three, Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue comes in second after a sensational year.<\/p>\n He can perhaps count himself unfortunate to not be on top spot after four successful victories in an active 2025.<\/p>\n Inoue stopped both Ye Joon Kim and Ramon Cardenas, before taking out his most feared challenger in Murodjon Akhmadaliev.<\/p>\n In his final outing of the year, he outpointed David Picasso<\/a>, and is expecting big things in 2026 with a huge clash with Junto Nakatani in the pipeline.<\/p>\n Jesse ‘Bam Rodriguez’ sits in third, having continued his own dominant run to unify the super-flyweight division in 2025.<\/p>\n Ring Magazine pound-for-pound rankings 2025<\/p>\n 1 OLEKSANDR USYK – 24-0-0 (15 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n 2 NAOYA INOUE – 32-0-0 (27 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n 3 JESSE RODRIGUEZ – (16 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n 4 DMITRY BIVOL – 24-1-0 (12 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n 5 ARTUR BETERBIEV – 21-1-0 (20 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n 6 JUNTO NAKATANI – 32-0-0 (24 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n 7 SHAKUR STEVENSON – 24-0-0 (11 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n 8 DAVID BENAVIDEZ – 31-0-0 (25 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n 9 DEVIN HANEY – 33-0-0 (15 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n 10 OSCAR COLLAZO – 13-0-0 (10 KOs) \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n Meanwhile Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev round out the top five, having fought in their epic rematch<\/a> in February of this year.<\/p>\n Bivol came out on top, but the pair put on a sensational showing of elite skill, and Beterbiev came out with a moral victory despite coming up short.<\/p>\n The chasing pack<\/p>\n Nakatani, Inoue’s bitter rival who has moved into the super-bantamweight division comes in sixth, having had another good year to push on for the all-Japanese mega-fight.<\/p>\n Shakur Stevenson sits in seventh as he prepares for his huge world title clash with Teofimo Lopez<\/a> in January 2026, perhaps the biggest of his career.<\/p>\n It was a big year for the highly gifted American who fought twice, and has captured boxing fans’ imagination with two entertaining displays.<\/p>\n Meanwhile light-heavyweight champion David Benavidez ranks at No.8, having dispatched of Anthony Yarde<\/a> in November, and he will now move to cruiserweight in a quest for titles in a third weight class.<\/p>\n![\"Usyk](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2225591553.jpg\")
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