Boxing pound-for-pound rankings (May 2026): David Benavidez soars after Zurdo Ramirez destruction
David Benavidez didn’t just become a three-division champion on Saturday. He put himself on a trajectory to become the next face of boxing on North American soil . Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was in the building for Benavidez’s spectacular sixth-round demolition job of Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez , and it’s clear to most observers that this past weekend be as close as the Mexican superstar ever gets to sharing a ring with Benavidez.
Although a clash between Alvarez and Benavidez may have represented a perfect passing-of-the-torch moment in North American boxing and elevated “The Monster” to superstardom, something similar was achieved when Benavidez took Alvarez’s prestigious Cinco de Mayo weekend date from him and watched from his main-event dressing room as Alvarez was booed on the big screen inside Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. A dozen hours earlier in Tokyo, Japan, Naoya Inoue cemented his own position as the premier Japanese fighter on the planet by taking Junto Nakatani’s 0 — and jettisoning Nakatani’s place as a pound-for-pound fighter. There are also some new additions on both the men’s and women’s sides to welcome to our latest list.
Uncrowned's panel of experts — Kel Dansby, Alan Dawson, Darshan Desai, Lewis Watson and Elliot Worsell — have ranked the men's and women's pound-for-pound best, one through 10, using a weighted points system to determine the final rankings. (Being voted No. 1 equals 10 points, No.
2 equals nine points, down to No. 10 equaling one point. ) Without further ado, here are our pound-for-pound rankings for May!
MEN'S POUND-FOR-POUND RANKINGS And still. Mark Robinson via Getty Images 1. Oleksandr Usyk — WBA/WBC/IBF heavyweight champion (Prev: 1) Oleksandr Usyk brutally knocked out Daniel Dubois last July to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion and reassert his position as the pound-for-pound best in boxing.
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