Light heavyweight is a very talent stacked division, and ranking the top ten isn’t easy, therefore, here are the honorable mentions before moving on to the actual list.

Honorable Mention

Dominic Boesel

Title(s): 

• IBO Light Heavyweight World Champion

Dominic Boesel, a German boxer,  is the current IBO light heavyweight champion, and won the title in his most recent fight, earlier this year. He has a record of 32 wins and 2 losses.

Lyndon Arthur

Lyndon Arthur, the English professional boxer, is the former Commonwealth light heavyweight champion. He lost the title early this month and had held them since 2019. Though he doesn’t make the list, he deserves an honorable mention.

Top 10 Light Heavyweights

10. Anthony Yarde

Anthony Yarde is a British boxer, with a professional record of 22 wins and 2 losses. 

He is the former WBO Inter-Continental light-heavyweight champion and challenged Sergey Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight title as well. In his most recent fight, he defeated Lyndon Arthur and won the Commonwealth and WBO Inter-Continental light-heavyweight titles. 

His next fight has not been announced yet.

9. Joshua Buatsi

Joshua Buatsi is a British professional boxer who was born in Ghana. He has an undefeated record with 15 wins and no losses. 

As an amateur, he won a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics and has been competing as a professional since 2017. He was supposed to fight Maxim Vlasov on last night’s card in England, however, he had to pull out due to a hand injury. 

There is no announcement about his next fight. 

8. Callum Smith

Callum Smith is a British professional boxer, with a record of 21 wins and 1 loss, with 20 knockouts. 

Callum smith competed at super middleweight for most of his career and became the unified WBA and the ring super middleweight champion. However, after defending the titles twice, he lost them to Canelo Alvarez. 

Smith moved to Light-heavyweight and in his most recent fight defeated Lenin Castillo via 2nd round KO. His next fight has not been announced yet. 

7. Eleider Alvarez

Eleider “Storm” Alvarez, is an incredible Colombian professional boxer, who has had a lot of success in the sport. He has a record of 25 wins and two losses and has held multiple titles over his career. 

He won the WBO–NABO light-heavyweight title in 2011 and defended it three times. In 2014, he won the WBC Silver light-heavyweight title and went on to defend it four times. The biggest fight of Storm’s career came in 2018 against Sergey Kovalev, when he won WBO and IBF light-heavyweight titles. 

Alvarez’s last fight was against Joe Smith Jr., which he lost, and his next fight is still to be announced. 

6. Maxim Vlasov

Maxim Vlasov is a Russian professional boxer with a record of 45 wins and 4 losses. 

He competed at cruiserweight for most of his career, where he won multiple regional titles and also challenged for the WBO interim cruiserweight title. After moving to light-heavyweight, he challenged Joe Smith Jr. for the WBO light-heavyweight title in his most recent fight but lost via MD.

Vlasov was supposed to fight Joshua Buatsi on yesterday’s card but had to pull out because of a hand injury. So, as of now, there is no announcement about Maxim Vlasov’s next fight. 

5. Marcus Browne

Marcus Browne, an American boxer,  holds an impressive record of 24 wins and only 2 losses 

Browne won the vacant WBC USNBC light heavyweight title back in 2016, a few years later, in January of 2019, he defeated Badou Jack to become the  WBA interim and WBC Silver light heavyweight champion, however, he wasn’t able to defend these titles and lost the, to Jean Pascal in August 2019. 

In his most recent fight, he challenged Artur Beterbiev for the world title, however, he could not win. The fight was largely one-sided, and after getting cut due to an accidental head clash in the fourth, Browne went down in the 7th and finally the 9th when he could not make the count. 

4. Gilberto Ramirez

From Mexico, our number five pick, Gilberto Ramírez Sánchez has an extensive undefeated record. He has 43 victories and no defeats, 29 of which have come by way of knockout. 

He won the WBO super middleweight title in 2016 and defended it 5 times before moving to light heavyweight. He defeated Alfonso López and won the NABF light-heavyweight title. 

Last night, he defeated Yunieski Gonzalez via 10th round knockout. As of now, his next fight hasn’t been announced. 

3. Joe Smith Jr.

Title(s): 

• WBO Light Heavyweight World Champion

Joe “The Irish Bomber” Smith is our number 3 pick for this list, and he has a record of 27 wins and only 3 losses, and since last weekend, is the current WBO light heavyweight champion of the world. 

In 2016, Smith fought against Andrzej Fonfara and won the WBC International light heavyweight title, which he defended once before losing it to Sullivan Barrera in 2017. In his last fight, he defeated Maxim Vlasov and became the WBO light heavyweight title

His first title defense is going to be against Callum Johnson on January 15th next year. 

2. Dmitry Bivol

Title(s): 

• WBA (Super) Light Heavyweight World Champion

Our number two Pick is another Russian. Dmitry Yuryevich Bivol is an undefeated boxer, with a record of 19-0. He is also the current WBA super world light heavyweight champion of the world.

In 2016, he won the Won WBA interim light-heavyweight title of the world. He defended it twice before being promoted to the main title. Bivol continued to defend the WBA light-heavyweight championship five times and defeated some big names including Joe Smith and Jean Pascal

Last week, he defeated Umar Salamov and retained the WBA (Super) light-heavyweight title. His next fight has not been announced yet. 

Watching some boxing fights and came across this precision of a ko by Bivol. pic.twitter.com/IvreQFJ22h

— TheBoxingTweets2 (@tweets2_the) December 18, 2021

1. Artur Beterbiev

Title(s): 

• WBC Light Heavyweight World Champion

• IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion

At the top of the list, we have the current unified WBC and IBF light heavyweight champion of the world. Artur Beterbiev is undefeated with 17 wins and no losses. 

He won the vacant IBF light-heavyweight title in 2017 against  Enrico Kölling. He continued to defend it twice, before defeating Oleksandr Gvozdyk WBC light-heavyweight title and adding them to his collection as well. 

In his most recent fight, Artur Beterbiev defended his title against Marcus Browne and maintained his 100% knockout rate. Marcus Browne had a good couple of rounds in the beginning, however in the fourth round, an accidental clash of heads caused both fighters to get cut pretty badly. 

The fight could have been stopped because of the cut, so Beterbiev put the pressure, and Browne could not get back into the fight. He got dropped in the 7th, and in the 9th, Beterbiev landed a body shot, sending Browne to the canvas. 

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