Every sanctioning body

World boxing rankings

The current world ratings from the recognised sanctioning bodies, set out side by side so you can see where the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO disagree. Each division has its own page showing the champion, the full top fifteen from each organisation, and how every fighter has moved since the previous month. We list the date each body published its ratings, because they update on different cycles and a table that looks out of step usually is not.

Men's divisions

Women's divisions

How the sanctioning bodies rank fighters

Each organisation runs its own ratings committee and its own criteria, which is why a fighter can sit second with one body and outside the top ten with another. The IBF and WBO tend to move fighters on activity and on the outcome of ordered eliminators. The WBC operates additional interim and franchise designations that sit alongside its main ratings. The WBA has historically recognised more than one champion in a division, though it has been reducing that. The IBO is the outlier and the most transparent of the group, using a computerised system that weights results, quality of opposition and inactivity, which is why its tables sometimes look markedly different from the others.

Rankings matter beyond the argument they generate. A mandatory position obliges a champion to defend against that fighter within a set period or vacate, and the fights that follow are usually the ones a division has been waiting on. We report ratings movement each month rather than only when a title changes hands.