Top 10 Heavyweights in Boxing

We’re back for another round of our monthly top ten Heavyweights in boxing list. We’ve seen a few notable scraps in the division over the past few weeks – including an unprecedented bout between Oleksandr Usyk and Rico Verhoeven that saw the reigning Heavyweight king escape with his belts, despite taking an unexpected amount of punishment from the Dutch kickboxing icon.

For transparency’s sake, we have opted to move Joseph Parker out of our Heavyweight rankings for now. His ban, which he received after testing positive for cocaine, still remains unresolved – as a result, he won’t return to our top ten until he is cleared to compete again.

As always with our lists, we’re only including fighters who have won a professional bout in the Heavyweight division over the last 18 months. With that out of the way, let’s begin!

10. Richard Riakpohre

Richard Riakpohre just pips out Murat Gassiev and Efe Ajagba to make it into our top ten. We received a bit of flak for giving Gassiev a spot in the list last time – as such, we reevaluated the situation and gave Riakpohre the nod instead, but only by a hair.

In his last fight, Riakpohre annihilated the underrated Jeamie TKV, winning by TKO after five rounds of one-way traffic. He might not be the most technically-refined Heavyweight in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but his power and aggressiveness makes him a threatening opponent for almost anyone in the division.

Yes, he has only had three fights at Heavyweight – but if we’re going to be frank for a second (and we don’t mean Warren), the depth of quality in boxing’s premier weight class is rather thin at the moment. Riakpohre makes it in terms of his potential, rather than his accomplishments. We’d back him to beat Gassiev as things stand.

9. Justis Huni

Justis Huni needed to beat Frazer Clarke to remain relevant in the Heavyweight landscape – thankfully, he did just that, despite some heavy resistance from the Olympic bronze medalist. It was one of Clarke’s best performances in the professional ranks – as such, Huni needed to remain vigilant and focused.

On a technical level, Huni is amongst the best fighters in the division at present. He moves around the ring with grace, mixing up his punches well whilst also possessing impressive hand speed and punch selection.

Indeed, what truly lets Huni down is his punch power and punch resistance. He has shown that he can be hurt – even Kevin Lerena had him on jelly legs when they came to blows back in 2024. He has scored seven KOs from his 13 wins in the professional ranks, all of which came against meagre opposition.

8. Frank Sanchez

Frank Sanchez surges back into our rankings with a brilliant knockout win over Richard Torrez Jr. The last couple of years have been tough for ‘The Cuban Flash’ – it was nice to see him reannoucing himself on the world stage.

Having recovered from his defeat against Agit Kabayel back in 2024, during which he was suffering with an injury, Sanchez is now fully back in contention. A brutal puncher with excellent fundamentals, he has also picked up victories over the likes of Efe Ajagba, Junior Fa and Christian Hammer in the past.

He is technically the mandatory challenger for Oleksandr Usyk’s IBF Heavyweight title following his emphatic win over Torrez Jr, but we aren’t expecting a fight between the two to take place any time soon.