Great Eight: Welcome aboard, Jesse 'Bam' Rodriguez … for now

The proliferation of titles makes it troublesome for all however essentially the most astute followers to find out the cream of the boxing crop.

That’s why Boxing Junkie got here up with its “Nice Eight” function, which names the perfect fighter in every of the unique eight weight courses –heavyweight, mild heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, light-weight, featherweight, bantamweight and flyweight.

Heavyweight contains cruiserweight (and the WBA and WBC’s bridgerweight), mild heavyweight contains tremendous middleweight, middleweight contains junior middleweight and so forth right down to flyweight, which incorporates junior flyweight and strawweight.

On this installment of “Nice Eight,” we do three issues:

Crown a brand new champion within the lightest weight class (though he plans to maneuver again into the following division),
Present the ultimate itemizing of the 12 months,
And take a peek at potential adjustments which may lie forward.

First, surging Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez dethroned Sunny Edwards as flyweight champion right here, the results of his sensational nine-round demolition of his British rival to grow to be undisputed 112-pound champion on Dec. 16.

Rodriguez’s reign isn’t destined to be a protracted one, nonetheless: He’s anticipated to maneuver again as much as 115, at which he had success final 12 months. That will transfer him into the bantamweight division for the needs of Nice Eight, which might lead to one other change at flyweight.

We’ll see what our No. 11 pound-for-pounder decides to do subsequent and act accordingly.

In the meantime, we additionally might see a number of adjustments within the different seven divisions in 2024. Nice Eight champions Tyson Fury (heavyweight), Dmitry Bivol (mild heavyweight) and Jermell Charlo (middleweight) might face their demise within the coming 12 months.

And, after all, the opposite champions even have succesful rivals who would love a crack at them. Keep tuned.

Listed below are the highest fighters within the unique eight divisions:

HEAVYWEIGHT

Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) – Fury’s reign as the highest man right here is in jeopardy, as he’s scheduled to face Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship on Feb. 17 in Saudi Arabia. He’ll should carry out higher towards Usyk than he did towards Francis Ngannou to win.

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Dmitry Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs) – The 175-pound titleholder gave one other robust efficiency on Dec. 23, shutting out overmatched Lyndon Arthur. A gathering with Artur Beterbiev for mild heavyweight supremacy may very well be subsequent if Beterbiev beats Callum Smith on Jan. 13.

MIDDLEWEIGHT

Jermell Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs) – The 154-pounder got here up quick towards 168-pound champ Canelo Alvarez however he stays the perfect at 160 and 154. He desires to battle pound-for-pound and welterweight king Terence Crawford, who would take Charlo’s place on this division with a victory.

WELTERWEIGHT

Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) – Crawford, coming off his epic beat down of Errol Spence Jr., may very well be poised to maneuver as much as 154 to problem titleholder Charlo, which might create a gap right here. Solely proficient Jaron Ennis would seem like a real risk at 147.

LIGHTWEIGHT

Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) – “Tank” stays the most-complete fighter at 135 and 130 however boxing wizards Shakur Stevenson and Vasiliy Lomachenko may need one thing to say about who reigns in Nice Eight earlier than all is alleged and performed. Now we have to see these pivotal matchups.

FEATHERWEIGHT

Naoya Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs) – Inoue gave one other dominating efficiency towards Marlon Tapales on Dec. 26, stopping the Filipino within the tenth spherical to grow to be undisputed champion in a second weight class. Can anybody compete with him? Murodjon Akhmadaliev may need the perfect probability.

BANTAMWEIGHT

Juan Francisco Estrada (44-3, 28 KOs) – The 33-year-old future Corridor of Famer from Mexico didn’t battle this 12 months however he presumably will get again to work quickly. “Bam” Rodiguez referred to as him out for what might grow to be a passing-of-the-torch matchup. Will he chew?

FLYWEIGHT

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KOs) – Rodriguez supplants Edwards as champion right here after leaving little question about who’s the perfect 112-pounder on the planet. Nonetheless, he has stated he plans to maneuver as much as junior bantamweight. We’ll wait till he schedules a battle to take away him.