How Do The World Rankings Work? From CM Boxing

As a boxing fan and someone who writes about boxing I am often asked by hardcore fans and casual fans a like how do the world rankings work? So I am going to do my best to answer that question.

So as we know there are 4 governing bodies in the world of boxing the WBA, WBC, IBF and the WBO and all these bodies have their own ranking system and this is what confuses fans. The rankings are based on merit the same as in any sport, but how do you move up an become a world champion there are four main factors that have to be taken into account and these are:

The level your fighting at: Boxing as we know is all about levels and once a fighter has reached a level, were their fighting a fighter in the top 30 or top 15 and you beat them you will take their ranking or at the very least move up the rankings.

A fighters CV: If a fighter has been a world champion before, or they’ve fought a world champion then they will get a higher ranking. For an example of this look at David Haye when he came back in 2015 and beat Mark de Mori and Arnold Gjergjaj he was ranked highly after those fights but that is because of what he’s done in the past. At the time of writing this post he was ranked number 1 by the WBO and number 5 by the IBF.

Keep Winning: This might sound obvious but the best and some may say the easiest way to move up the rankings is to keep winning because the more fights you win the faster you may move up the rankings.

The way a fighter is managed: A fighters management team plays a big role in how fast a fighter will move up the rankings. As they will hand pick opponents based on their ranking in order to move their fighter up faster and get them a world title shot.

I have heard a number of people say that the rankings are not important, or corrupt and this is simply not true. However these rankings are more important to fighters than they are to fight fans, because a fighter is only interested in how far way he is from a title shot. For fans I highly recommend looking a the rankings from somewhere like the Ring Magazine or BoxRec as these will give you an overview of what’s going on in a division rather than focusing on one governing body.

I know this is a confusing subject but I hope you understand it better now, please comment below and let me know your thoughts