The IBF's unmerited top rated contenders

[Coverdale]

Following this thread I thought I'd do a deeper dive of the IBF's rankings across all the men's divisions to identify where their top rated* contender is not in the TBRB top ten. (*Note I use the term 'top rated' as opposed to #1 as the IBF have this strange system where the #1 and #2 places are left vacant pending an 'eliminator').

None of this is intended to be disrespectful to the individual fighters who are just taking advantage of the opportunities available to them in an unforgiving sport. It's intended to emphasise the absurdity of having four competing sets of rankings where there are never going to be 40 world level contenders in a division. This leads to time wasting mandatories or champions (the actual champions of divisions) having to vacate their hard earned belts.

1. Cruiserweight: Huseyin Cinkara. 40 years old, 23-0, just two 12-rounders scheduled with his last fight a scheduled 8-rounder against a 12-3 Venezuelan coming off a TKO loss. Gets his shot at champion Jai Opetaia on 6th December.
2. Light-heavyweight: Michael Eifert. 27 years old, 13-1, one 12-rounder scheduled with his last fight a scheduled 6-rounder against another Venezuelan journeyman. The IBF apparently see this as a priority for the injured Bivol over fights with Beterbiev and Benavidez.
3. Super-middleweight: Vladimir Shishkin. He will presumably drop down the rankings following his 4th September loss which occurred one day after the last IBF update.
4. Light-middleweight: Josh Kelly. 31 years old, 17-1-1, last fight was a one-round blowout of Flavius Biea who is not in the IBF's top 15. Kelly is apparently due to fight IBF titleholder Murtazaliev if the protracted negotiations reach a satisfactory conclusion.
5. Welterweight: Lewis Crocker, 28 years old, 22-0, the only 12-rounders he's had scheduled were for the two fights he had against Paddy Donovan (himself not TBRB ranked) which earned him his lofty IBF ranking. Given how weak this division is, it says a lot for where the IBF is in relation to the genuine top ten.
6. Light-welter: Lindolfo Delgado, 30 years old, 23-0. Not a single 12-rounder scheduled. Last fight was against Elvis Rodriguez who is not top 15 IBF rated.
7. Junior-lightweight: Sultan Zaurbek, 29 years old, 20-0. Not a single 12-rounder scheduled; last fight was a 10-round UD over a 18-3 South African.
8. Featherweight: Omar Trinidad, 29 years old, 19-0-2. One 12-rounder scheduled and coming off a draw against Lorenzo Parra who is not top 15 IBF rated.
9. Bantamweight: Jose Salas Reyes, 23 years old, 16-0. No 12-rounders scheduled; last fight was an 8-round UD against the 10-8 Arturo Najera who has lost each fight either side of his encounter with Reyes.
10. Junior-flyweight: Sergio Cordova, 25 years old, 26-0. No 12-rounders scheduled and according to Boxrec has only fought twice below the 108lbs weight limit. This is presumably why TBRB rank him #9 at Flyweight.
11. Strawweight: Christian Balunan, 25 years old, 12-0. No 12-rounders scheduled; last fight was December 2024 against a 19-12 journeyman coming off a loss.

To summarise, that's 11 out of 17 divisions (the IBF don't recognise bridger) where the IBF's top rated contender is not in the TBRB top ten. With that in mind, it's little wonder how often we see their frustrating mandatories get in the way of true divisional progress.

[drablj]

crocker is not top rated contender. he's a champion now.
kelly is top rated at wbo too. both should be ashamed because this division is the best in boxing.

as you said, the problem is 17 divisions and not enough good boxers from now until the end of time. there will never be a division with 15 good contenders, let alone 4 sets of 15. obviously that means that 4 boxers in every division don't have worthy names to beat to become deserved mandatory challengers. there are 3-4 good divisions with 7-10 good fighters. that means 13 divisions are weak. it's going to be like that in the future too. the only solution are seeded tournaments wbss or tennis grand slams style with the best in every division. turki could do that but he's the casualest fan.

[Coverdale]

Bumped for RJJ-94-02=GOAT and kiaba360

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Their rankings are horrific. When I look at their top 10, I barely know if half of them actually exist.

[kiaba360]

Cinkara might be the most annoying because injury is what keeps delaying that match-up. Wasn't Opetaia scheduled to face him twice already? Opetaia is stuck in limbo at CW where his contemporaries are either not willing or not ready.


Delgado is on the cusp of a title shot, but TR's network woes may lead to inactivity. It doesn't help that titlists like Teofimo and Hitchins are primadonnas.


The other way to gauge the health of an organization are the quality, popularity and activity level of its champions. The IBF has some decent titlists, but some of them get relegated to "boogeyman" status...such as Janibek, Murtazaliev and Opetaia. Then you have some recently crowned titlists like Nunez, Muratalla and Crocker who still have to prove their worth. Hitchins has been titlist for 10 months and he's only fought Kambosos, so he needs to step it up. Usyk and Crawford are obvious exceptions.