Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have cemented their positions as the world’s top boxing nations, according to the inaugural men’s and women’s rankings published by World Boxing.
Uzbekistan leads with 12 fighters, seven men and five women, placed in the top five across 20 weight categories. Kazakhstan follows closely with 11 boxers, including six men and five women. Türkiye ranks third with eight athletes, while Brazil, China, England, India and Japan also feature strongly among the top contenders.
At the top of the leaderboards, Kazakhstan holds seven world number one spots, four in men’s divisions and three in women’s, while six Uzbek men occupy the leading position in their respective categories. Other nations with world number one female boxers include Türkiye, Chinese Taipei, Brazil, Ireland, Australia and Poland, which has two.
Among the standout athletes, Poland’s featherweight Julia Szeremeta (57kg) tops the women’s list with 2,075 points earned through strong performances at the 2025 World Championships, the Foz do Iguazu World Cup, and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Uzbekistan’s Abdumalik Khalokov (60kg) and Asadkhuja Muydinkhujiaev (65kg) share the men’s number one spot, both on 3,000 points after winning gold in Liverpool and Paris.
World Boxing’s Acting Secretary General Mike McAtee said the rankings mark a major step in strengthening global boxing competition:
«One of our key priorities as the International Federation is to provide a calendar of high-quality events for our boxers, and the publication of these rankings reflects that commitment.»
The rankings are based on a rolling three-year points system starting from the Paris 2024 Olympics and include results from events such as the World Boxing Cups, Challenges, and Championships. They will now be used to determine seeding at major tournaments including the World Boxing Championships and Continental Games.
Kursiv also reports that Japanese star Naoya Inoue defeated Uzbekistan’s Murodjon Akhmadaliev in the bantamweight division (55.22 kg) in September.
