Eddie Hearn was excited. In a current interview, Hearn, Matchroom Boxing’s longtime promoter, giddily mentioned a title unification combat. Solely it wasn’t Anthony Joshua’s deliberate rematch with Oleksandr Usyk or Lawrence Okolie’s hunt for extra belts at cruiserweight. It was Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano, who’re headed towards an anticipated 135-pound showdown in April. “The contracts are getting finalized in the meanwhile,” Hearn mentioned. “We’re on the brink now.”
Girls’s boxing has been round for many years, although its largest stars (Christy Martin, Laila Ali) usually lacked the sort of opponents that made for compelling fights. Not. Whether or not it is within the decrease weight courses, the place Seniesa Estrada has stormed by way of three divisions, or the heavier ones, the place Claressa Shields has constructed on her success within the beginner ranks, ladies’s boxing is as robust as ever, with a number of important fights already within the works for 2022.
As we start the 12 months, we introduce SI’s first ladies’s boxing pound-for-pound rankings.
Katie Taylor is our top-ranked feminine boxer to start 2022.
Courtesy of Matchroom
Table of Contents
1. Katie Taylor
Document: 20–0
Final combat: UD win Firuza Sharipova
Subsequent combat: TBD
Taylor, 35, considered one of boxing’s most adorned amateurs, has loved a meteoric rise since turning professional after the 2016 Olympics. She received a world title in her seventh combat, turned a unified champion in her ninth and wanted simply 14 fights to grow to be the undisputed champion at 135-pounds. Taylor, who picked up a title at 140-pounds, in 2019, is a big draw, each within the U.Okay. and Stateside. Her subsequent combat may very well be her largest: As talked about, negotiations are intensifying for a combat between Taylor and Amanda Serrano, which most see as the largest combat in ladies’s boxing.
2. Claressa Shields
Document: 11-0
Final combat: UD win Marie Eve Dicaire
Subsequent combat: Ema Kozin
How dominant has Shields been since turning professional in 2016? The 2-time Olympic gold medalist has claimed undisputed standing in two weight divisions (154 and 160-pounds) whereas gathering a pair of titles in a 3rd (168). An absence of excessive degree opponents has harm Shields, pushing her, briefly, into combined martial arts. That can change this 12 months: After a tune-up combat in February, Shields, 26, is headed for a middleweight showdown in opposition to Savannah Marshall—the one boxer to beat Shields within the beginner ranks.
3. Amanda Serrano
Document: 42-1-1
Final combat: UD win Miriam Gutierrez
Subsequent combat: TBD
Serrano’s resume is spectacular. She’s a seven-division world champion who effortlessly bounces between the 115 to 140-pound weight courses. Contemplate: In 2018, Serrano beat Yamila Esther Reynoso to win a vacant title at junior welterweight. 4 months later Serrano dropped right down to tremendous flyweight to knockout Eva Voraberger and declare one other belt. With a showdown in opposition to Katie Taylor looming, Serrano, 33, will get a possibility to knock off the ladies’s No. 1—and cement her standing as one of many best ladies’s boxers of all-time.
4. Seniesa Estrada
Document: 22-0
Final combat: UD win Maria Micheo Santizo
Subsequent combat: TBD
Estrada’s rise the final three years has been meteoric. In 2019, Estrada defeated ex-U.S. Olympian—and arguably ladies’s boxing’s greatest 112-pounder—Marlen Esparza. Final March, Estrada dropped right down to 105-pounds to defeat lengthy reigning titleholder Anabel Ortiz. In July she moved as much as 108-pounds to take a second title off Tsunami Tenkai. Lastly, in December, Estrada accomplished a three-fight 12 months by stopping Maria Micheo Santizo, efficiently defending her 105-pound belt. Combined in Estrada recorded the quickest knockout in ladies’s boxing historical past, a seven-second obliteration of Miranda Adkins. Estrada, 29, goals to unify the 105-pound titles this 12 months—a combat with IBF champion Yokasta Valle is within the works—earlier than shifting again up in weight, probably for an anticipated rematch with Esparza.
5. Jessica McCaskill
Document: 11-2
Final combat: TKO win Kandi Wyatt
Subsequent combat: TBD
Coming into 2020, McCaskill was a stable fighter recognized for a pair of wins over ex-titleholder Erica Farias and a aggressive loss to Katie Taylor. A detailed win over longtime reigning welterweight champion Cecilia Braekhus earned McCaskill 4 147-pound belts and a lopsided win within the rematch stamped her as among the best in ladies’s boxing. Large alternatives await in ’22, with McCaskill, 37, lined as much as face the winner of a deliberate combat between unified junior welterweight titleholders Chantelle Cameron and Kali Reiss, a combat that will pit undisputed champions in two weight divisions in opposition to one another.
6. Mikaela Mayer
Document: 16-0
Final combat: Maiva Hamadouche
Subsequent combat: TBD
Mayer, a 2016 U.S. Olympian, continues to construct momentum. Mayer received a vacant 130-pound title in 2020 and picked up one other final 12 months, defeating Maiva Hamadouche, a combat that headlined an ESPN present. Mayer, 31, will look to gather all 4 belts in 2022 earlier than shifting up, the place a showdown in opposition to Katie Taylor may very well be ready.
7. Delfine Persoon
Document: 46-3
Final combat: RTD win Beatriz Aguilar
Subsequent combat: TBD
Persoon’s gaudy file and five-year reign as a 135-pound titleholder are proof of her world class standing, however it was two of her losses that stand out. In 2019, Persoon waged warfare with Katie Taylor, throwing a whopping 586 punches in a slim majority resolution defeat. She misplaced a aggressive rematch in 2020 however rebounded with back-to-back wins final 12 months. At 130 or 135-pounds, Persoon, 37, stays among the best.
8. Savannah Marshall
Document: 11-0
Final combat: TKO win Lolita Muzeya
Subsequent combat: TBD
Marshall, 30, turned professional in 2017 with a big title on her beginner resume: Claressa Shields, who Marshall outpointed in 2012, on the World Novice Boxing Championships, the lone blemish on Shields’s boxing resume. Marshall has showcased crushing energy as a professional, stopping 9 of her first 11 opponents. She received a middleweight title in 2020, stopping Hannah Rankin, and is focusing on one other title within the first quarter of ’22 earlier than taking over Shields in what shall be an enormous combat in ladies’s boxing.
9. Christina Hammer
Document: 27-1
Final combat: TKO vs Daniele Bastieri
Subsequent combat: TBD
Hammer’s run as unified middleweight champion led to 2019, when she misplaced a choice to Claressa Shields. She has received three straight since, together with a pair of knockouts at tremendous middleweight. At 31, Hammer just lately aligned with Wasserman Boxing as she prepares one other world title run this 12 months
10. Alycia Baumgardner
Document: 11-1
Final combat: TKO win Terri Harper
Subsequent combat: TBD
Baumgardner burst onto the world scene final November with a one-punch knockout of Terri Harper that put Harper out on her toes—and put Baumgardner within the combine for knockout of the 12 months. Armed with two belts at 130-pounds, Baumgardner, 27, is probably going headed in the direction of a combat with Matchroom stablemate Hyun Mi Choi. A win would arrange a showdown with Mikaela Mayer for the undisputed tremendous featherweight championship.
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