Women's Monthly Rankings: May 6th 2022

Boxing’s Baddest Woman on the Planet

The person at the top of the heavyweight mountain is generally regarded to be the No.1 man in boxing. Canelo may be P4P the best in the sport, but against the heavyweight king, or as Mike Tyson once called himself, “The Baddest Man on the Planet,” size rules, and the Mexican would have little chance against current heavyweight number one, Tyson Fury. Similarly, the best woman above welterweight is generally always regarded to be the world’s No.1 female boxer – she is the “Baddest Woman on the Planet.” Below, we list the top five women above 147lbs.

 Our first list (a top 15) featuring the best women above 147lbs was published in February 2022.

1 Claressa Shields

2 Savannah Marshall

3 Franchon Crews Dezurn

4 Christina Hammer

5 Raquel Miller

 

UPDATES

* The Lineal Boxing Champion monthly ratings are produced by an international panel of 10 boxing analysts. Boxers are ranked according to ability and accomplishments in their respective weight classes. When our ratings began in April 2019 (the first non-computerised monthly rankings to have ever been produced in women’s boxing), fighters who had been inactive for 12 months, with still no fights scheduled, were removed from the ratings. As the 2020-21 pandemic severely interfered with the boxing schedule for approximately one year, it seems only fair to lengthen our inactivity rule to 24 months. By the middle of 2022, the inactivity rule will once again return to 12 months.

 

 

APRIL 2022

Super Middleweight

Franchon Crews Dezurn becomes the inaugural Lineal Super Middleweight Champion, following her 10-round unanimous decision victory over Elin cederroos on April 28th. Crews/Cederroos narrowly met our Championship Policy criteria for filling a divisional Championship vacancy, despite Christina Hammer being one place above Cederroos in our ratings – click here for more information about this. Sanna Turunen enters the super middleweight ratings at #5.

 

Heavyweight

Lani Daniels enters at #3 following her 6-round points win over Sequita Hemingway, in what was an all-New Zealand heavyweight tussle in Auckland. Hemingway exits the rankings.

P4P

Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano’s epic clash at Madison Square Garden elevated the stock of both women – Taylor becomes the P4P #1, Serrano climbs to #2, and former #1, Shields, drops to #3. Persoon falls to #8.

 

Ratings Panel

David Avila: 2019 Inductee IWBHF. Journalist at The Sweet Science. California, USA. @AvilaBoxing

Anthony Cocks: Journalist for Max Boxing, and previous contributions for Boxing Monthly. Australia. @el_pollo_loco

Daniel Yanofsky: Boxing journalist, including articles for The Sporting News and The Scrap. New York/Florida, USA. @DanYanofsky

Ireneusz Fryszkowski: Boxing Journalist. Poland. @RingBlogpl

Julian Haramoure: Boxing journalist, including articles for Argentina Amateur Deporte and ElRoundFinal.com. Argentina. @JulianFunky

Yuriko Miyata: Boxing journalist, including articles for The Ring and ThePrizeFighters.com. Japan. @Yuriyuri0803

GM Ross: Boxing journalist. Host of Pugilistically Inclined podcast. Canada. @punchingprof

Blanca Gutierrez: Creator of Beautiful Brawlers. 2019 Inductee IWBHF. 2018 Inductee WCBHOF. USA. @bbrawlersboxing

Inaky Arzate: Boxing journalist, including articles for TUDN. Mexico. @inaky_arzate

Adam McMeeking: Member of the International Boxing Research Organisation, and Editor of LinealBoxingChampion.com. United Kingdom. @LinealBoxChamp

Women's Monthly Rankings: April 24th 2022

UPDATES

* The Lineal Boxing Champion monthly ratings are produced by an international panel of 10 boxing analysts. Boxers are ranked according to ability and accomplishments in their respective weight classes. When our ratings began in April 2019 (the first non-computerised monthly rankings to have ever been produced in women’s boxing), fighters who had been inactive for 12 months, with still no fights scheduled, were removed from the ratings. As the 2020-21 pandemic severely interfered with the boxing schedule for approximately one year, it seems only fair to lengthen our inactivity rule to 24 months. By the middle of 2022, the inactivity rule will once again return to 12 months.

 

FEBRUARY 2022

Flyweight

Marlen Esparza’s solid 10-round victory over Anabel Ortiz on December 18th, pushes her above Fujioka, to the top of our flyweight rankings. Fukioka drops to #2.

Junior Lightweight

With Terri Harper stating that her intentions are now to compete at lightweight, she exits our junior lightweight rankings, making way for Hyun Choi to enter at #5.

 

 

MARCH - APRIL 2022

Atomweight

Nanae Suzuki’s split decision victory over Mika Iwakawa enables her to move from #5 to #2, resulting in Iwakawa dropping a spot. Matsuda exits after her loss to Ayaka Miyao., while Miyao enters at #4 while Hanagata falls to #5.

Junior Flyweight

Veteran. Jessica Plata defeated the vastly experienced Yesica Bopp by split decision on March 11, sending her straight to #2 in our ratings, nudging Tenkai down to #3. Bermudez, who notched up her third consecutive KO on March 26, remains at #4, Gomez falls to #5,  and Bopp exits.

Flyweight

Esparza is now the Lineal World Champion at flyweight following her 10-round decision win over Fujioka on April 9, in what was a “#1 vs #2” match-up at 112lbs. With Esparza now elevated to champion status, last month’s #2 - #5 each move up one place. Leonela Yudica enters at #5.

Bantamweight

Luna Avila returns to the #1 spot after defeating Mayeli Flores on April 2 – Flores was unbeaten and had KO’d Zulina Munoz in April 2019. Thorslund drops to #2. Australia’s Ebanie Bridges enters the bantamweight rankings at #3, following her unanimous decision victory over Maria Roman to win the IBF title. Mariana Juarez (who hasn’t won a bantamweight fight since October 2019) exits the rankings, and Roman falls from #3 to #5.

Junior featherweight

Mayerlin Rivas, #2 in our last ratimgs, exits due to inactivity – Mercado, Lefebvre and Romero each move up a place. Cherneka Jonhson, who won the vacnt IBF strap with a split decision over 12-2-1, Melissa Esquivel, on April 20, enters at #5.

Lightweight

Jonas exits as she now appears to be focusing on the junior middleweight division, having recently beaten Chris Namus for the WBO 154lbs belt on February 19 - Lescano subsequently moves up one place, and Terri Harper on the back of her March 12 win over Yamila Abellaneda, enters at #5.

Junior Middleweight

Natasha Jonas blasted out Chris Namus in two rounds on February 19 to win the vacant 154lbs WBO belt, entering our junior middleweight ranings at #4 – it should be noted that Namus had not fought for 16 months and took the bout with Jonas on just 10 days’ notice. Hallback drops to #5.  Abril Vidal exits.

Middleweight

Cornejo rises to #4 following her 8-round unanimous decision over Simone Da Silva on March 25. Hermans, recently KO’d by Marshall falls to #5.

Heavyweight

Nadia Meknouzi exits due to inactivity, getting replaced by Oxandia Castillo, 19-3-3, who made her debut at heavyweight, outpointing Mery Rancier on March 19.

 

P4P

Fujioka and Braekhus exit the rankings. Marlen Esparza enters at #9 following her victory over Fujioka, and Savannah Marshall enters at #10 after her spectacular KO of Femke Hermans.

Ratings Panel

David Avila: 2019 Inductee IWBHF. Journalist at The Sweet Science. California, USA. @AvilaBoxing

Anthony Cocks: Journalist for Max Boxing, and previous contributions for Boxing Monthly. Australia. @el_pollo_loco

Daniel Yanofsky: Boxing journalist, including articles for FIGHT SPORTS and The Scrap. New York/Florida, USA. @DanYanofskyMMA

Ireneusz Fryszkowski: Boxing Journalist. Poland. @RingBlogpl

Julian Haramoure: Boxing journalist, including articles for Argentina Amateur Deporte and ElRoundFinal.com. Argentina. @JulianFunky

Yuriko Miyata: Boxing journalist, including articles for The Ring and ThePrizeFighters.com. Japan. @Yuriyuri0803

GM Ross: Boxing journalist. Host of Pugilistically Inclined podcast. Canada. @punchingprof

Blanca Gutierrez: Creator of Beautiful Brawlers. 2019 Inductee IWBHF. 2018 Inductee WCBHOF. USA. @bbrawlersboxing

Inaky Arzate: Boxing journalist, including articles for TUDN. Mexico. @inaky_arzate

Adam McMeeking: Member of the International Boxing Research Organisation, and Editor of LinealBoxingChampion.com. United Kingdom. @LinealBoxChamp