Boxing Junkie’s “Nice Eight” characteristic – wherein we identify the No. 1 fighter in every of the unique eight weight lessons – hasn’t modified in a while, as one of the best don’t typically combat one of the best.

A big shakeup might come quickly, although.

Seven of the “Nice Eight” champions will or might face critical threats within the close to future, together with one who’s shifting up in weight to face one other champ. Take a look:

• Heavyweight champ Tyson Fury is anticipated to combat fellow titleholder Oleksander Usyk for the undisputed championship as early as June. That’s clearly a real check for “The Gypsy King.”
• Gentle heavyweight Dmitry Bivol seems to be on a collision course together with his fellow beltholder and countryman, Artur Beterbiev. One other important danger.
• Tim Tszyu is a longshot to beat junior middleweight Jermell Charlo however his probabilities appear to be higher than ever after his spectacular knockout of Tony Harrison.
• Welterweight Terence Crawford and yet one more fellow champ, Errol Spence Jr., have pumped a bit of life into the chance they’ll meet of their long-awaited showdown. That’s a 50-50 combat.
• Gervonta Davis is a big favourite to beat Ryan Garcia on April 22 however Garcia brings quite a lot of expertise into that combat. Don’t rule something out.
• Junior featherweight Stephen Fulton has accepted the problem of “Nice Eight” bantamweight king Naoya Inoue, who can be shifting up in weight. Nonetheless, that’s a troublesome, powerful combat for Fulton given Inoue’s capability and punching energy.

Get the purpose? It doubtless that the “Nice Eight” listing will take a look at least considerably totally different earlier than the top of the yr or maybe early subsequent yr, which suggests nice fights are being made.

Or are they? We simply must maintain our fingers crossed that the Fury-Usyk, Bivol-Beterbiev, Charlo-Tszyu  and Crawford-Spence fights truly get made.

Right here is how “Nice Eight” works.

The unique eight weight lessons are heavyweight, mild heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, light-weight, featherweight, bantamweight and flyweight.

Heavyweight consists of cruiserweight (and the WBC’s bridgerweight), mild heavyweight consists of tremendous middleweight and so forth.

Right here’s the present listing.

HEAVYWEIGHT – Tyson Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs): The very best massive man on the earth is in talks to face the one different heavyweight who can argue he needs to be No. 1, Oleksandr Usyk. The winner of their potential combat will go away little doubt as to who deserves to be on prime.

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT – Dmitry Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs): No brainer. The 175-pound champion was everybody’s 2022 Fighter of the 12 months after upsetting Canelo Alvarez after which outpointing Gilberto Ramirez. That made this alternative about as simple because it will get.

MIDDLEWEIGHT – Jermell Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs): Nobody at 160 or 154 is as dominating because the junior middleweight champion. He was scheduled to combat Tim Tszyu on Jan. 28 however the combat was postponed after Charlo broke his left hand in coaching.

WELTERWEIGHT – Terence Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs). Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. have been unable to achieve phrases on a combat to find out one of the best 147-pounder, which is a disgrace. Crawford will stay on prime till somebody knocks him off or he reveals clear indicators of decline.

LIGHTWEIGHT – Gervonta Davis (27-0, 25 KOs): Davis’ mixture of capability and punching energy makes him one of the best on this top-heavy division, as he demonstrated once more towards Hector Garcia. Ryan Garcia might pose a menace on April 22.

FEATHERWEIGHT – Stephen Fulton (20-0, 8 KOs): The gifted junior featherweight titleholder seems to be on a collision course with rugged stress fighter Brandon Figueroa, who gave him hell of their first combat. Now comes his greatest check: Naoya Inoue.

BANTAMWEIGHT – Naoya Inoue (22-0, 19 KOs): The Japanese bantamweight simply stopped Paul Butler to develop into the undisputed 118-pound champion, which retains him a step forward of 115-pound stalwarts Juan Francisco Estrada, Roman Gonzalez and Bam Rodriguez.

FLYWEIGHT – Julio Cesar Martinez (18-2, 14 KOs): The 112-pound titleholder got here up brief when he moved up in weight to problem Roman Gonzalez however acquired again to his successful methods in December, outpointing Samuel Carmona.