Who are the closest Uzbek boxers for the world title?

Recently, Uzbek boxers continue to succeed not only in amateur, but also in professional boxing. In the super bantamweight category (55 kg) Murodjon Akhmadaliev (8-0, 6KO) won the WBA and IBF championships belts with only 8 fights. Naturally, attention was paid to other Uzbek boxers. So, after Murodjon Akhmadaliev, which of Uzbek boxers is closer to the world championship title ? Check out Top 5 below.

1. Kudratillo Abdukakhorov (18-0, 9KO)

Kudratilla Abdukakhorov, who competes in the welterweight category of professional boxing (66.6 kg), is ranked 8th in the WBC and 1st in the IBF rankings. He is also ranked 8th among stars such as Terence Crawford, Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia in his weight class in one of the most influential unofficial rankings, The Ring. Abdukakhorov is currently a mandatory contender for the IBF World Championship belt, which belongs to Errol Spence (27-0, 21KOs). Spence is also a WBC champion. In this weight class, Manny Pacquiao is the WBA, Terence Croford is the WBO champion. Kudratillo, a client of America’s most influential company Top Rank , is currently training in the United States.

2. Israil Madrimov (6-0, 5KO)

Israil Madrimov is fighting in the super welterweight category (69 kg). Madrimov defeated Eric Walker, who was ranked 6th in the WBA in his last fight and became a mandatory challenger for the WBA super welterweight title. Madrimov works with Matchroom owned by Eddie Hearn and World of Boxing. Madrimov is currently in first place in the WBA rankings. In this weight category, WBC, WBA, IBF championship belts belong to Jermell Charlo, while Patrick Teixeira is the WBO world champion.

3. Shohjahon Ergashev (19-0, 17KO)

Shohjahon Ergashev, who is currently fighting in the super lightweight category of professional boxing (63.5 kg), is not yet a mandatory contender, but is in a favorable rating to get to this position. Ergashev is ranked 7th in the WBA, 13th in the WBO and 4th in the IBF. His promoter, Dmitriy Salita and Salita Promotions are in talks to organize a eliminator fight in the near future to become a mondatory challenger in the IBF direction.

4. Bektemir Melikuziev (6-0, 5KO)

Bektemir Melikuziev has signed contracts with the American company Golden Boy and the Russian company World of Boxing. Melikuziev, who holds the WBA Continental Americas and WBO Inter-Continental belts in the super middleweight category (76kg), is currently ranked 14th in the WBA rankings and is also expected to be in the top 15 in the WBO rankings soon. Although Melikuziev's rating is slightly lower, the interest in him and the confidence of his promoters is much higher. Melikuziev was promised championship fight until the end of 2021. WBA champion Collum Smith in this weight class will fight Saul Alvarez on December 19th. The WBO belt belongs to Billy Joe Saunders and the IBF championship belt belongs to Caleb Plant. The WBC championship belt is currently vacant.

5. Shakhram Giyosov (10-0, 8KO)

Giyosov, one of the first winners of the Rio Olympics to become a professional boxer, has been working with World of Boxing and Matchroom, just like Madrimov. Giyasov is the holder of the WBA International belt in the super lightweight category (63.5 kg) and is ranked 6th in WBA. The situation in this direction is a bit more difficult, there are a lot of secondary belts and it takes a little longer to get to the main championship belt. Shohjahon Ergashev and Shakhram Giyasov are in the same weight category, and the WBA has Super, Regular, Gold and interim world titles. The main champions are British Josh Taylor (WBA Super, IBF world champion) and American Jose Ramires (WBC and WBO).

We have these for now. We wish good luck and victories to all Uzbek boxers.