Canelo Alvarez is once again part of boxing's pound-for-pound elite. The 36-year-old Mexican superstar returned to the top 10 this week at No. 9 after defeating previously unbeaten WBC super middleweight titleholder Christian Mbilli by unanimous decision last Saturday, regaining a piece of the 168-pound crown in his first fight in 13 months.
The victory was Alvarez's first appearance since elbow surgery and since his humbling loss to Terence Crawford, who moved up multiple weight classes weeks shy of his 38th birthday to take Alvarez's undisputed super middleweight championship by clear decision before retiring last September. Questions surrounded Alvarez heading into the bout, now in his 21st year as a professional and his 69th career fight, about whether an aging great might get old overnight.
Instead, Alvarez disciplined the typically hard-charging Mbilli as the fight wore on, keeping the champion from exchanging with him down the stretch. His counterpunching was pinpoint accurate and heavy, his defense and head movement stayed sharp, and he dominated the second half behind a stiff jab and well-timed counters. His fight IQ looked as elite as ever, and he has grown into a more efficient fighter with age, a key ingredient in his longevity.
Not bad for a fighter with fewer than 50 amateur bouts who turned professional at 15 and has arguably been the sport's biggest star for more than a decade. This may not be the same Canelo who became undisputed champion in 2021 after reigning atop the pound-for-pound top 10 for three full years, but he showed he still wants the biggest challenges. Alvarez, now 64-3-2 with 35 knockouts, has been vocal about wanting rematches with Crawford and unified light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, though he still carries justified criticism for openly avoiding David Benavidez when the two shared a division.
Whether or not those rematches materialize, Alvarez proved he remains the class of the 168-pound division, which currently features heavy hitters such as Hamzah Sheeraz, Lester Martinez and former unified middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhabuly.
Naoya Inoue held onto the No. 1 spot in the rankings. The undisputed junior featherweight champion and four-division titleholder followed a huge 2025, in which he became the first boxer to defend the Ring title four times, with a career-defining unanimous decision over countryman Junto Nakatani in May. That fight drew a sellout crowd of 55,000 to the Tokyo Dome, the biggest boxing event in Japanese history.
Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez remained at No. 2 after moving up to 118 pounds to open 2026 and stopping Antonio Vargas in the sixth round to claim the WBA bantamweight title, a belt in his third weight class. Benavidez stayed at No. 3 after moving up 25 pounds to cruiserweight and knocking out unified champion Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez, becoming the first boxer to win titles at 168, 175 and 200 pounds. He returns Dec. 12 against WBC beltholder Michael Cieslak in a bid to further unify the division.
Shakur Stevenson held the No. 4 position after a masterful January win over lineal 140-pound champion Teofimo Lopez Jr. in which he took 11 rounds on all three scorecards, though he has remained idle since parting ways with Zuffa Boxing just three months after signing in July. Oleksandr Usyk stayed at No. 5 after vacating his trio of heavyweight titles in June to focus on a retirement bout, and Bivol sat at No. 6 ahead of a Dec. 12 return against Callum Smith following elbow surgery.
Jaron Ennis, Devin Haney and O'Shaquie Foster rounded out the top 10. Haney rose from No. 9 to No. 8 after dropping and handling Brian Norman Jr. last November to become a three-division champion, and he has agreed to unify welterweight titles against IBF titleholder Liam Paro in December. Foster unified three 130-pound titles against Emanuel Navarrete in October. Jai Opetaia dropped out of the rankings, with Vergil Ortiz Jr., Oscar Collazo, Nakatani and Sebastian Fundora among those receiving honorable mention.
