How are your New Year’s resolutions going?
Did you drink to your head? Limit yourself to three pieces of candy a week? Pay $200 a month to go to your local gym and find yourself in the middle of the Royal Rumble with no spandex?
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Or have you let December flow seamlessly into January with barely a glance in the mirror?
No judging here – but while you’re being yourself, here are some of the early wins and losses in 2026 for the following names in boxing.
Let’s see who won and who lost the most in January.
Winner
Shakur Stevenson
Shakur is a lock this month and will likely be one of the biggest winners in 2026 over the next 11 months.
The 28-year-old defeated Teofimo Lopez Jr. to capture the WBO super lightweight title, becoming the third youngest four-weight world champion in history behind Oscar De La Hoya and Adrien Broner.
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The perfect punch underscored Stevenson’s position at the top of the sport’s pound-for-pound rankings, catapulting him to third place in the uncrowned champion’s own rankings, behind only the behemoths of Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk.
Stevenson has mastered the sport and has the potential to become a generational American superstar.
Sander Zayas
Speaking of record-breaking youngsters, Puerto Rico’s Xander Zayas became the sport’s youngest unified men’s world champion at just 23 years old, defeating Abass Baraou on home soil to add the WBA super welterweight title to the WBO’s list of titles.
Zayas’ feat was slightly overshadowed by the talent of Shakur Stevenson and the toupe of Jarrell Miller during the last weekend of January, but dig a little deeper and you’ll see that the Top Rank boy has grown into a man in his 23rd fight.
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With talk surrounding the saga between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Jaron “Boots” Ennis in the weight class, Zayas reminded the boxing world that there are more than two ways to win in the 154-pound division.
With Sebastian Fundora and Josh Kelly also owning such heavy real estate, we have a class worth keeping an eye on.
British World Champion
Forget the Year of the Horse, 2026 will be the Year of the British!
“Ruuuuule, Britannia, Britannia rules the waves” — Oops, forgive my colonial ancestors, but Dalton Smith and Josh Kelly have invaded boxing’s top rankings after a pair of frustrating wins in January, claiming gold in the form of the WBC super lightweight and IBF super welterweight world titles.
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Smith and Kelly join Nick Ball, Fabio Wardley, Jazza Dickens and Lewis Crocker as the current world champions, turning around Team GB’s fruitless 2025.
These wins were over legitimate former champions Subriel Matias and Bakhram Murtazaliev – if both men win, a $1 bet will return $8!
Bruce Carrington
It is impossible not to send flowers to “Shu Shu” in January.
A ninth-round knockout of Carlos Castro at Madison Square Garden earned the 28-year-old the vacant WBC featherweight title and set the stage for the Brooklyn-based fighter to make history at 126 pounds.
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He gave a great speech on “The Ariel Helwani Show” on Uncrown, stating his intention to unify the division, hunt down “The Monster” Naoya Inoue, and potentially move up to 154 pounds at some point in his career.
As they say: Reach the moon and you might land among the stars…
Jarrell Miller
Fair play to Jarrell Miller.
This month, whether “Big Baby” will enter the winner’s bracket or the loser’s bracket is a difficult decision. literally He failed to wear a $700 wig during his split-decision victory over Kingsley Ibeh at Madison Square Garden.
But the heavyweight’s unusual reaction to what is often an embarrassing situation has earned him praise during the viral incident. This moment takes up more column space than a one-on-one debate, a new world champion, and the return of a Puerto Rican world champion — boxing is a fun sport.
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It makes you wonder what the point of it all is…
Anyway, good job, Jarrell. At least when you hang up the gloves, you’ll be remembered for more than just your — check the record — four (at least) failed drug tests.
loser
Teofimo Lopez Jr. and Teofimo Lopez Sr.
Terrence “Bud” Crawford gives us this entry, calling Teofimo Lopez Jr. and Teofimo Lopez Sr. “losers” in the ring after Shakur Stevenson’s historic win.
Now, this isn’t poor form or poor sportsmanship from the retired, undefeated five-weight world champion, but simply a response to the father-son duo he was baited with in the build-up to last weekend’s main event inside Madison Square Garden.
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Crawford subsequently posted on X, highlighting his new role as a post-retirement hype man:
“They’re crazy!!! It’s cool when they do it, it’s a problem when I do it. Fuck them!!!! Fuck Teo, fuck his dad, fuck his sister and whoever else has the problem”
Oh, and if you want to further convince them to join in, Lopez used his opportunity post-fight to weirdly apologize for slavery after previously making insensitive and racist comments about his fellow boxers.
Time and place, Teo.
Subril Mathias
I hate kicking a guy when he’s down, but I guess my feet feel a little better knowing this guy failed a drug test for the banned substance ostarine.
But don’t let that change anything. After all, that unfavorable result didn’t stop Subril Mathias from fighting Britain’s Dalton Smith for the WBC super lightweight title in early January, a fight he subsequently lost via fifth-round TKO.
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The New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) deemed the level of ostarin found in Matthias A’s sample (0.085 ng/ml) to be below the threshold (0.1 ng/ml), meaning the game could still take place.
Call me old-fashioned, but a failed test is a failed test, and in a contact sport like boxing, the dice should never be thrown on your opponent’s fitness.
Bahram Murtazhaliev
It’s not often that a monster is defeated by a “beautiful boy”—at least outside of Disney fairy tales.
But Bahram Murtazaliyev defeated Josh Kelly in Newcastle to capture the IBF super welterweight crown, unveiling the former champion and shattering the myth that he was an untouchable force at 154 pounds.
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At 33, there will be fears that Chechnya – the fighting outside California – will quickly combust after an eye-catching 2024 campaign.
A lack of energy has been the Achilles’ heel of many fighters throughout boxing’s history, and the impressive Kelly combined to create a perfect storm that resulted in Murtazhaliev’s first loss in his 24-fight career.
Khalil Coe
Sometimes it’s hard to explain the detailed nuances of boxing to people outside of the sport.
WBA, IBF, WBO and WBC and probably WTF, LOL, ROFL and LMAO – and that’s before we start talking about interim, minor and bridgeweight titles.
But gaining weight is fairly simple.
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See, we’ve all done it – we’ve all stood on a scale and expected the number to be lower than it actually was.
But when light heavyweight contender Khalil Coe weighed in at 182.8 pounds (7.8 pounds over the agreed-upon 175-pound limit) for his bout with Jesse Hart, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be on this month’s also-ran list.
Coe lost more than just this month. Coupled with his $30,000 fine, his majority decision victory over Hart suddenly looked like a small consolation after a chaotic weekend.
VB
Time check: It’s 6:32 Tuesday morning in London and I still have no idea what iVB’s plans are for the boxing world.
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The company’s CEO, Ed Pereira, hit the press two weeks ago in an attempt to add some substance to their venture idea – which centered around staging a TBA vs. TBA fight in San Francisco before a world-record crowd of 140,000, something no one asked for and would never ask for – but has fallen silent since.
As of this writing, iVB still does not have any fighters, promoters, investors, or broadcast deals. But hey, they have 184,000 followers on Instagram and a whopping 480 followers on X (yes, that’s four hundred and eighty) and promise to “bring boxing back to the people.”
Oh, I guess I’m one of those “people”.
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Thanks, iVB. I guess I should shut up, drink the Kool-Aid, and be grateful that such a selfless company is willing to enter the boxing world.
