Fantasy Boxing Draft Rankings: Who to Draft for the Rest of 2026

Fights as confirmed on 6 October 2026. Points use the default scoring.

A Fantasy Fights league drafted this month plays until 31 December unless the commissioner moves the end date, and a fighter only scores when they box. About 30 of the roughly 180 fighters in the pool have a fight confirmed between 17 October and the end of the year, so the calendar matters more on this draft board than any reputation. Every one of them in a fight rated two stars or more is ranked below, division by division, on the points that fight is guaranteed to score whatever the result.

Why the Floor Is the Number That Matters

Every bout on Fantasy Fights carries a star rating from 0 to 5, and both fighters score one point per star whatever happens in the ring. Both fighters also score one point for every WBA, WBC, IBF or WBO world title on the line. Add the two together and you have the floor, the points a fighter banks by turning up. The win adds 3 on top of that, a KO or TKO adds 1 more, and the only way to lose ground is to be stopped, which costs 1. The full table is in how fantasy boxing scoring works.

Take the super featherweight unification at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio on 24 October. Emanuel Navarrete brings the WBO and IBF titles, O'Shaquie Foster brings the WBC, and the fight is rated five stars, so both men start from a floor of 8 before the first bell. A stoppage win takes the winner to 12. In a league where another manager owns the other corner, the head-to-head multiplier doubles the winner's whole night to 24 while the loser keeps their own score, which is as big a result as any fighter can post between now and Christmas.

Those collisions will be everywhere this season. An eight-manager league with 20-fighter stables drafts 160 fighters, four from each of the five divisions, so both corners of almost every fight below end up owned, and usually by two different managers.

The Rankings, Division by Division

You draft four fighters from each of Heavies, Middles, Welters, Lights and Smalls, so the board is split the same way. The floor is the default score before the win, the KO bonus and the head-to-head. The average draft round (Avg rd) is where real managers have taken the fighter across Fantasy Fights drafts, and a dash means too few managers have picked them to give an average.

Heavies

Heavyweight is the one division where four good picks are easy to find. The Dubois and Wardley rematch at the O2 in London on 17 October and the Fury and Joshua fight at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on 11 December put four five-star fighters on the board, and Agit Kabayel's first defence of the WBC title in Düsseldorf on 28 November adds a fifth fighter with a floor of 5. Managers have taken Wardley nearly five rounds earlier than Dubois on average, for the same fight and the same floor. Fury and Joshua carry no world title into Cardiff, so their floor comes from the stars alone, and a head-to-head win is what turns their night into a big one.

Middles

Canelo goes in round two on average, and his challenge for Christian Mbilli's WBC super middleweight title in Riyadh on 31 October is one of the biggest fights of the year. Mbilli is in the same fight with the same floor, and managers take him more than eight rounds later. Bivol and Callum Smith sit above both of them. Bivol defends the WBA and IBF light heavyweight titles against Smith in Yekaterinburg on 12 December, and if the WBO sanctions its belt for the fight as well, both floors rise to 8. Jermall Charlo goes in round five on average, and his only fight before the end of the year is a two-star ten-rounder in Las Vegas on 17 October.

Welters

Welters is where the season gets thin. Only four fighters in the division have a confirmed fight rated two stars or more before the end of the year, and every stable in an eight-manager league needs four welterweights, so most of them will carry idle ones into December. Sebastian Fundora's mandatory defence of the WBC junior middleweight title in Las Vegas on 17 October gives him a floor two points above anyone else in the division, and managers still leave him until round nine. The December fights that could yet be signed sit mostly in this division, and they are further down the page.

Lights

The two highest floors in the whole pool are in this division, on the same night in San Antonio. Navarrete goes in round six on average, and Foster has been drafted too rarely to have an average at all, for a fight that guarantees him 8. Anthony Cacace's WBA super featherweight defence against Nick Ball in Belfast on 19 December is the last five-star title fight of the year, and Cacace has no average either. Dalton Smith defends the WBC junior welterweight title against Alberto Puello in Sheffield on 24 October, and Alycia Baumgardner challenges Elif Nur Turhan for the IBF lightweight title in Arlington on 8 November.

Smalls

Smalls has the same squeeze as Welters, with four fighters for the four slots every stable has to fill. Nick Ball moves up to super featherweight to challenge Cacace, so he scores for your Smalls slot in a five-star title fight, and he has no average draft round. Ellie Scotney challenges Tiara Brown for the WBC featherweight title in Arlington on 8 November and goes in round 16 on average, the latest average of any fighter in a world title fight before New Year. Brandon Figueroa makes the first defence of his WBA featherweight title against Tomoki Kameda in Las Vegas on 17 October.

The Big Names With Nothing Signed

Naoya Inoue is the first fighter taken in Fantasy Fights drafts, at an average draft round of 1.5, and he has nothing signed for the rest of 2026. His team is aiming at Jesse Rodriguez in early 2027. Oleksandr Usyk, a third-round pick on average, gave up his belts in June and is planning a final fight against Deontay Wilder in March 2027. Jai Opetaia wants one more fight this year with no opponent named, Hamzah Sheeraz had hand surgery after his July fight and has nothing booked, and Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney are in talks with each other without a date. Eight of the ten fighters taken earliest on average have no confirmed fight date before 31 December.

A commissioner can move the season end past New Year, and a keeper league carries fighters into 2027, which is where Inoue and Usyk have their next fights planned. In a league that finishes on 31 December, an early pick on any of them scores nothing.

Fights That Could Still Land Before Christmas

A fight joins the Fantasy Fights schedule once it is confirmed, so a few late-round picks can still come good. David Benavidez has a cruiserweight unification against Michal Cieslak agreed for December in Arizona, with the date still moving. Jaron Ennis and Josh Kelly are lined up for a junior middleweight unification in December or early January, Vergil Ortiz Jr is close to a deal with Keith Thurman for the Benavidez show, and Keyshawn Davis against Richardson Hitchins has been reported for the Fury and Joshua bill in Cardiff. Ryan Garcia plans to fight in December and has not chosen an opponent. Ennis and Ortiz both draft as Welters, the division with the fewest confirmed fights, which makes them the best late swings on the board.

How to Draft It

1. Spend the first rounds on the highest floors. Navarrete, Foster, Bivol and Callum Smith are the only fighters in the pool guaranteed 7 or more before the end of the year.
2. Take one corner of as many five-star fights as you can, so your points arrive across October, November and December.
3. Fill Welters and Smalls earlier than feels natural. Fundora, Ball and Scotney are the only fighters in those two divisions with a floor of 5 or more, and eight managers need four from each.
4. Use the late rounds on the December fights still being signed, starting with Ennis and Ortiz, and on fighters the room keeps leaving behind, such as Foster, Cacace and Ball.
5. Save Inoue, Usyk and the other names without a fight for a keeper league or a season that runs into 2027.

You can test the board against the bots in a free mock draft before your league's real one, and every fight above has its own page on the boxing schedule with the date, the titles and how the fans are calling it.

Questions Managers Ask

Who is the best fantasy boxing pick right now?

In a league that ends on 31 December, the best picks are Emanuel Navarrete and O'Shaquie Foster. Their three-belt, five-star unification on 24 October guarantees each of them 8 points with the default scoring, the highest floor of any fighter in the pool.

Does a fighter score if their fight happens before my draft?

A fighter scores only for the stable that owns them on fight night, so a fight that has already happened adds nothing to a league that drafts afterwards.

How many fighters do you draft in fantasy boxing?

You draft 20 fighters by default, four from each of five divisions: Heavies, Middles, Welters, Lights and Smalls. Commissioners can change the roster size and the number of managers when they set up the league.

How often are these rankings updated?

This page is updated at the start of every month, and whenever a big fight is signed or falls through.

Every point on this page uses the default scoring, and your commissioner can change any value, so check your league's settings before the draft. Star ratings can move before fight night.