Female Pound for Pound List May 2016

By The Prizefighters.com staff

Judging the best female prizefighters on the planet is an arduous task simply because of the lack of televised bouts. But despite the lack of television, a few of the females stand out starkly with their combined skills and experience.

The top four females on this list could easily be inter-changeable. Hopefully, later this year or early next year, three of the women on the top can meet and decide in the boxing ring the best of the best.

Here is the list:

1. Layla McCarter (37-13-5, 9 Kos) – based out of Las Vegas, it’s not a gamble to say the “Amazing” McCarter definitely belongs on this list. She has not seen a loss on her record since 2007. This past April she traveled to Mexico City and knocked out Yolanda Segura within seconds of the first round during a furious exchange. Lately, she has been stopping her opponents with new found power in the heavier weight classes. McCarter, 37, can fight as a lightweight to a super welterweight and seeks a fight with Cecilia Braekhus or Delfine Persoon. She’s a marvelous boxer.

2. Cecilia Braekhus (28-0, 7 Kos) – The Colombian-born fighter who fights out of Norway recently signed a promotional deal with K-2 Promotions. The American-based group handles middleweight world champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and has the ability to make the super fight between Braekhus and McCarter. It would be one of the best female fights in history. Braekhus, 34, has never lost in the boxing ring since her pro debut in 2007. McCarter has not lost a fight since 2007. It makes sense for these two to finally meet this year or next.

3. Ibeth Zamora Silva (25-5, 10 Kos) – “La Roca” Silva, 27, has been battling in Mexican wars for years and has walked away with some brilliant victories over stalwart fighters such as Ava Knight, Jessica Chavez and Anabel Ortiz. The Mexico City female warrior could easily be on the top of this list and seeks to fight in the flyweight division after winning titles in the light flyweight and mini flyweight divisions. She’s a miniature juggernaut.

4. Delfine Persoon (35-1, 16 Kos) – Fighting out of Belgium, the current lightweight world champion Persoon, 31, has fought and defeated some pretty talented fighters the past few years. But can she win outside of Belgium? She has a title defense coming up in June and has shown increased skills every time she fights.

5. Mariana Juarez (43-8-4, 17 Kos) – The former pound for pound queen has made a resurgence in the female boxing world with back-to-back victories this year as a super flyweight. Juarez, 36, remains one of female boxing’s most beautiful prizefighters and also remains one of the most skilled in the world. Her dominating performance earlier this month was bedazzling. Now “Barbie” seeks to move into the bantamweight division. It’s a very talented division but Juarez seems to get stronger as she moves up in weight.

6. Catherine Phiri (11-1, 5 Kos) – The bantamweight champion from Zambia showed good athleticism in defeating Mexico’s Yazmin Rivas for the title in Mexico. Phiri was the faster fighter and looked good in her title win. Can she maintain her winning ways in one of boxing’s toughest divisions? She has not fought since January but something should be coming soon.

7. Alicia Ashley (23-10-1, 4 Kos) – Now 48 years old, the speedy southpaw who fights out of New York City continues to baffle opponents despite her age. Ashley may not be as athletic as in her youth, but she has the skills to compensate. Finding foes willing to face Ashley may be the biggest obstacle. She holds the WBC super bantamweight title.

8. Jelena Mrdjenovich (36-10-1, 19 Kos) – Canada’s Mrdjenovich had two entertaining scraps with Argentina’s Edith Matthysse and predictably lost in Argentina, then won in Canada. Mrdjenovich has fought the best of the best including McCarter and Melissa Hernandez. She can fight.

9. Kenia Enriquez (16-1, 8 Kos) – The Tijuana fighter known as “La Gema” is the youngest fighter on this list. Enriquez, 22, is fearless and despite her youth already possesses prizefighting skills beyond her years. After losing the flyweight world title she dropped down to her normal fighting weight and now seems invincible.

10. Naoko Fujioka (14-1, 6 Kos) – Japan’s Fujioka started boxing professionally at the late age of 33. But she’s caught up quickly gathering world title belts along the way in the minimum weight, super flyweight and now bantamweight division. Now 40, the Tokyo fighter is not wasting time. She fights Shindo Go next month. That should be very interesting.

11. Marcela Acuna (43-6-1, 18 Kos) – Unlike most fighters the Argentine boxer started her career by fighting the best in her first two fights. Of course she lost to Christy Martin and Lucia Rijker, but then proceeded to mount her own career as one of the best fighters anywhere. Acuna, 39, is back in action after two years.

12. Kaliesha West (16-2-3, 4 Kos) – Much like Acuna above, the California prizefighter began her career fighting very talented opposition. In her pro debut she fought Suzannah Warner who would one year later fight for a world title. West also traveled to Denmark and fought Anita Christensen to a draw. Today, many female fighters are more interested in building up records against inferior talent. West, 28, fought the best early and seeks to continue that tradition.

Honorable Mention

Amanda Serrano, Jessica Chavez, Erica Farias, Melissa Hernandez, Susie Ramadan, Shindo Go, Celina Salazar, Anabel Ortiz, Ava Knight, Susi Kentikian, Hanna Gabriel, Ramona Kuehne.