The 10 Best Light Flyweight Boxing Champions of All Time

Critical Consensus Table: Ranking the Best Light Flyweight Champions

Roman Gonzalez and Khalid Yafai//Getty Images

The Critical Consensus Table combines data from the WBC and BoxRec, summarising each fighter’s current record, knockout ratio, as well as titles held and/or notable achievements in the sport of boxing.

SportsBoom MetaScale: Ranking the Best Light Flyweight Champions

The SportsBoom MetaScale provides a ranking of the best light-flyweight boxers of all time, taking into account fighters record, knockout wins, titles held and notable achievements to combine for a MetaScale Score.

1. Ricardo López 

Ricardo López is regarded as one of the greatest smaller weight fighters of all time due to his dominance in the mini-flyweight and light-flyweight division. In 52 fights, he did not register a single loss. He was strategically smarter than his opponents and had excellent punch accuracy and cardio which saw him bamboozle his opponents on his way to winning 25 world title fights.

2. Roman Gonzalez 

Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez is one of the best modern day fighters to ever lace up gloves. Having started his career in 2005, Gonzalez is still not yet officially retired, and he is still performing to an elite level at the age of 37, despite his recent majority decision loss to Juan Francisco Estrada. The Nicaraguan fighter has won 18 world title fights across minimum weight, light-flyweight, flyweight, and super-flyweight, this is why he's regarded as a pound-for-pound legend.

3. Carlos Canizales

Carlos Canizales has the highest knockout power out of any fighter on this list. The Venezuelan fighter is only 31, so he has plenty of time to improve on his accolades and record. Yet, Canizales has still achieved great things in the sport, winning the WBA light-flyweight title between 2018-2021.

4. Panya Pradabsri

Despite having a knockout percentage of 35%, Panya Pradabsri has proven time and time again that his fights are a must-watch. He is an active fighter in the ring, making his attacks a high volume whilst also being reactive in his boxing defence, causing his fights to be high-paced. This type of boxing style has seen him win the WBC mini-flyweight title and defend it four times.

5. Michael Carbajal 

Michael Carbajal began his career in the late 80s and he retired in the late 90s. Across his ten year career, he won 49 fights out of 53, recording 33 of those wins by knockout. While he won the WBO light-flyweight titles at the back end of his career, he also had a light-flyweight silver Olympic medal to his name from the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

6. Kenshiro Teraji 

Kenshiro Teraji of Japan receives his champion belt//Getty Images

Kenshiro Teraji is dominating the sport right now. The former WBA and WBC light-flyweight champion, Kenshiro Teraji. The Japanese fighter originally won the WBC belt back in 2017, and he'd defend it eight times in a row before losing to Masamichi Yabuki in 2021. However, the pair would rematch in the early months of 2022 where Teraji got his revenge with a knockout victory. Most recently, he has moved up in weight and won the vacant WBC flyweight title.

7. Hiroki Ioka 

Hiroki Ioka is a former two-weight world champion having held the WBC mini-flyweight title and WBA light-flyweight back in the late 80s and early 90s. Ioka began his professional boxing career at 17, and retired 12 years later having competed across four different weight divisions at a very high level.

8. Yokō Gushiken 

Yokō Gushiken is another Japanese fighter on this list that had a relatively short career, spanning seven years between 1974-1981. For five of those years, he held the WBA light-flyweight title. Upon his first and only loss, Gushiken would retire after losing his WBA title to Pedro Flores by KO in 1981.

9. Brahim Asloum 

Brahim Asloum had a short professional career which lasted just eight years, but before he turned pro, he was an excellent amateur having won an Olympic gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. His Olympic success saw him make history by becoming France's first-ever Olympic gold medalist in the sport of boxing. In his penultimate pro fight in 2008, he won the WBA light-flyweight title.

10. Juan Carlos Reveco 

Juan Carlos Reveco is a former WBA light-flyweight champion having won the title in 2007 before losing it that same year. In 2009, “Cotón” would win the WBA interim light-flyweight title, retaining it four times. Then, in 2011, the Argentinian would move up to flyweight where he would eventually claim the WBA flyweight title in 2013.