After a big 2025 full of major fights and significant events, the turn of the year gives us the chance to look ahead to what might be in store over the next 12 months. There are already a number of big fights in the books for the beginning of new year but what are the fights that boxing needs for the rest of 2026?

We run down our 10-fight wishlist (in weight order).

This might just be the final year of Oleksandr Usyk’s glittering career and it seems as if The Ring champion’s first outing of 2025 will be against Deontay Wilder. Thereafter, who knows but our No.1 -rated heavyweight Fabio Wardley, the WBO champion, deserves a crack at the rest of the belts following his impressive victory over Joseph Parker. Knowing Usyk, he will want to retire as undisputed champion so he may have to fight Wardley in order to do that.

No list of dream fights is complete without this one, although there are still a number of stumbling blocks which might just prevent it once and for all. Firstly, Tyson Fury is still retired. He has spoken of a comeback and there’s no doubt he’s whipped himself into fighting shape, but he hasn’t boxed for a year and would want a comeback before any thoughts of AJ. And who knows what the future holds for Joshua after the horrifying car crash he was involved in, which took the lives of two of his closest friends. The idea of him turning his attention to boxing any time soon seems unlikely.

Quite clearly the fight to make at 200 pounds. IBF belt holder Jai Opetaia, The Ring champion, feasted on three overmatched opponents during 2025 and has repeatedly called for a unification with Ring No.1 'Zurdo' (48-1, 30 KOs), who holds the WBA and WBO titles. This is the sort of showdown boxing needs; a multi-belt unification clash between the division’s two leading lights. There has been talk of Ramirez facing light-heavyweight David Benavidez this year, but we need to see him against Opetaia at some point in 2026.

It is now 10 months since Dmitry Bivol became undisputed light-heavyweight champion by outpointing fellow generational great Artur Beterbiev in Riyadh. Although the pair remain locked at 1-1, a trilogy fight is still no closer to being agreed. Instead, why can’t we see Ring, IBF, WBA and WBO champion Bivol in an undisputed clash against the man who holds the WBC belt David Benavidez? He claimed his first inside-distance victory as a light-heavyweight when he stopped Anthony Yarde at ANB Arena, Riyadh on November 22 and deserves the chance to face Bivol.

There are a number of excellent fights available at super-middleweight in the wake of Terence Crawford’s retirement, which has left the division wide open. Two men hopeful of emerging as the new face at 168 pounds are Hamzah Sheeraz and Diego Pacheco, who have been ordered to fight for the vacant WBO title. More than that, this is just a brilliant style match up between two hard-hitting boxer-punchers. Let’s see it.

There is a fair argument that this is the best available fight in boxing right now - and amazingly, it would not even involve a world championship belt. Ennis, the former welterweight king, moved up to 154 pounds in October, sweeping aside Uisma Lima inside two minutes but now he wants a real test. Vergil Ortiz, The Ring’s No. 1 at the weight, had a great 2025, beating Israil Madrimov on points before crushing Erickson Lubin in two rounds on November 8. Can the feuding Eddie Hearn and Oscar De La Hoya put their heads together to get this done in 2026? Let’s hope so.

On the subject of Matchroom against Golden Boy, this non-title fight at welterweight would be pure box office from the press tour to fight night. Conor Benn’s stock has never been higher following his big win over Chris Eubank Jr. at Tottenham in November while Ryan Garcia is on the comeback trail after his shock defeat to Rolando Romero in May. It looks like a match-up which could not fail to deliver an entertaining fight for however long it lasted - and the winner would no doubt book a world title shot.

Will 2026 be the year we finally get an undisputed welterweight champion? The Ring's champ Lauren Price holds the WBA, IBF and WBC belts while Mayer is the WBO champion at 147 pounds, despite moving up to junior middleweight to win the WBC and WBO titles there. There have been lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful talks regarding the Price-Mayer clash already but there is hope on both sides that it can be made this year.

So good is Caroline Dubois that it is hard to see where she could possibly lose a fight at lightweight, where she holds the WBC title. But how would she cope with the freakish power carried by noted Turkish puncher Elif Nur Turhan? The 30-year-old put the division on notice when she dropped and stopped Beatriz Ferreira to win the IBF title in Monte Carlo last month but can Dubois nullify her in a unification clash? There’s only one way to find out.

Although the shine was taken off this one somewhat when Nakatani squeaked past Sebastian Hernandez on The Ring V show in Riyadh in December, this remains the fight that Japanese boxing craves. This is a golden age for our sport in the country and Inoue defending his undisputed junior-featherweight crown against his undefeated compatriot, himself a three-weight world champion, would go down in history.