As kickboxing continues to grow on a global scale with promotions like GLORY, K-1, ONE Championship, and more, fighters are constantly jockeying for position in the eyes (and rankings) of the media. Every month, Combat Press will compile kickboxing rankings for each weight class from heavyweight to strawweight, as well as the pound-for-pound rankings for both men and women.
Note: the numbers in parentheses represent the fighter’s ranking from the previous month.
- Rico Verhoeven (1)
- Levi Rigters (2)
- Bahram Rajabzadeh (3)
- Kevin Tariq Osaro (4)
- Ariel Machado (5)
- Jamal Ben Saddik (6)
- Nico Pereira Horta (7)
- Rade Opačić (8)
- Sofian Laidouni (9)
- Iraj Azizpour (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Tarik Khbabez (1)
- Donegi Abena (2)
- Bahram Rajabzadeh (3)
- Sergej Maslobojev (4)
- Cem Cáceres (5)
- Thian de Vries (7)
- Michael Boapeah (8)
- Ștefan Lătescu (6)
- Ibrahim El Bouni (9)
- Mory Kromah (10)
To kick off the month, eighth-ranked Michael Boapeah stopped No. 6 Ștefan Lătescu with leg kicks at GLORY Underground on May 1. To start and finish the month, No. 7 Thian de Vries continued his reign of terror. On May 3, he knocked out Yasin Güren with a head kick to defend his Enfusion cruiserweight title at 8TKO #15. Then, he knocked out Mahmoud Sattari in the first round of their headliner at K-1 Beyond on May 31 to score the vacant K-1 cruiserweight (-90kg) title. Lătescu drops to No. 8, pushing Boapeah and de Vries up one spot each.
- Donovan Wisse (1)
- Sergey Ponomarev (3)
- Michael Boapeah (4)
- Ulric Bokeme (5)
- Serkan Özçağlayan (6)
- Sergej Braun (7)
- Mohamed Touchassie (8)
- Eduard Aleksanyan (9)
- Bilal Bakhouche-Chareuf (10)
- Max Weekers (-)
Dropped from the rankings: Islam Murtazaev (2)
Before getting the May results, second-ranked Islam Murtazaev has been removed from the rankings due to inactivity.
On May 17, No. 5 Ulric Bokeme took an extended-round unanimous decision over Jailton Lutterbach at Senshi 26. A week later, No. 10 Bilal Bakhouche-Chareuf defeated Eric Britto at Siam Fight 9 by unanimous decision. Everyone, except for top-ranked Donovan Wisse moves up one spot, which has the Dutchman Max Weekers entering the rankings at No. 10.
Weekers is a longtime Enfusion standout, who earned the vacant Enfusion middleweight title back in Nov. 2024 to cap off a nine-fight winning streak. In Mar. 2025, he lost the title to Thian de Vries. De Vries is a light heavyweight who came down another 10-plus pounds to become a two-division Enfusion champ. Going the distance with the buzzsaw de Vries is more than enough of a reason to put Weekers in the top 10.
- Regian Eersel (1)
- Alexis Nicolas (2)
- Chico Kwasi (3)
- Tyjani Beztati (4)
- Endy Semeleer (5)
- Dmitry Menshikov (6)
- Teodor Hristov (7)
- Jay Overmeer (8)
- Jamie Bates (9)
- “Hamicha” Mohamed Mezouari (10)
The only two welterweights in action this month were No. 3 Chico Kwasi and No. 4 Tyjani Beztati, as they had a rematch for the GLORY welterweight title at GLORY Underground on May 1. For the second time, the two went to a draw, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Superbon Singha Mawynn (1)
- Marat Grigorian (2)
- Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong (3)
- Ouyang Feng (5)
- Mohammad Siasarani (-)
- Kacper Muszyński (9)
- Don Sno (-)
- Younes Smaili (6)
- Kaito Ono (8)
- Luo Chao (10)
Dropped from the rankings: Tyjani Beztati (4), Tayfun Özcan (7)
Before getting to May results, fourth-ranked lightweight Tyjani Beztati has now fought three times in a row at welterweight, so he has been removed from the lightweight rankings. No. 7 Tayfun Özcan has also been removed, but not due to inactivity. Özcan is 4-4 in the last three and a half years, which includes 1-3 in ONE Championship and 1-1 in GLORY.
May was a weird month for the middle of the lightweight rankings. On May 1, No. 6 Younes Smaili, who recently entered the rankings after beating Kaito Ono, lost a split decision at GLORY Underground to Don Sno. Three weeks later, Ono lost a unanimous decision to Mohammad Siasarani at ONE Friday Fights 109, which was back-to-back wins in ONE’s kickboxing division, after losing in ONE only in Muay Thai. To complete the month, Ouyang Feng defended his K-1 super welterweight title at K-1 Beyond, when he won a unanimous decision over Darryl Verdonk, who was fighting up a weight class.
When the dust settled, Feng moved up to fourth, Siasarani entered the rankings at No. 5, Kacper Muszyński jumped to No. 6, Sno enters in the seventh spot, Smaili drops to No. 8 and Ono falls to the ninth position.
- Jia Aoqi (1)
- Bobo Sacko (2)
- David Mejia (3)
- Riki Matsuoka (4)
- Han Wenbao (5)
- Zhou Jiaqiang (6)
- Meison Hide Usami (7)
- Takumi Sanekata (8)
- Hiromi Wajima (9)
- Darryl Verdonk (10)
Only two super featherweights were in action in May. On May 3, third-ranked David Mejia won a TKO by corner stoppage over Andrei Ilich at Fight 2 One #9. The following evening, No. 7 Meison Hide Usami went to a unanimous draw against Jo Sang-Hae at RIZIN World Series in Korea. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Petchpanomrung Kiatmoo9 (1)
- Miguel Trindade (2)
- Chadd Collins (3)
- Jonathan Haggerty (4)
- Ilias Ennahachi (5)
- Wei Rui (6)
- Hiroki Akimoto (7)
- Tetsuya Yamato (8)
- Kento Haraguchi (9)
- Kiamran Nabati (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Yuki Yoza (1)
- Giorgi Malania (2)
- Hirotaka Asahisa (3)
- Zhu Shuai (4)
- Chadd Collins (5)
- Zhao Chongyang (6)
- Jin Ying (7)
- Kan Nakamura (8)
- Wei Weiyang (9)
- Yuma Saikyo (10)
At YFU 84 on May 16, seventh-ranked Jin Ying won a Muay Thai fight over Pinpetch Banchamek by unanimous decision. A week later, at ONE Friday Fights 109, top-ranked Yuki Yoza scored a unanimous decision victory over Elbrus Osmanov. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Superlek Kiatmoo9 (1)
- Rodtang Jitmuangnon (2)
- Takeru Segawa (3)
- Hirotaka Asahisa (4)
- Achraf Aasila (5)
- Rémi Parra (6)
- Leona Pettas (7)
- Taiga Kawabe (8)
- Yuki Kasahara (9)
- Tomoya Yokoyama (10)
One of the spotlights of May was the K-1 Super Featherweight (-60kg) Championship Tournament at K-1 Beyond on May 31. No. 6 Rémi Parra punched his ticket to the finals after defeating Yuta Matsuyama with a first-round knockout and Chihiro Nakajima with a second-round TKO due to two knockdowns. Meanwhile, tenth-ranked Tomoya Yokoyama made it to the finals with a fourth-round knockout of Egor Bikrev, followed by his own TKO with two knockdowns of Matthew Daalman. Parra and Yokoyama met in the finals, with Parra winning the vacant K-1 title with three knockdowns in Round 2. Seventh-ranked Leona Pettas fought in a tournament reserve bout as well, when he scored first-round knockout of Sota Amano, who had missed weight. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Takumi Terada (1)
- Taito Gunji (2)
- Kaito Sakaguchi (3)
- Akif Guluzada (4)
- Haruto Yasumoto (5)
- Shoki Kaneda (6)
- Shuhei Kumura (7)
- Wang Junguang (8)
- Tatsuya Tsubakihara (9)
- Ryusei Kumagai (10)
On May 2, at ONE Fight Night 31, fourth-ranked Akif Guluzada won a unanimous decision over Sean Climaco in a Muay Thai fight that had no effect on the kickboxing rankings. At RISE 188 on May 31, fifth-ranked Haruto Yasumoto defended his RISE featherweight title with a head-kick knockout of Yuta Kunieda in the first round. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Shiro Matsumoto (1)
- Koki Osaki (2)
- Koji Ikeda (-)
- Akihiro Kaneko (3)
- Rui Okubo (4)
- Masashi Kumura (5)
- Ryunosuke Omori (6)
- Masahiko Suzuki (7)
- Prajanchai PK.Saenchai (9)
- Jonathan Di Bella (10)
Dropped from the rankings: Kompetch Fairtex (8)
Before getting to the May results, No. 8 Kompetch Fairtex has been removed from the rankings, as he has spent several of his last fights in Muay Thai under the ONE Championship banner.
On May 11, at RISE Fire Ball, No. 2 Koki Osaki won a second-round TKO by referee stoppage. On May 31, third-ranked Akihiro Kaneko lost a majority decision to Koji Ikeda, who was fighting up a division from his normal weight. Ikeda enters the flyweight rankings at No. 3, and everyone else moves down one notch, filling in the spot vacated by Kompetch.
- Toki Tamaru (1)
- Kazuki Osaki (2)
- Ryujin Nasukawa (3)
- Kumandoi Petchyindee (4)
- Ryu Hanaoka (5)
- Jin Mandokoro (6)
- Toma Kuroda (7)
- Issei Ishii (8)
- Rui Okubo (9)
- Riamu Sera (10)
On May 11, three strawweights were in action, and all three were victorious. At RISE Fire Ball, No. 2 Kazuki Osaki won the inaugural Rise super flyweight title with a TKO of Corey Nicholson. At that same event, No. 6 Jin Mandokoro won a split decision over Riku Kazushima. At Space ONE x BOM in Japan, No. 7 Toma Kuroda won a first-round knockout with a knee to the body of Siwarat Wor.Ritnada. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Superbon Singha Mawynn (1)
- Petchpanomrung Kiatmoo9 (2)
- Marat Grigorian (3)
- Rico Verhoeven (4)
- Superlek Kiatmoo9 (5)
- Shiro Matsumoto (6)
- Toki Tamaru (7)
- Kazuki Osaki (8)
- Donovan Wisse (9)
- Takumi Terada (10)
Kazuki Osaki was the only ranked pound-for-pound fighter in action, and he was victorious, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Phetjeeja Or.Meekun (1)
- Koyuki Miyazaki (2)
- Li Mingrui (3)
- Martine Michieletto (4)
- Tessa de Kom (5)
- Arina Kobayashi (6)
- Saho Yoshino (7)
- Jackie Buntan (8)
- Kira Matsutani (9)
- Antonia Prifti (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
Editor’s Note: Fighters are eligible to be ranked if they have competed in the last 18 months. Any fighter that chooses to switch weight classes will be ranked in their previous weight class until they have competed twice in their new division.