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OQS™ Explained

The Opponent Quality Score is Boxing Index's proprietary metric for measuring the calibre of a fighter's professional resume. It rewards fighters who take difficult fights — and penalises those who pad records against weak opposition.

The Core Idea

Most boxing records are misleading. A 25-0 fighter who has never faced a ranked opponent is not the same as a 20-3 fighter who has challenged for world titles. OQS cuts through the noise by scoring each fight based on who was in the opposite corner — their ranking, title status, and win percentage — then applies multipliers for result, stoppage, and recency. The aggregate is your OQS.

Scoring Factors

1
Opponent OQS value
Each bout is worth a base score derived from the opponent's world ranking, title status, and their own record. A win over a world champion is worth far more than a win over an unranked opponent.
2
Result multiplier
A win is worth 100% of the bout value. A loss is worth 0. A draw is worth 40%. No Contest bouts are excluded.
3
Method bonus
Stoppages (KO/TKO) earn a 15% bonus on the bout value. Decisive stoppages against elite opposition signal true dominance.
4
Recency weighting
Fights in the past 6 months count at full weight. Fights 6–12 months ago are weighted at 80%. Fights 12–24 months ago at 60%. Anything older does not count toward the current OQS score (though it does count toward the all-time score).
5
Activity floor
Fighters with fewer than 5 professional bouts in their career window receive an incomplete flag — their OQS score is indicative only.

Tier Thresholds

Elite
75–100
World-level opposition — world champions, P4P elite, mandatory challengers.
World Class
50–74
Top-10 world ranked opponents or former world champions still active at a high level.
International
25–49
Ranked contenders — regional champions, national champions, fighters with a credible world ranking.
Domestic
0–24
Area, national, and journeyman-level opposition. Necessary for development but low OQS contribution.

Known Limitations

  • OQS does not account for weight class difficulty. A heavyweight and a flyweight with identical scores are not directly comparable.
  • Fighters with sparse Wikipedia data may have incomplete bout records, resulting in an artificially low score.
  • Rankings data is sourced from WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO, and Ring Magazine. Fighters outside these systems (e.g. purely regional fighters) may be ranked lower than their true ability warrants.
  • The two-year recency window means recently active fighters will score differently to those who have been inactive.

OQS is calculated from fight records sourced via Wikipedia/Wikidata and enriched with rankings from the major sanctioning bodies. Scores are updated periodically as new bout data becomes available. OQS™ is a Boxing Index proprietary metric and may not be reproduced without permission.