Rankings: Tank’s stock drops, Teraji keeps rolling, new champs, more
Gervonta Davis’ stock took a hit in his draw with Lamont Roach, Kenshiro Teraji won another title, and more in this month’s rankings.
- Titles: WBC - Oleksandr Usyk, WBA - Oleksandr Usyk, IBF - Daniel Dubois, WBO - Oleksandr Usyk
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (6) Filip Hrgovic vs Joe Joyce, 4/5 ... Richard Torrez Jr vs Guido Vianello, 4/5 ... (9) Martin Bakole vs (10) Efe Ajagba, 5/3 ... Deontay Wilder vs Tyrrell Herndon, June 27
Notes: Oleksandr Usyk will seemingly face either Daniel Dubois — who also has an order to face Derek Chisora — or Joseph Parker next. Usyk vs Parker has been ordered so that’s the leading candidate at the moment, probably, but Usyk is also talking about doing MMA with Jake Paul.
We’re still considering Tyson Fury retired, yes. He says he’s retired. If he says he’s not retired anymore, he’ll be put back.
- Titles: WBC - Badou Jack, WBA - Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, IBF - Jai Opetaia, WBO - Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Juergen Uldedaj vs Gerardo Mellado, 4/5 ... (3) Chris Billam-Smith vs Brandon Glanton, 4/26 ... Huseyin Cinkara vs TBA, 4/26 ... Cheavon Clarke vs Viddal Riley, 4/26 ... Badou Jack vs Ryan Rozicki, 5/3 ... (1) Jai Opetaia vs Claudio Squeo, 5/13
Notes: Opetaia wanted a fight with Zurdo Ramirez, ain’t gonna get it, at least not yet. He’ll settle for staying busy against Claudio Squeo on May 13. At least he’s staying busy.
- Titles: WBC - Dmitry Bivol, WBA - Dmitry Bivol, IBF - Dmitry Bivol, WBO - Dmitry Bivol
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Daniel Lapin vs Robert Racz, 4/12 ... Umar Dzambekov vs Sonny McEwen, 4/19 ... (5) Anthony Yarde vs Lyndon Arthur, 4/26 ... Conor Wallace vs Dylan Colin, 5/13
Notes: Imam Khataev had a chance to really impress this month, but I didn’t think it was quit enough in his win over Durval Palacio, though it was a really good fight and Khataev, at the very least, is going to be a “really good fight”-haver regularly, I suspect. He’s good and he’s tough and he can crack a little, but the ceiling seems relatively low.
- Titles: WBC - Canelo Alvarez, WBA - Canelo Alvarez, IBF - William Scull, WBO - Canelo Alvarez
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Bek Nurmaganbet vs Encarnacion Diaz, 4/5 ... (1) Canelo Alvarez vs (6) William Scull, 5/3 ... (7) Bruno Sarace vs (9) Jaime Munguia, 5/3 ... Callum Simpson vs Ivan Zuco, 6/7
- Titles: WBC - Carlos Adames, WBA - Erislandy Lara, IBF - Janibek Alimkhanuly, WBO - Janibek Alimkhanuly
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (1) Janibek Alimkhanuly vs Anauel Ngamissengue, 4/5 ... (5) Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn, 4/26 ... (8) Aaron McKenna vs Liam Smith, 4/26
Notes: Austin Williams got a win over Patrice Volny, a solid win, keeps him moving along as he tries to get some real momentum going. Elijah Garcia had a chance to grab the spot Volny left open, but he just doesn’t look like he’s got the goods — competent guys like Kyrone Davis and Terrell Gausha are giving him major problems, one beat him and the other should have gotten his hand raised but didn’t. The placeholder — well, probably — for now is Anauel Ngamissengue, who faces Janibek on April 5.
- Titles: WBC - Sebastian Fundora, WBA - Terence “Bud” Crawford, IBF - Bakhram Murtazaliev, WBO - Sebastian Fundora
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (6) Tim Tszyu vs Joey Spencer, 4/5 ... Bakary Samake vs Roarke Knapp, 4/18 ... (10) Charles Conwell vs Jorge Garcia Perez, 4/19 ... Sadriddin Akhmedov vs Elias Espadas, 4/19 ... (5) Serhii Bohachuk vs TBA, 5/17 ... Callum Walsh vs TBA, 6/21
Notes: Nobody expects Terence Crawford to ever fight in this division again, so why have him at the top spot at this point? The WBO have already rescinded his interim title standing and ordered Fundora vs Zayas, he’s going to fight at 168 in September, just no reason to have him here. I’m not selling anything with his presence on a list.
We’ll see Tim Tszyu try to right the ship on April 5 (U.S. time) against Joey Spencer, and if he can’t right the ship against Joey Spencer, he ain’t righting the ship any time soon. That’s a fight where Tszyu’s stock could drop — in a “rankings” sense, anyway — just by struggling in victory.
Charles Conwell takes the empty spot; I believe in his talent, but it’s really time to get him into legit fights.
Titles: WBC - Mario Barrios, WBA - Eimantas Stanionis, IBF - Jaron “Boots” Ennis, WBO - Brian Norman Jr
Upcoming Notable Fights: Nicklaus Flaz vs Gabriel Maestre, 4/5 ... Ricardo Salas vs Kent Cruz, 4/5 ... (1) Jaron “Boots” Ennis vs (2) Eimantas Stanionis, 4/12 ... (5) Shakhram Giyasov vs Franco Ocampo, 4/12 ... Ryan Garcia vs Rolando Romero, 5/2 ... Devin Haney vs Jose Ramirez, 5/2 ... Josh Taylor vs Ekow Essuman, 5/24
Notes: Brian Norman Jr retained his WBO title to close out the month of March, pretty easily handling Derrieck Cuevas, and of course we had the big controversy with the Crocker vs Donovan fight in Belfast, for which a rematch has been ordered. Crocker won the fight officially with the DQ and all, but it was such a mess and Donovan so clearly the superior fighter in what we got to see — I don’t know, they’ll settle it in the ring. Crocker could refuse the fight, of course, but he’d be giving up a No. 1 ranking with the IBF and it’s absolutely the biggest fight he’s going to get right now, too.
We’ll see Boots vs Stanionis in April, after which Ennis could be moving up to 154, because what else is he going to do at this weight if he wins? That’s not even truly a big fight — no disrespect to them, because it’s a good fight, but Ennis will be looking for big, and there’s just no big fight at 147. I’m also not saying to write it off as an inevitable win, because Stanionis can fight and Ennis still has plenty to prove, not really through any fault of his own.
- Titles: WBC - Alberto Puello, WBA - Gary Antuanne Russell, IBF - Richardson Hitchins, WBO - Teofimo Lopez
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Jack Rafferty vs Cory O’Regan, 4/5 ... Batyr Jukembayev vs Kane Gardner, 4/5 ... Mykquan Williams vs Antonio Moran, 4/5 ... Dalton Smith vs Mathieu Germain, 4/19 ... (1) Arnold Barboza Jr vs (2) Teofimo Lopez, 5/2
Notes: Got some movement here, in what has become a fun, bunched-up division with no obvious No. 1 man at the moment, a lot of talent — and it goes beyond these 10 guys — who are right about the same level, it seems, mix-and-match and styles make fights and the like.
Sandor Martin got active again and lost a close decision to Alberto Puello, but he shoots into the top five because he absolutely had an argument for a win. Martin is never going to be a guy who leaps off your screen or inspires breathless descriptions of his quality or dramatic video packages, he’s just a really good fighter and arguably should have wins over two of our top three. And his record doesn’t even leap out at you in terms of how it looks flat on paper. If you’ve seen him ply his trade, you know how good he is.
Also in is Gary Antuanne Russell, who took the WBA title from Jose Valenzuela. Valenzuela was a pretty soft champ, in all reality, having beaten a lightweight who had beaten Rolly Romero, but Russell has talent. We’ll see him again in a year or so, I imagine.
George Kambosos Jr also arrived in the division, though his win over Jake Wyllie wasn’t the most incredible thing. Not Kambosos’ fault, and Wyllie gave a great accounting of his spirit and determination, but they literally picked a guy out of the crowd as a replacement opponent. Still, Kambosos has more name value than almost anyone who is in the top 10, and it seems likely he’ll get a crack at Richardson Hitchins.
- Titles: WBC - Shakur Stevenson, WBA - Gervonta “Tank” Davis, IBF - Vasiliy Lomachenko, WBO - Keyshawn Davis
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Mark Chamberlain vs Miguel Scaringi, 4/5 ... Diego Torres vs Rogelio Jimenez, 4/5 ... Josh Padley vs TBA, 4/19 ... Shuichiro Yoshino vs Siro Choi, 4/19 ... Shuma Nakazato vs Yudai Murakami, 5/3 ... (9) Zaur Abdullaev vs (10) Raymond Muratalla, 5/10 ... Sam Noakes vs TBA, 5/10 ... Maxi Hughes vs Archie Sharp, 5/23 ... Shu Utsuki vs TBA, 5/27
Notes: I don’t really do a lot of TAKES! and whatnot, but here we are. Vasiliy Lomachenko is past his best days, but after Shakur Stevenson’s deeply uninspiring last three fights and Gervonta Davis’ controversial draw with Lamont Roach, Loma’s domination of George Kambosos Jr last year is looking pretty damn good at the moment, as is Keyshawn Davis’ thrashing of Denys Berinchyk.
Kambosos and Berinchyk aren’t exactly P4P contenders, mind you, and it’s not so much meant to overstate the quality of those wins. But they were quality wins. I have a lot of respect for the skills of both Stevenson and Davis, and push comes to shove, I pick Shakur to beat today’s Loma straight-up, and I think Tank on a better day than the one on March 1 can beat anyone. But the reality of what we have seen from Davis is what it is; Lamont Roach is a good fighter, and he’s probably better now than he’s ever been, but nobody went into that thinking it was a serious threat for Tank. And then Davis kinda labored as he often does, but he never “turned it on,” which he usually does. It was a flat performance from him, never felt like he really got going.
If Davis would like to prove my thinking wrong, I doubt anyone is going to have a problem with him taking better fights to do so. Same with Shakur, for that matter — well, some might have a problem with seeing him fight at all, given how dull that can be. A Tank vs Roach rematch seems certain, and I do respect Tank seeming to want that, and to set the record straight. What he does after that, should he win a rematch, is where we’ll really figure out how he projects going forward. He’s 30 and has already talked retirement, which isn’t that unusual, but it came from the stance of him being bored with his situation in a career where he’s routinely avoided or been steered clear of the actual most interesting fights. The idea that he’s done it all and has run out of interesting matchups is absurd.
Roach enters at No. 5; a bit tentative, and the WBA belt he still holds at 130 will be his backup plan if a Tank rematch doesn’t come through. Without that fight, Roach’s greatest value is in having that belt, but he looked really strong at 135 and might just be ready to stay here anyway, physically.
William Zepeda drops a couple spots, but still in the race, and I love watching the guy fight. He should be getting Shakur next, finally, but 24 rounds with Tevin Farmer — a good, crafty technician with a lot of grit — suggest that Stevenson truly is a nightmare for Zepeda on paper, but you never know until you know. Zepeda does bring an aggression that Stevenson may not like at all, but I do truly believe that Shakur is someone who will look better the more he feels challenged going into a fight. Saying that, I’ll also say that sort of thing can wear off if you never feel challenged, because it’s easy to get into a sort of complacency about your abilities.
- Titles: WBC - O’Shaquie Foster, WBA - Lamont Roach, IBF - Vacant, WBO - Emanuel Navarrete
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Sultan Zaurbek vs Azinga Fuzile, 4/5 ... Kenichi Ogawa vs Melchor Roda, 4/5 ... Geo Lopez vs Rene Alvarado, 4/5 ... (9) Raymond Ford vs Thomas Mattice, 4/12 ... Jordan White vs Jose Matias, 4/12 ... Angelo Pena vs Karim Guerfi, 4/18 ... (1) Emanuel Navarrete vs Charly Suarez, 5/10 ... (5) Anthony Cacace vs Leigh Wood, 5/10 ... (3) Eduardo Nunez vs Masanori Rikiishi, 5/28
Notes: With Roach out — at least for now — Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez comes in at No. 10.
- Titles: WBC - Stephen Fulton, WBA - Nick Ball, IBF - Angelo Leo, WBO - Rafael Espinoza
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (1) Rafael Espinoza vs Edward Vazquez, 5/4 ... Kurt Walker vs Liam Davies, 5/10 ... Omar Cande Trinidad vs TBA, 5/17 ... (2) Angelo Leo vs Tomoki Kameda, 5/24 ... Lee McGregor vs Nathaniel Collins, 5/24
Notes: We’ll see two of the titles defended in May with Espinoza and Leo in action. This month, we saw Nick Ball smash his way through TJ Doheny to retain the WBA belt.
Bruce Carrington fought this month and pretty much smashed his way past Enrique Vivas. Carrington is 27 years old and it’s probably time to get him out of ESPN+ prelim levels and find out what you do or don’t actually have; his age has always been something that has given me some pause, and the fight with Sulaiman Segawa last September gave me a smidge more, plus the way they’ve scaled him back in the two fights since then, though one was less than two months after Segawa, to be fair, and just a thing where Carrington wanted to fight on “a Mike Tyson card.”
I don’t know; I like Carrington and think he has talent and all that, but when you combine various factors, I think there are some yellow flags around all the work ESPN and Top Rank have done to hype him, but Top Rank’s handling of men’s boxing in the last year and a half or so has felt really dated, too. They just don’t really have the roster.
Rey Vargas is out because he hasn’t fought in a year, hasn’t won in nearly three years, and has nothing planned at the moment. Joet Gonzalez isn’t the most interesting choice for the No. 10 slot currently, but I think with his solid win over Arnold Khegai in March, he’s got the best argument by a bit, but there are many out there, from younger fighters to fellow veterans, who could be argued in.
- Titles: WBC - Naoya Inoue, WBA - Naoya Inoue, IBF - Naoya Inoue, WBO - Naoya Inoue
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Arturo Popoca vs Christian Carto, 4/12 ... Katsuya Fukui vs Toshiya Ishii, 4/22 ... Toshiki Shimomachi vs Aran Dipaen, 4/29 ... Guillermo Rigondeaux vs TBA, 4/29 ... (1) Naoya Inoue vs (7) Ramon Cardenas, 5/4
- Titles: WBC - Junto Nakatani, WBA - Seiya Tsutsumi, IBF - Ryosuke Nishida, WBO - Yoshiki Takei
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Kaito Yamasaki, 4/13 ... (2) Yoshiki Takei vs Yuttapong Tongdee, 5/28 ... David Mwale vs Michael Decardi Nelson, 5/29
- Titles: WBC - Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, WBA - Fernando Martinez, IBF - Vacant, WBO - Phumelela Cafu
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (2) Fernando Martinez vs (4) Kazuto Ioka, 5/11
Notes: Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing Bam Rodriguez vs Fernando Martinez, as had been hoped and rumored to be close to a done deal. Instead, Martinez goes back to Japan in May to rematch Kazuto Ioka; it’s not a bad fight, but the clear fight to make in this division is Bam vs Martinez, and it has to wait at the very least.
David Jimenez and Ricardo Malajika both scored wins in March, with Jimenez out-pointing Keyvin Lara in his hometown of Cartago, Costa Rica, and Malajika stopping Jackson Chauke inside of two rounds in South Africa, which did see him retain the vaunted IBO title.
- Titles: WBC - Kenshiro Teraji, WBA - Kenshiro Teraji, IBF - Masamichi Yabuki, WBO - Anthony Olascuaga
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Dave Apolinario vs Longyi Hu, 4/22 ... Taku Kuwahara vs Yoshiki Minato, 6/15
Notes: Really busy month in the division with a pair of titles changing hands and all of them up for grabs.
Kenshiro Teraji unified the WBC and WBA belts with a stoppage win over Seigo Yuri Akui, a really good fight that Teraji earned. I don’t even think Akui’s stock dropped so much, but this is a very competitive division right now so he drops a few spots, in part because Masamichi Yabuki absolutely kicked the crap out of Angel Ayala to win the IBF belt, and because Anthony Olascuaga got a really nice win over Hiroto Kyoguchi to retain the WBO title. Kyoguchi did better than the score cards said, but I think that was the sort of win that will make Olascuaga a better fighter.
- Titles: WBC - Panya Pradabsri, WBA - Erick Rosa, IBF - Masamichi Yabuki, WBO - Rene Santiago
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (10) Toshiki Kawamitsu vs Kyosuke Takami, 4/8
Notes: Yabuki still holds the IBF belt at 108, too, and we’ll see what decision he makes. Most likely he’ll stay at flyweight — bigger fights, more notable names domestically. I mean, even if he doesn’t fight Teraji any time soon, a unification with Olascuaga, already well-known and respected in Japan, would be big.
Rene Santiago scored a pretty big upset over Shokichi Iwata to take the WBO title.
- Titles: WBC - Melvin Jerusalem, WBA - Oscar Collazo, IBF - Pedro Taduran, WBO - Oscar Collazo
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Brandon Moreno vs Jeanfran Medina, 4/25 ... (3) Pedro Taduran vs (5) Ginjiro Shigeoka, 5/24
Notes: Oscar Collazo is the clear ruler of this division these days, another title defense made to close out the month. Would love to see him take on some of the other top names, but he’s also a guy Golden Boy love having on their shows and the others don’t really travel to the States or Puerto Rico so much because those just aren’t hot spots for this division, and Collazo will rightly feel like he shouldn’t have to be a road warrior, too, so that might just be a stuck situation.