Rankings: Canelo holds, Garcia and Haney flop, Rolly rolls in
Canelo didn’t impress, but it was better than what a lot of other big names did last month.
- Titles: WBC - Oleksandr Usyk, WBA - Oleksandr Usyk, IBF - Daniel Dubois, WBO - Oleksandr Usyk
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (7) Fabio Wardley vs Justis Huni, 6/7 ... Dillian Whyte vs TBA, 6/7 ... Mourad Aliev vs Labinot Xhoxhaj, 6/7 ... Deontay Wilder vs Tyrrell Herndon, 6/27 ... (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs (2) Daniel Dubois, 7/19 ... Moses Itauma vs TBA, 7/19
Notes: A little switch between Ajagba and Bakole in the last two spots, because if I absolutely had to pick a tiebreak winner in their draw, it’d be Ajagba, but no movement otherwise. Everything centers on the Usyk-Dubois rematch next month, of course, and I’d expect next moves for some other big names (Kabayel, Parker, etc.) to come up soon enough.
And just if you’re new and/or wondering, yes, BoxRec still ranks Tyson Fury, and I think reasonably so. Most people offering independent rankings are still ranking him, in fact. But I’m choosing to respect the great sanctity of his very real retirement, because he keeps assuring everyone he’s definitely retired.
- Titles: WBC - Badou Jack, WBA - Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, IBF - Jai Opetaia, WBO - Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Mike Perez vs Steven Ward, 6/7 ... (1) Jai Opetaia vs Claudio Squeo, 6/8 ... (2) Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez vs (4) Yuniel Dorticos, 6/28 ... (5) Michal Cieslak vs Jean Pascal, 6/28
Notes: Jack and Mikaelyan are both back in the rankings. I really enjoyed their fight on May 3, just a tough, hard-worked bout between a couple of cagey, capable veterans, and I think what they both showed puts them right back among the division’s best.
General feeling is that Opetaia has the division fairly well on lock, which is nice for him but he’s also having a hard time landing the sort of fights he wants. He deserves credit for not sulking and waiting around over that, though, instead staying very busy with whatever he can get. Zurdo vs Dorticos later this month is an intriguing matchup, I think.
- Titles: WBC - David Benavidez, WBA - Dmitry Bivol, IBF - Dmitry Bivol, WBO - Dmitry Bivol
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Albert Ramirez vs Michael Alan Flannery, 6/5 ... Mehmet Unal vs Jan Czerklewicz, 6/5 ... Conor Wallace vs Dylan Colin, 6/8 ... Umar Dzambekov vs Roamer Alexis Angulo, 6/21 ... (6) David Morrell vs Imam Khataev, 7/12
Notes: Nothing new, no changes, but just want to say real quick that I think the Morrell vs Khataev fight set for next month could be an absolute hoot.
- Titles: WBC - Canelo Alvarez, WBA - Canelo Alvarez, IBF - Canelo Alvarez, WBO - Canelo Alvarez
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Callum Simpson vs Ivan Zuco, 6/7 ... Mark Jeffers vs Sean Hemphill, 6/7 ... Simon Zachenhuber vs Leonardo Di Stefano, 6/14 ... (2) Christian Mbilli vs Maciej Sulecki, 6/27 ... Erik Bazinyan vs Steven Butler, 6/27 ... (9) Sergiy Derevyanchenko vs TBA, 7/1 ... Pavel Silyagin vs Pablo Corzo, 7/5 ... Edgar Berlanga vs Hamzah Sheeraz, 7/12 ... (4) Diego Pacheco vs Trevor McCumby, 7/19 ... (1) Canelo Alvarez vs Terence “Bud” Crawford, 9/13 ... Jacob Bank vs Tyron Zeuge, 9/13
Notes: A lot going on here. Canelo is undisputed once again, but that win over William Scull was really not impressive, and on more levels than just “it was historically, statistically awful to watch.” We all know Canelo is past his prime, and that’s natural, he’s at that age, and his life’s schedule — beyond just the boxing over the years — has to be taking a toll.
But as negative and unappealing and generally unsuccessful as Scull was in that fight, what did Canelo do, either? He can complain that Scull ran, and it’s true, but Scull’s success evading contact is something a younger, better Canelo wouldn’t have allowed to happen to that degree, because he would have actually cut off the ring. He seemed almost content to accept the frustration at a certain point; Scull wasn’t going to just stand there and let Canelo land, and a star of Canelo’s magnitude is generally going to get the benefit of the doubt in nothing rounds of a fight against a William Scull type, so he just sort of let it happen. And that might be a nice way of saying he was incapable of doing anything more about it than he did.
Canelo is vulnerable. Terence Crawford, even under-sized, really might be more of a threat than some think on paper. If Canelo is that plodding and uninspired in September, Crawford has the ability to be more effectively evasive, to land and get out of the way of return fire. Either way, I think on paper it’s a more interesting matchup now than I did a month ago.
Some big happenings elsewhere in the division. Caleb Plant’s shock loss to Armando Resendiz sees Plant tumble out of the top 10. In terms of trying to rank, which with boxing requires various schools of thought be applied (at least in my opinion), it gets really competitive after Canelo, and there are just too many people who didn’t lose to Armando Resendiz yesterday.
Resendiz himself comes in at No. 7, followed by the returned Jermall Charlo, whose win over Cornflake LaManna went about as anyone rational expected. Charlo still has more to prove in terms of really being back, but he at least didn’t look bad in a fight where he shouldn’t have. Lester Martinez also enters the rankings at No. 10, and Bektemir Melikuziev and others have arguments, too.
Jaime Munguia is in a tentative spot right now. For the moment, he remains ranked after his rematch win over Bruno Surace. But Munguia failed his post-fight drug test for exogenous testosterone metabolites, and has 10 days to request analysis of his B-sample from that test. If it comes back positive, the win should be changed to a no-contest, and Munguia would be removed from our rankings.
- Titles: WBC - Carlos Adames, WBA - Erislandy Lara, IBF - Janibek Alimkhanuly, WBO - Janibek Alimkhanuly
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Felix Cash vs Rolando Mansilla, 6/6 ... Derek Pomerlau vs Paul Ryan, 6/20 ... Jahi Tucker vs Lorenzo Simpson, 6/21 ... Vadim Tukov vs Patrick Teixeira, 7/5
- Titles: WBC - Sebastian Fundora, WBA - Terence “Bud” Crawford, IBF - Bakhram Murtazaliev, WBO - Vacant
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Andreas Katzourakis vs Roberto Cruz, 5/9 ... (5) Serhii Bohachuk vs Mykal Fox, 5/17 ... Josh Kelly vs Flavius Biea, 6/6 ... Sam Gilley vs Gideon Onyenani, 6/7 ... Ben Mahoney vs Eddy Colmenares, 6/8 ... Vito Mielnicki Jr vs Kamil Gardzielik, 6/21 ... Callum Walsh vs Elias Espadas, 6/21 ... Pavel Sosulin vs Magomed Kurbanov, 7/5 ... (8) Xander Zayas vs (10) Jorge Perez, 7/26
- Titles: WBC - Mario Barrios, WBA - Jaron “Boots” Ennis, IBF - Jaron “Boots” Ennis, WBO - Brian Norman Jr
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (2) Brian Norman Jr vs Jin Sasaki, 6/19 ... Rashidi Ellis vs Josec Ruiz, 6/21 ... Conah Walker vs Liam Taylor, 6/21 ... Gor Yeritsan vs Vernon Brown, 6/21 ... Avious Griffin vs Julian Rodriguez, 6/28 ... Jack Catterall vs Harlem Eubank, 7/5 ... (4) Mario Barrios vs Manny Pacquiao, 7/19
Notes: Well, that month did not go how much of anyone imagined for the welterweight division.
Here’s what I led the notes with last month, in fact:
We’re obviously going to have a different top 10 next month. Two of Ryan Garcia, Rolly Romero, Devin Haney, and Jose Ramirez will be involved, almost certainly. (Maybe one of the fights is so bad the winner can’t be seen as better than ... Lewis Crocker? No. That’s just not likely.)
So — yeah, one of the fights was so bad that the winner can’t be seen as better than Lewis Crocker. That’s how bad Haney vs Ramirez was. And then Rolly Romero, of all the people, upset Ryan Garcia, who looked dreadful, clueless, and frankly like he didn’t want to be a boxer anymore.
This is why they fight the fights, folks. Or whatever those four guys were doing in Times Square.
Romero comes in at No. 10 because I guess I’d favor him over Lewis Crocker now?
We also didn’t get move-to-welterweight wins for Josh Taylor, who lost to Ekow Essuman. Essuman also has an argument for that Rolly spot, but, well, Rolly Privileges. Taylor looks pretty cooked; it’s not that there’s not still something there, it’s that there’s not 12 rounds of something there anymore, and every month that passes it’s less likely he can get there again.
And now 46-year-old Manny Pacquiao is going to try a comeback against Mario Barrios in July. This was boxing’s money-churning glory division for the bulk of this century to date, and now it’s just a bizarre mess of wasted potential with a clear No. 1 who does have potential for greatness, or at least we can guess he might, but he’s had nobody to fight to really prove that.
- Titles: WBC - Alberto Puello, WBA - Gary Antuanne Russell, IBF - Richardson Hitchins, WBO - Teofimo Lopez
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Artur Biyarslanov vs Antonio Collado, 6/5 ... Pierce O’Leary vs Liam Dillon, 6/7 ... (3) Richardson Hitchins vs George Kambosos Jr, 6/14 ... Tito Mercado vs Jonathan Montrel, 6/14 ... Brandun Lee vs Elias Damian Araujo, 6/21 ... (5) Liam Paro vs Jonathan Navarro, 6/25 ... (2) Alberto Puello vs (6) Subriel Matias, 7/12
Notes: Teofimo Lopez was the only guy who came out of Riyadh Season’s video game promotion/rich guy’s private party by way of “major boxing event” looking better or even as good as he did coming in. Well, maybe Rolly because he won an upset, but that fight was as bad as Haney-Ramirez.
Teofimo looked sharp against Arnold Barboza Jr, securing a clear and strong victory, and claiming the No. 1 ranking in this division for the moment. That moment may not last long, as Teofimo seems to have his sights set on Boots Ennis and a move to 147. Both of them could really use the fight; Teofimo is going to struggle against certain types of opponents, so if he’s going to go out there risking defeat if he were to fight, say, Alberto Puello (for instance), why not get more money, bigger stage, and a bigger crack at glory against Ennis? Ennis just needs an opponent the world has heard of, and Teofimo qualifies.
With Jack Catterall moving up to 147, Dalton Smith comes in at No. 10.
- Titles: WBC - Shakur Stevenson, WBA - Gervonta “Tank” Davis, IBF - Vasiliy Lomachenko, WBO - Keyshawn Davis
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (1) Keyshawn Davis vs Edwin De Los Santos, 6/7 ... (9) Abdullah Mason vs Jeremia Nakathila, 6/7 ... (5) Andy Cruz vs Hironori Mishiro, 6/14 ... Floyd Schofield vs Tevin Farmer, 6/28 ... (2) Shakur Stevenson vs (6) William Zepeda, 7/12 ... (3) Gervonta “Tank” Davis vs Lamont Roach, 8/16
Notes: Vasiliy Lomachenko is out on inactivity. Not only hasn’t he fought in over a year now, but there’s no indication of him planning a return. I expect we’ll see him again, but there’s a chance we won’t. Does he really want to get in there with Keyshawn or Shakur? I think he’d like to do the Tank Davis fight if it comes up.
Pick your poison for that top spot. I think Shakur might beat either of Davis or Tank, but Davis is really good and had a terrific win last time out. On form I slightly edge it to him for now, but that could change after July, if Shakur really smokes William Zepeda.
Zaur Abdullaev is out after his loss to Raymond Muratalla, too, which means we had two open spots. Those go to the rising contender Abdullah Mason and the still-going veteran Maxi Hughes, who doesn’t seem to have truly gotten the notice that his little run is supposed to be over.
- Titles: WBC - O’Shaquie Foster, WBA - Lamont Roach, IBF - Eduardo Nunez, WBO - Emanuel Navarrete
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Zelfa Barrett vs Cristian Bielma, 6/7 ... Liam Wilson vs Ayrton Gimenez, 6/25 ... Ryan Garner vs Reece Bellotti, 7/26
Notes: Weird division at the moment, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At least there’s a conversation to be had.
Emanuel Navarrete won on May 10, but it was a technical decision and he was having plenty of trouble with Charly Suarez, who rockets in at No. 6 on a good showing. Eduardo Nunez looked good winning the IBF belt on the road in Japan, Anthony Cacace keeps plugging away with a win over Leigh Wood, and O’Shaquie Foster didn’t do anything in the month but he also didn’t lose any standing, really.
I definitely considered if Cacace might be on the best form of the four right now, and maybe he is. A fight with Foster may be on the table for late this year in Belfast, which I’d love to see, I think that could be a cracking fight with the style matchup.
So I’m going with Nunez at No. 1 for now, then Navarrete and Foster, then Cacace, but there’s little to nothing separating the foursome as far as I’m concerned, and it’s not like Robson Conceicao — “boring” as he may be — is that far off the group.
- Titles: WBC - Stephen Fulton, WBA - Nick Ball, IBF - Angelo Leo, WBO - Rafael Espinoza
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Reiya Abe vs Yuya Oku, 6/19 ... Brandon Mejia vs Gully Powar, 6/21 ... Cristobal Lorente vs Ruben Gil, 7/5 ... Bruce Carrington vs Mateus Heita, 7/26
Notes: Angelo Leo retained his IBF title with a win over Tomoki Kameda, and he deserved it. Not a bad fight, decent enough W on the road in Japan, but it did give me an urge to reconsider the top four right now. Fulton beat Leo, though it was years ago and a division down, so he’s up at No. 2, and Nick Ball is now No. 3 as he attempts to Andy Capp brawl his way through everyone.
- Titles: WBC - Naoya Inoue, WBA - Naoya Inoue, IBF - Naoya Inoue, WBO - Naoya Inoue
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Kazuki Nakajima vs Kenshin Oshima, 6/15 ... (10) Shabaz Masoud vs Peter McGrail, 6/21 ... (1) Naoya Inoue vs (3) Murodjon Akhmadaliev, 9/14
Notes: Naoya Inoue beat a very game Ramon Cardenas in a fashion that makes his September fight with Murodjon Akhmadaliev a little more interesting. Great as he is, Inoue is definitely more vulnerable at this weight, and you can also truly see why he’s in absolutely no rush to go to 126, and in fact doesn’t seem like he plans to ever do it.
Every fighter, no matter how great, has limits on how high they can go. Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya all found those limits in their careers, and you’re talking modern first-ballot, undisputed Hall of Famers. Same with Inoue’s old rival Nonito Donaire. And Inoue is one of those, too, and he may know he’s found it at 122. No shame in that.
- Titles: WBC - Junto Nakatani, WBA - Seiya Tsutsumi, IBF - Ryosuke Nishida, WBO - Yoshiki Takei
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Michael Angeletti vs Eros Correa, 6/7 ... (1) Junto Nakatani vs (4) Ryosuke Nishida, 6/8 ... (5) Tenshin Nasukawa vs Victor Santillan, 6/8 ... Riku Masuda vs Michell Banquez, 6/8
Notes: Yoshiki Takei took care of business on May 28, blasting Yuttapong Tongdee out in the first round in Yokohama. Nakatani vs Nishida is the obvious big fight of the month, and I’m always interested in seeing Tenshin Nasukawa again, and we may be right on the doorstep of setting up the big money Nakatani vs Tenshin fight.
- Titles: WBC - Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, WBA - Fernando Martinez, IBF - Willibaldo Garcia, WBO - Phumelela Cafu
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (1) Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs (3) Phumelela Cafu, 7/19
Notes: Fernando Martinez beat Kazuto Ioka again, but not in a way I think diminishes Ioka’s standing. We finally have a new IBF champ in Willibaldo Garcia, though he’s not in my top 10. May not be in my top 15 if I went that far.
Bam Rodriguez returns next month, and if he beats Cafu, it’s clearly time to finally get Bam vs Martinez done, though Martinez may have to deal with David Jimenez first. Maybe! WBA does what they want.
- Titles: WBC - Kenshiro Teraji, WBA - Kenshiro Teraji, IBF - Masamichi Yabuki, WBO - Anthony Olascuaga
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Taku Kuwahara vs Yoshiki Minato, 6/15 ... (2) Galal Yafai vs Francisco Rodriguez Jr, 6/21 ... Thananchai Charunphak vs Ryuku Nagamine, 6/27 ... (9) Vince Paras vs Sarawut Thawornkham, 6/29
- Titles: WBC - Panya Pradabsri, WBA - Erick Rosa, IBF - Vacant, WBO - Rene Santiago
- Upcoming Notable Fights: (4) Cristian Araneta vs (10) Thanongsak Simsri, 6/19
Notes: Everyone bumps up with Yabuki deciding to officially stay at 112, plus Thanongsak Simsri takes the vacant spot. Realistically I do think Canizales is the best fighter in this division right now, but Panya got the controversial win over him.
- Titles: WBC - Melvin Jerusalem, WBA - Oscar Collazo, IBF - Pedro Taduran, WBO - Oscar Collazo
- Upcoming Notable Fights: Joseph Sumabong vs Joperson Trazo, 6/6 ... Shane Gentallan vs Jonathan Refugio, 6/6 ... (9) Ryusei Matsumoto vs John Kevin Jimenez, 6/7