Rankings (Sept. 28, 2020): Charlos, Briedis make statements, lots more

The Charlo twins and Mairis Briedis made the biggest statements of a crazy busy week in boxing.

Rankings go up on Mondays at Noon ET.

Ranked fights this week:

• Junior Welterweight: (4) Ivan Baranchyk vs (6) Jose Zepeda, Oct. 3
• Featherweight: (9) Ryan Walsh vs Jazza Dickens, Sept. 30

After a hugely busy weekend with nine ranked fights, we’re back to something more normal.

Upcoming Fights: (10) Oleksandr Usyk vs Derek Chisora, Oct. 31 ... (4) Andy Ruiz Jr vs Chris Arreola, Nov. 7 ... (6) Luis Ortiz vs Scott Alexander, Nov. 7 ... (5) Alexander Povetkin vs (8) Dillian Whyte, Nov. 21 ... (2) Anthony Joshua vs (7) Kubrat Pulev, Dec. 12 ... (1) Tyson Fury vs (3) Deontay Wilder, Dec. 19

Notes: Finally, it’s over and done with. After various postponements, delays, and whatever else, the World Boxing Super Series second season cruiserweight tournament ended, with Mairis Briedis scoring a clear win (no matter what one judge said) over Yuniel Dorticos, winning the IBF belt and cementing his place at No. 1. Dorticos drops a couple of spots to No. 4, but I still think he’d be a solid favorite over anyone below him here, save maybe for Okolie, if Okolie is going to wind up being the real deal.

There is some chatter that Dorticos may hang up the gloves, but we’ll get there if we get there. Considering Briedis’ lone loss is to Oleksandr Usyk, and he gave Usyk the toughest fight of his career to date, yeah, Briedis is a clear-cut No. 1 at the moment, even with some iffy performances between Usyk and Dorticos. Those performances do matter to remind us, however, that he’s certainly not unbeatable.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Krzysztof Glowacki vs (8) Lawrence Okolie, Dec. 12

Upcoming Fights: (7) Badou Jack vs Blake McKernan [cruiserweight], Nov. 28 ... (1) Artur Beterbiev vs Adam Deines, TBA

Upcoming Fights: None

Notes: Everyone wanted to see if Jermall Charlo is a true top-tier middleweight. He is. Charlo scored a more than solid win over Sergiy Derevyanchenko, where really only a vast minority of people are going to argue that Derevyanchenko deserved the W this time, unlike the Jacobs and Golovkin fights where plenty of people felt he’d deserved to win but didn’t. This is not suddenly that Jermall Charlo is the unbeatable, infallible king of 160, but it’s very clear now that he is a top guy at 160, for real.

He also leapfrogs Demetrius Andrade, which is the move I was prepared to make if there was a clear winner either way for Charlo-Derevyanchenko, and it’s Charlo. Andrade just doesn’t have a win that compares to Charlo’s latest. Blame whatever you want for that, but it’s how it is, and you especially can’t be someone who had railed on Charlo’s record at 160 and still defend Andrade being over him, I don’t think, given that Andrade’s run at 160 has been Alantez Fox, Walter Kautondokwa, Artur Akavov, Maciej Sulecki, and Luke Keeler. I would love to see Andrade get a fight with a top contender or another titleholder, but he hasn’t. And his best bet to do so might actually be trying to become the fourth guy to beat Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a world title fight, but man that’d be kind of a stale story this time around, huh?

I’m also not dropping Derevyanchenko further than this because nobody below him deserves to be over him right now. But Derevyanchenko is not likely to be getting better, and some of those under him right now might.

Upcoming Fights: (10) Jaime Munguia vs Tureano Johnson, Oct. 24 ... (9) Matt Korobov vs Ronald Ellis, Nov. 28 ... (2) Gennadiy Golovkin vs Kamil Szeremeta, TBA

Notes: Jermell Charlo is No. 1 in this division after his knockout win over Jeison Rosario. That’s a “point blank period” thing now. After that this division is a goddamned catastrophe to try and rank at this point. If you’re new or forgot anything, let’s break down why it’s a goddamn catastrophe to try and rank at this point:

• Rosario, last week’s No. 2, has a clear win over Williams, last week’s No. 3.
• Williams has a clear win over Hurd, last week’s No. 4.
• Hurd has a win over Lara, last week’s No. 5.
• Lara has a draw with Castano, last week’s No. 6.
• Harrison actually has a debatable win over Charlo, but also was stopped by Charlo, and also has been stopped by Hurd.
• Soro, Brook, and Teixeira are not really in this conversation, they stay where they are. For the purposes of this conversation they’ve all beaten nobody, basically, and Soro lost to Castano, and Brook’s going back to 147 soon enough, it seems.

But from Nos. 2 through 6 of last week, following Charlo cracking Rosario out, THERE IS BASICALLY NOTHING SEPARATING ANY OF THESE GUYS RIGHT NOW. In this regard, I have done my best, and I will try to explain, at least in brief, my rationale for the new order, though I do not plan on having any drawn out debates about this because you can put these dudes in any order and I think you can make a case fine enough. I strongly considered, for the record, just leaving it the way it was, but I like to have a good time and occasionally overthink stuff.

• I went with Lara at No. 2 because despite the loss to Hurd in 2018, he probably has the overall best resume, and he barely lost to Hurd, dropping a split decision by one point on two separate cards due to a 12th round knockdown. Lara’s aging and his last two wins (Canelo’s crummy brother and Greg Vendetti) aren’t anything to go wild about, but he fought a good fighter in Castano to a draw after the L to Hurd, and Lara simply has the least recent loss of these guys, other than Castano, who doesn’t have a loss.
• I went with Castano at No. 3 because he does have a good, pretty recent win over Soro, and he fought Lara to a draw. You could argue Castano to No. 2, I think.
• I went with Rosario, Williams, and Hurd in that order, because that’s the order of their run with one another in reverse, basically. Hurd lost an upset to Williams who lost an upset to Rosario, and these are all still pretty recent fights. Williams passed on a Rosario rematch but says he’ll come back strong, of course. Hurd fought in January and tried to be A Boxer which was met with mixed critical reception at best, though he did clearly win over a guy everyone thought he’d beat.
• Harrison is at No. 7 still. I think you could make a case for him being No. 2, really. You can make as good a case for him as anyone else, at least.

This division is wild. There’s a sheriff in town now, but it’s still pretty lawless.

Upcoming Fights: (9) Kell Brook vs Terence Crawford [welterweight], Nov. 14

Notes: Do you understand how actually dull ThE beSt DiViSiOn In BoxInG is compared to 154, though?

Upcoming Fights: (8) Sergey Lipinets vs Kudratillo Abdukakhorov, Oct. 10 ... (2) Terence Crawford vs Kell Brook, Nov. 14 ... (1) Errol Spence Jr vs (6) Danny Garcia, Nov. 21 ... (3) Manny Pacquiao vs Conor McGregor, TBA

Notes: Another fight on Saturday saw Josh Taylor knock the shit out of a guy who shouldn’t have been in the ring with him. I’ve clickety-clacked my fingertips on enough keys over that fight already. (You can’t really say “spilled enough ink” or whatever when you do a web site.)

Upcoming Fights: (4) Ivan Baranchyk vs (6) Jose Zepeda, Oct. 3 ... (3) Regis Prograis vs Juan Heraldez, Oct. 24

Upcoming Fights: (1) Vasiliy Lomachenko vs (2) Teofimo Lopez, Oct. 17 ... (6) Gervonta Davis vs Leo Santa Cruz [junior lightweight], Oct. 24 ... (3) Devin Haney vs TBA, Nov. 7 ... (4) Luke Campbell vs (9) Ryan Garcia, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (2) Leo Santa Cruz vs Gervonta Davis, Oct. 24 ... (10) Masayuki Ito vs Hironori Mishiro, Nov. 5 ... (1) Miguel Berchelt vs (5) Oscar Valdez, Dec. 12 ... (3) Jamel Herring vs (8) Carl Frampton, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (9) Ryan Walsh vs Jazza Dickens, Sept. 30 ... (6) Emanuel Navarrete vs (10) Ruben Villa, Oct. 9

Notes: Had a few fights with this division this past weekend. Daniel Roman got a close but not controversial win over Juan Carlos Payano, and Luis Nery came up from bantamweight to win the kinda-vacant (Rey Vargas is “champion-in-recess”) WBC title against Aaron Alameda. And we saw Brandon Figueroa ultimately wear out an over-matched Damien Vazquez.

Roman’s win wasn’t exactly stellar, but he’s also never been a DOMINANT! sort of guy. He closed the fight well and got the job done, and while I had it even, I also believe I should have had it 114-113 Roman, as Payano should have been ruled down at end of the 12th round.

Nery’s win also was not stellar, and I’m rather cautiously putting him in at No. 8 here. His upside is definitely a lot higher, but I also had his fight with Alameda, who was totally unproven, an even score. Listen, styles make fights, and Alameda, while he hadn’t fought anyone, had a solid amateur background, had fought in the World Series of Boxing in the past, and proved he can box a very effective, if quite basic fight. The feeling is Nery should have done more, but Nery wouldn’t be the first really good fighter to have a style struggle against someone like Alameda, either.

The other reason I’m giving Nery a cautious entry into this class is pretty simple: he’s been done enough favors and I don’t owe him any in my dumb rankings.

Figueroa-Vazquez went more or less like I expected. I like Brandon Figueroa and love to watch him fight, but if Nery has a sort of high ceiling at his current rating, I honestly think Figueroa’s is fairly low. This might really be as high as he’s getting, and it might be a tad generous. He walloped Vazquez, but Vazquez just isn’t that good. I think this is another division that has a lot of talent, and not at on separating most of it.

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Notes: We had action here, too, as John Riel Casimero successfully defended his WBO belt against Duke Micah via third round stoppage that probably should’ve been second round stoppage. Man, did Micah come to fight, and man did he get his dome rattled.

Nery, who had been No. 2 for a good while, is out of the division finally, meaning we had an open spot to fill with last week’s 3-10 guys moving up a notch. I decided to go with Oscar Negrete, whose 0-1-2 record against Joshua Franco is looking better than before, and whose only other loss was a world title fight with Rey Vargas at 122 which he probably didn’t deserve but Rey Vargas allegedly had to fight someone on the Cotto-Ali undercard. (Remember when Sadam Ali beat Miguel Cotto? By decision? And deserved to?)

Negrete, in all honesty, is probably a placeholder. He’s a solid, fun fighter, but he’s also 33 and figures to give way to someone like Lee McGregor or the mighty new bantamweight Charlie Edwards soon enough.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Naoya Inoue vs (8) Jason Moloney, Oct. 31 ... (3) Nordine Oubaali vs (4) Nonito Donaire, Dec. 12

Upcoming Fights: (1) Juan Francisco Estrada vs Carlos Cuadras, Oct. 23 ... (3) Roman Gonzalez vs Israel Gonzalez, Oct. 23 ... (7) Joshua Franco vs Andrew Moloney, TBA

Notes: Cristofer Rosales won a tune-up this week, the second he’s had recently. Honestly, after the top six guys or so, this division is really yearning for some new blood, which Nakatani and Magramo might provide. They’re supposed to fight for the vacant WBO at some point, with Tanaka planning to move up.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Julio Cesar Martinez vs Maximino Flores, Oct 23

Upcoming Fights: (2) Hiroto Kyoguchi vs Thanongsak Simsri, Nov. 3

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Upcoming Fights: (1) Vasiliy Lomachenko vs Teofimo Lopez, Oct. 17 ... (3) Naoya Inoue vs Jason Moloney, Oct. 31 ... (5) Oleksandr Usyk vs Derek Chisora, Oct. 31 ... (7) Terence Crawford vs Kell Brook, Nov. 14 ... (4) Errol Spence Jr vs Danny Garcia, Nov. 21 ... (6) Miguel Berchelt vs Oscar Valdez, Dec. 12 ... (9) Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder, Dec. 19 ... (8) Artur Beterbiev vs Adam Deines, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (2) Katie Taylor vs Miriam Gutierrez, Nov. 14 ... (1) Claressa Shields vs Marie Eve Dicaire, TBA ... (5) Jessica McCaskill vs (6) Cecilia Braekhus, TBA