RANKINGS: Boots Ennis, Shakur, Fernando Martinez, more
Jaron “Boots” Ennis is the clear top man at 147, plus more.
Next update will come on Monday, August 5.
Ranked fights this period:
- Heavyweight: (8) Jared Anderson vs (10) Martin Bakole, Aug. 3
- Light Heavyweight: (10) Radivoje Kalajdzic vs David Morrell, Aug. 3
- Super Lightweight: (7) Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz vs Jose Valenzuela, Aug. 3
- Lightweight: (6) Andy Cruz vs Antonio Moran, Aug. 3
- Minimumweight: (2) Ginjiro Shigeoka vs (9) Pedro Taduran, July 28
Upcoming Fights: (8) Jared Anderson vs (10) Martin Bakole, Aug. 3 ... (3) Anthony Joshua vs (6) Daniel Dubois, Sept. 21 ... (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs (2) Tyson Fury, Dec. 21
Upcoming Fights: TBA
Upcoming Fights: (10) Radivoje Kalajdzic vs David Morrell, Aug. 3 ... (4) Joshua Buatsi vs Willy Hutchinson, Sept. 21
Upcoming Fights: (3) Christian Mbilli vs (4) Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Aug. 17 ... (10) Oselys Iglesias vs TBA, Aug. 17 ... (5) Diego Pacheco vs Maciej Sulecki, Aug. 31 ... (2) Jaime Munguia vs Erik Bazinyan, Sept. 21
Notes: Janibek might have to go up to 168, after a botched weight cut scrapped his planned title defense against Andrei Mikhailovich, but it’s no guarantee.
Nathan Heaney is out after his loss to Brad Pauls, and Italy’s Etinosa Oliha is in for now. The 26-year-old has done well at regional/domestic type level — in spite of being a FORMER WORLD CHAMPION with the IBO — and, well, a lot of this division is seat-warming and treading water at best right now. This also means there is a terrific chance for someone to start making a real statement and move on up, but Hamzah Sheeraz seems to be the only guy here with real momentum at the moment, and even he is stuck basically “staying busy” against Tyler Denny in September. But at least it’s better than doing nothing.
Upcoming Fights: (4) Hamzah Sheeraz vs Tyler Denny, Sept. 21 ... (7) Liam Smith vs Josh Kelly, Sept. 21
Notes: This division will look different at next update. Either Terence Crawford is going to come in at No. 1 or Israil Madrimov is going to take over that spot himself. I suppose there is the chance that one of them wins unimpressively or controversially and neither of those things happen.
Upcoming Fights: (3) Israil Madrimov vs Terence “Bud” Crawford, Aug. 3 ... (6) Serhii Bohachuk vs (7) Vergil Ortiz Jr, Aug. 10
Notes: I know Boots Ennis still doesn’t have a proper marquee sort of win, a signature win, but he just looks so clearly a mile ahead of the field here that everyone can’t help but just hope he pops up to 154 and leave this division in the state that middleweight has been in a while. I like Stanionis but I don’t see him as a major threat to Ennis and it’s not an idea that really excites me. If he can get something big at 154, he should take it. He’s 27, he’s in his prime, and he’s too much better than everyone else at 147 to get better fighting these guys.
Placeholder David Avanesyan is out, replaced by Giovani Santillan, because like middleweight there just aren’t many obvious options after a few spots here. I know Santillan got smashed by Norman, but he also had thrashed Alexis Rocha, which is as good a win as anybody else can boast, really.
Upcoming Fights: TBA
Upcoming Fights: (7) Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz vs Jose Valenzuela, Aug. 3
Notes: We’re not going to get Tank vs Loma, which is not really a surprise but I think a lot of people did have their hopes up. And the way the story came out, from Loma’s team saying Loma doesn’t want it right now, it is what it is, he’s going to be seen as avoiding Tank. They made clear it’s not like the money was an issue, he just doesn’t want to do it right now. They’ll have to accept the reaction it gets.
Shakur Stevenson and William Zepeda both did their expected jobs on July 6 and could be looking at a fight against one another. But Shakur in particular could be a Tank option, or we could be looking at Pitbull Cruz coming back down to 135, or Tank doing 140 to fight a guy like Cruz who isn’t big at that weight in a rematch that Davis and his team have kinda kept in the back pocket for a while now.
Upcoming Fights: (6) Andy Cruz vs Antonio Moran, Aug. 3
Notes: Robson Conceicao’s controversial win over O’Shaquie Foster makes for a mess here. Navarrete lost his most recent fight, but it was at 135. He’s got his controversial draw with Conceicao, who also has a controversial loss to Valdez, and Navarrete beat Valdez clean and clear. Top Rank have a wild little group in the top four.
The truth is that Anthony Cacace might be just as deserving of the top spot as any of them, maybe more so at the moment. If he really looks good against Josh Warrington in September, he might leapfrog those guys, but right now would you favor Cacace against any of them? I think at best he’s 50/50 on paper.
This is not the worst “problem” to have in rankings. At least it’s competitive and active.
Upcoming Fights: (6) Anthony Cacace vs Josh Warrington, Sept. 21 ... (1) Emanuel Navarrete vs (2) Oscar Valdez, TBA
Notes: I am surprised that Ruben Villa lost to Sulaima Segawa, but not shocked. I’ve long been a Villa fan and believer, but the year and a half he sat out between 2020 and 2022 was no good, and I don’t think he ever quite got it back. He’s a skilled boxer but not exceptional at anything, and if you keep giving a guy like that these sort of low-motivation undercard fights that Top Rank has since signing him, these things can happen. Segawa’s the sort of guy just capable and pesky enough to pull one out, and he did.
Victor Morales is in at No. 10 for now.
Upcoming Fights: (1) Luis Alberto Lopez vs (10) Angelo Leo, Aug. 10
Notes: Sam Goodman won a fight on July 10 but also got hurt in the process, all that to not take the Inoue fight you were expected to do. Shame, that.
Speaking of Inoue, no, the Doheny fight is not inspiring. He got routed by Goodman in the first quarter of 2023 and has won three straight so-so fights in Japan since then. He’s had a good career and is a former titleholder and all that, but he’s 37 is notably past his best days.
Upcoming Fights: (1) Naoya Inoue vs TJ Doheny, Sept. 3
Notes: A little house-cleaning at the back end here. Nakatani wasted Vincent Astrolabio so the latter is out, as is Paul Butler who seems only vaguely interested in his boxing career anymore.
Chocolatito is back and fighting at 118, so he’s in because he is Chocolatito. Daigo Higa also in for the time being, he faces Yoshiki Takei on the Inoue-Doheny undercard.
Upcoming Fights: (3) Yoshiki Takei vs (10) Daigo Higa, Sept. 3
Notes: Martinez and Ioka switch spots after Martinez beat Ioka to unify the IBF and WBA titles. Would love to see Martinez face Bam Rodriguez, but we’ll see what happens. I also don’t think Martinez can beat Bam, but he’s earned the chance to fight him, it’s the best fight to make at this weight now.
Upcoming Fights: TBA
Notes: Anthony Olascuaga enters at No. 10 after his title-winning effort in Japan.
Upcoming Fights: (4) Angel Ayala vs (8) Dave Apolinario, TBA
Upcoming Fights: TBA
Upcoming Fights: (2) Ginjiro Shigeoka vs (9) Pedro Taduran, July 28
Notes: Cameron and Serrano both won fights, and while Cameron’s win over Elhem Mekhaled to claim an interim 140 belt wasn’t exactly the biggest W, it sure beat the crap out of that absolute sham MVP put on with Serrano and Stevie Morgan.
Upcoming Fights: (1) Claressa Shields vs Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse, July 27 ... (2) Katie Taylor vs (5) Amanda Serrano, Nov. 15