The Standing Eight Count Top 25 divisional rankings have had their weekly refresh. There is a lot of movement to go over including Jarrell Miller in at heavyweight, Jermall Charlo and Rau’Shee Warren changing weight classes, Mikey Garcia and Adrien Broner being double ranked, and more.
Heavyweight
With Jarrell Miller’s Showtime covered win over Gerald Washington, he has moved into the S8C Top 25 with a debut at the #20 spot. This puts him right ahead of Johann Duhaupus, but behind Tomasz Adamek. I found Adamek’s career credentials too much for Miller to pass currently even though I think Miller would win head to head easily. Gerald Washington was previously ranked at #20, however the loss dropped him to #24. Erken Teper was pushed out of the rankings by Miller’s entrance.
Super Middleweight
Giovanni De Carolis of Italy, recent frequent participant in the WBA wheel of fake world titles, was upset by unranked Ukrainian Viktor Polyakov this weekend. This dropped Carolis from #20 to outside the rankings completely. Polyakov himself had recently taken a poor loss and therefore was not the fill in, but instead I chose British titleholder Rocky Fielding to step in at #25.
Middleweight
Jermall Charlo debuts at #7 following his win over a hobbled Jorge Sebastian Heiland. I debated putting him as high as fourth, but given that I see the mixture of David Lemiuex, Billy Joe Saunders, Avtandil Khurtsidze, and Charlo as more or less equal, I put the new arrival in last amongst the group. Khurtsidze will eventually time out of the rankings anyway as his legal situation is as much of a guarantee of inactivity as possible. Heiland drops from #13 to #18 following his poor showing. Andrew Hernandez lost to Patrick Teixeira and dropped out from the last spot. He would have been pushed out by Charlo’s arrival anyway though.
Junior Middleweight
Given that I do not feel he will ever return to the division, I have chosen to remove Jermall Charlo from the junior middleweight rankings. As he was third in the division, this moves almost everyone up a spot. No new #25 was needed, however, as Nathaniel Gallimore’s surprise destruction of Justin DeLoach debuted the Jamaican emerging contender all the way up at #14. DeLoach fell from thirteenth to #19 following the loss.
Welterweight
Though Adrien Broner did not fight at welterweight, I am keeping him here too as I full anticipate him to fight in both the welterweight and junior welterweight divisions going forward. As a result of his loss to Mikey Garcia, I swapped he and Andre Berto. Broner is now #11 while Berto is now #10. Victor Ortiz also returned to the rankings at #18 following his easy return win over Saul Corral. Finally, Dominican prospect Carlos Adames upset the previously twentieth ranked former titleholder Carlos Molina. This debuted Adames in the rankings in the #25 spot while dropping Molina out entirely. All this movement also had the side effect of pushing Leonard Bundu out of the top twenty five as well.
Junior Welterweight
The junior welterweight rankings were really shook up as a result of the Garcia/Broner fight. As I said above, it seems clear to me that Broner will fight in this division still going forward. The same can be said for Mikey Garcia who has proclaimed himself willing to fight anywhere in the 135-147 corridor of the sport. Accordingly, Garcia debuts at #3 and Broner at #5 in the division on opposite sides of Rances Barthelemy. As much as I think Garcia probably beats Indongo, I could not rank him ahead of a unified champion. In terms of Broner, I felt Barthelemy had done a little more in terms of wins in recent memory, but that Broner clearly should be ranked ahead of Antonio Orozco. As a result of the two debuts, Darleys Perez and Czar Amonsot were pushed out the rankings. Mikey Garcia remains ranked at lightweight as well.
Bantamweight
Due to Rau’shee Warren not only dropping down a division, but announcing that he intends to drop even further, I removed him from the bantamweight rankings. Mark John Yap of the Philippines makes a strong debut at #14 following his come from behind stoppage of Kentaro Masuda. Masuda drops one spot behind Arthur Villanueva, but he doesn’t actually change his number, remaining at #24. This is because the previously ranked Phuengluang Sor Singyu of Thailand timed out due to a year’s inactivity without a fight scheduled. With two fighters removed and only one added, another was needed for the #25 spot. This went to Russian unbeaten prospect and ShoBox alumni Nikolai Potapov. Singyu will not be eligible for re-entry into the rankings until after he has fought again.
Super Flyweight
With Rau’shee Warren debuting at the weight, I chose to slot him in behind the current crop of titleholders at #8. Despite the loss to Warren, the only position McJoe Arroyo dropped was the one that everyone behind eighth place dropped due to the addition of Warren in the rankings. Arroyo is now #10. I still feel he deserves to be above Kohei Kono, if only narrowly. David Carmona was also upset by Daniel Lozano. This dropped Carmona from eleventh to #15 and debuted Lozano at #18. I feel comfortable having Carmona still ahead of the man who just beat him for two reasons. One, his recent body of work is notable better and, two, Carmona had already beaten Lozano, making the series now even. Finally, Dwayne Beamon and Teiru Kinoshita were pushed out by the additions of Warren and Lozano.
Flyweight
In the biggest upset of the weekend, unranked Sho Kimura upset divisional star Zou Shiming for his belt despite clearly being brought in to lose. Shiming fell from seventh to #12 while Kimura and his WBO belt debuted all the way up at #10. Finally, Mexican contender Martin Tecuapetla, previously ranked fifteenth, lost in a minor upset on the road against Nicaraguan Cristofer Rosales. Rosales debuts in the rankings at #16 while Tecuapetla falls to #20.
