On the top levels of the sport, it was a very quiet week. Though it is time for the weekly update to the S8C Top 25 rankings, there is very little to change. Still, at least one man moved a couple spots, Mauricio Herrera jumped in at welterweight, and someone timed out as well.
Light Heavyweight
Not so much because of his win, but because it caused me to re-evaluate his standing as a whole, I moved Vyacheslav Shabranskyy up two spots from twenty third to #21. I just sort of realized that he deserves to be ahead of both the 2017 version of Robert Stieglitz and someone he would probably knockout in Thomas Williams Jr. That’d be a fun one for sure though.
Welterweight
When I first evaluated Mauricio Herrera for the rankings, I more or less dismissed him completely. Losing definitively to Frankie Gomez by near shut out and then to a lesser talent in Pablo Cesar Cano directly after pretty much wiped him from my mind. Seeing him in action against Soto Karass did remind me of his ability, however, faded as it may be. Looking over the list, I was able to slot him in at #18. That is one spot ahead of Victor Ortiz. Unfortunately, after only one week in the rankings, hot Dominican prospect Carlos Adames is pushed out as a result of this.
Junior Lightweight
At #1, there is no higher for Vasul Lomachenko to climb, so he stays there. I left Miguel Marriaga at featherweight as I believe he will return to that class. I did not drop him any spots there as he performed basically as I thought he would against Loma. The one change here is that South African Malcom Klassen timed out of the rankings due to a year of inactivity without a fight scheduled. This brought unbeaten Puerto Rican prospect Alberto Machado in at #25 ahead of his Golden Boy on ESPN debut on the eighteenth.
Also in action, I did not drop Ray Beltran for his less than dominant performance against Bryan Vasquez, but I considered it. Puerto Rican prospect Manny Rodriguez picked up a bantamweight win as well, but it did not impact his ranking.
