In an extremely busy weekend for the S8C Top 25, we have a lot of movement to report. Badou Jack and Miguel Cotto crashed the rankings of two different divisions. Andrew Tabiti and Sergiy Derevyancheko made big leaps too, while Rey Vargas knocks on the door of the super bantamweight top five. Plus, what are my thoughts on Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor in terms of ranking them?
At cruiserweight, Andrew Tabiti took the week’s biggest jump following his routine win over former top contender and titleholder Steve Cunningham on the Mayweather/McGregor Showtime PPV undercard. When I watched the fight live I didn’t think the fight meant a ton for Tabiti as Cunnigham looked pretty bad, but when re-evaluating my rankings it occurred to me that Tabiti had a much easier time with the veteran than say top five cruiserweight Krzysztof Glowacki did recently. Accordingly he jumped all the way from twenty first to #9. Cunningham fell two spots for thirteenth to #15.
Badou Jack’s dominant debut at light heavyweight over Nathan Cleverly earned him the #7 spot in my rankings. I initially expected him to be higher, but light heavyweight is deceptively strong up top. I put him in ahead of Artur Beterbiev but behind Oleksandr Gvozdyk. I also removed Badou from super middleweight as I do not think he will return. Robin Krasniqi slipped in at #25 due to the open slot. Cleverly fell out of the top ten, from ninth to #15. If he remains retired as he is claiming he will, then he will time out of the rankings in a year.
Middleweight found a new top ten fighter in Sergiy Derevyanchenko at #8 from thirteenth. His win over Tureano Johnson showed how well he can deal with a difficult fighter to face. Johnson held still at #20. I probably had him a little underrated before the loss, so I didn’t drop him. Hugo Centeno Jr’s upset of Immanuwell Aleem on the same card also had Top 25 consequences. Centeno debuted at #19 while Aleem fell all the way from fourteenth to #22, making him the week’s biggest loser.
Welcome back to the junior middleweight rankings, Miguel Cotto. I inserted him back in at #3 following his dominant win over Yoshihiro Kamegai. This is ahead of Jermell Charlo and behind both Canelo Alvarez and Erislandy Lara. I will probably remove Canelo from junior middleweight as long as he doesn’t get wiped out by GGG in his next fight too. Kamegai holds at #21. He was never going to win this fight and he does not get penalized for losing it.
I am also ignoring Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor at 154. For Floyd that was more akin to an exhibition than a rankings relevant fight. He has remained retired in my view. I will consider McGregor if he fights there again, but for now I am considering his appearance a one off event. He wouldn’t be ranked now anyway, clearly, though he is probably talented enough to be if he wanted to make a real go at it.
At welterweight, surging Cuban contender and former Olympic medalist Yordenis Ugas continues to do the super rare thing of removing the label of a bust from your own mantel in sport. His win over Thomas Dulorme moved him up from twenty third to #18.
At junior lightweight Gervonta “Tank” Davis remains at his #6 spot. He didn’t look great, but previous strong performances more than make up for it.
Rey Vargas made a strong move at super bantamweight, sliding from ninth into the top five at #5. He looked really good at times against a good fighter in Ronny Rios on HBO. The division is a bit of a mess too currently so it is nice to have some new quality near its peak. Ronny Rios was not penalized for losing to a top fighter and stays at #14.
Finally, we have a bit of a flyweight problem. Timed out former top flyweight Amnat Ruenroeng returned with an easy win over a club fighter this weekend too. He did so a couple classes up, however, and at 37 I have no idea where he will settle in. I didn’t have much of a choice other than to continue leaving him off, unfortunately.
