The absolute top of the super flyweight division was all in action together this weekend on an excellent HBO card. The top five has been completely shuffled around following Srisaket Sor Rungvisai’s four round destruction of former top pound for pound fighter Chocolatito Gonzalez. The cruiserweight and super middleweight divisions were pretty active as well.
With the devastating knockout of Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, Thailand’s Srisaket Sor Rungvisai ascends to the throne of #1 at what might be the best division in boxing in super flyweight. It is a well earned slot behind one of the best and most surprising performances of the year in boxing to date. Naoya “Monster” Inoue slips up to #2 following his dominant American debut on the same card while Juan Carlos Estrada is up to #3 thanks to his narrow win over Carlos Cuadras who drops to #4. Chocolatito sits now at #5. I just can’t see him beating these guys again now that he is clearly on this downswing.
Deeper in the division, Brian Viloria made his second consecutive fight at what is essentially money flyweight so I ranked him in at #11. Super flyweight just keeps getting better and deeper. Antonio Nieves, the man Naoya Inoue bashed around, showed enough to me in his debut to sneak him in at #21 where the division is much weaker.
Cruiserweight was also quite active this weekend. Kicking off the World Boxing Super Series tournaments, Oleksandr Usyk stopped Marco Huck in the second half of their fight. This was the most prominent bout in the division. As a result, Usyk of course holds on to his #1 spot while Huck dropped two spots from seven to #9.
The biggest winner of the weekend in terms of positive movement is South African cruiserweight Kevin Lerena. The now contender jumped ten spots from being the last man in to #15 following his upset win over Congolese former title challenger Youri Kalenga who fell from nineteenth to #24. This was a tight bunched group of fighters in a deep division. One good win can really launch you and did for Lerena. Noel Gevor moved up one spot to #23 too, but that was just as much because of Kalenga’s loss as it was due to his own win over unranked Isiah Thomas.
Super middleweight David Benavidez held still at #8 despite his first world title win. While I do not dispute he earned a narrow win, it was the first time he had really looked mortal in the ring. Ronald Gavril, who moved up from twenty fourth to #17 on the strength of his strong performance, did much better in there against Benavidez than expected. Accordingly, I cannot move the sport’s youngest titleholder up despite his accomplishment.
Kanat Islam won in Kazakhstan and held still at #25 at junior middleweight. He is probably better than that, but he hasn’t had the opportunity to get the wins. Juan Carlos Reveco also won at flyweight without moving from his #4 spot as well. The three above him are just too well entrenched.
Finally, recent former super middleweight titleholder “Kid Chocolate” Peter Quillin returned to the sport with a win on the Benavidez undercard. Unfortunately, he was supposed to have looked pretty bad, but there is no video of the fight available. Furthermore he did so at light heavyweight. I have no idea if he intends to campaign there going forward or if the choice was just to make his first weight cut easier. For now I have chosen to leave him unranked.
