A trio of top five fighters were in action this weekend. This includes Yunier Dorticos at cruiserweight who had previously expired from the rankings from inactivity. Hughie Fury rejoins the heavyweight rankings after being removed for the same reason as well. Plus, what happens to Andre Ward now that he is retired?
First and foremost, an S8C Top 25 rules refresher. Fighters are only removed from the rankings after one year of inactivity without a current fight booked unless the fighter has suffered some fate that obviously will make it impossible for them to fight, such as death, sentenced jail time, or an unquestionably career ending injury like Paul Williams’s paralysis. When a fighter says he is retiring, such as in the case of #1 light heavyweight Andre Ward, his word is ignored. If he doesn’t fight in one calendar year from his rematch with Sergey Kovalev, or at the very least have a fight booked on that date, then he will be removed at that time. Too many fighters claim they are retiring and then come back to bother listening to that talk.
As for actual ranking activity this week, the biggest change is at cruiserweight. Cuban slugger Yunier Dorticos had previously expired from the rankings, but he returned in a big way this weekend with a second round knockout over Dmitry Kudryashov. Now Dorticos re-enters at #4 in the division while Kudryashov falls from eighth to #12. Keith Tapia also enters the cruiserweight rankings at #23 following his dominant win over Lateef Kayode on the same card.
Hughie Fury also returns from an inactivity removal, but he did so in defeat. Still, given the lack of top flight depth at heavyweight, Fury enters back in at #12 despite the loss. Joseph Parker remains at #5 even though he didn’t look good at all in the win.
#1 lightweight Jorge Linares retained his belt and top ranking in a narrow win over Luke Campbell. Given his excellent accounting of himself in the loss, Luke Campbell actually moved up a spot to #6, passing inactive Dejan Zlaticinin in the process.
Also moving up in defeat, and even more dramatically so, is Jesse Hart following his excellent second half display in his competitive defeat at the hands of #2 super middleweight Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez. Given Ramirez’s serious stature in the division, the highly competitive loss brought Hart all the way up from sixteenth to just outside the top ten at #11. Clearly I had the Philadelphia fighter under ranked.
Finally, Nonito Donaire moved back up to featherweight, re-entering the division at #13. Currently I left him at the #7 spot at super bantamweight too as it is not one hundred percent clear that he will only campaign at featherweight. He is much better at super bantamweight, but there will probably be a better shot at a money fight up in weight.
