There was more falling than moving up this week in the S8C Top 25 rankings with the likes of Avni Yildirim and Sam Eggington taking huge drops, but we also have some big debuts from Rex Tso and Mohamed Mimoune. The biggest name one the move by far is English star Anthony Crolla following his big win over Ricky Burns.
Following his return to the lightweight, I slotted Ricky Burns in at #12 in the division. I have not removed him from junior welterweight as I feel it is just as if not more likely that he fights there again rather than staying at 135. I also did not drop Burns down in the rankings at junior welterweight either. He lost to a higher ranked fighter overall and did so respectably. There is no need to adjust where he stands. Anthony Crolla moved up two spots at lightweight to #7, passing both Ray Beltran and Dejan Zlaticinin on the strength of the big win.
On the same card, previously unranked Mohamed Mimoune scored a huge upset over then thirteenth Sam Eggington to win the European welterweight strap. Accordingly, Eggington fell all the way to #20 while Mimoune slots in one spot ahead of him at #19.
#4 Chris Eubank Jr’s dominant finish win over Avni Yildirim might not have been enough to work him into an ironclad top three of James DeGale, Gilberto Ramirez, and George Groves, but its violent finish sent Yildirim free falling from fourteenth to #21. Eubank will get a chance to move forward next time out against Groves in the World Boxing Super Series semifinals though.
In the last bit for British boxing, flyweight Andrew Selby moved up one spot to #7 following his WBC title eliminator win over #24 Maximino Flores. He is now the mandatory challenger for third ranked Daigo Higa.
Kohei Kono might have lost to Rex Tso, but the unsatisfying technical decision was hard to hold against him and I left him as the #10 super flyweight. Tso was this week’s big winner for his strong performance even if his win was unsatisfying. I moved up from just outside the rankings all the way up to #14. These two should rematch if Tso is unable to get his title shot next.
Falling out of the rankings for very different reasons are light heavyweight Radivoje Kalajdzic and super bantamweight Nehomar Cermeno. Kalajdzic simply expired due to a year’s inactivity without a current fight scheduled, but Cermeno is a in a career free fall. The 37 year old has now quit on his stool in consecutive fights, this time giving unranked Chinese fighter Can Xu his first career stoppage in fifteen fights. It appears Cermeno is more than done. I am still leaving Xu unranked for the time being as I don’t think beating Cermemo is significant at this point.
Finally, Firat Arslan (cruiserweight #22), Cristian Mijares (featherweight #17), and Gavin McDonnell (super bantamweight #15) all picked up wins without the success being significant enough to move them forward in the rankings. They remain where they were before.
