A slower week in the sport brought very little movement in the S8C Top 25. There is always at least a little bit though. How did I respond to wins from Carl Frampton and Anthony Dirrell? Did Zolani Tete’s record setting knockout matter? J-Rock Williams, Tomasz Adamek, and Jerwin Ancajas were in action too.
It was definitely tempting to drop #2 featherweight Carl Frampton to third behind Gary Russell Jr following his uninspiring performance in Belfast on Saturday, but ultimately his win over Leo Santa Cruz still means a lot to me even if he lost the rematch. I definitely less convinced Frampton beats Russell than I used to be though.
Two other titleholders were in action on Frampton’s undercard too. I moved bantamweight Zolani Tete up two spots to #6 follow his 11 second knockout. I didn’t make this move because of the result of this fight given that it was a gross mismatch, but Tete’s having fought forced me to re-evaluate his standing and I did feel I had him underrated. I think he beats both Jamie McDonnell and Liborio Solis. Jerwin Ancajas held his ranking at #6 at super flyweight his great showing. I just still can’t move him ahead of Chocolatito given the former top pound for pound fighter’s ridiculous resume.
#8 super middleweight Anthony Dirrell also held his position following his win on FS1 Friday night. He was facing subpar competition and didn’t do anything spectacular with it.
Also under the PBC banner, I moved J-Rock Williams one spot up to #11 following his win over now #25 Ishe Smith on Saturday, passing Tony Harrison in the process. Smith was previously unranked due to inactivity. I was still able to slip him in just inside the junior middleweight rankings in spite of the loss though. The very back end of that division is not super strong.
Finally, Polish heavyweight star Tomasz Adamek returned at home. Unfortunately, despite his deserved win over Fred Kassi, he is just clearly a fading fighter. No shame in that being the case at 40, but I can’t keep him where he was. He just no longer passes the eye test. I dropped three spots to #24.
