Another week in the fight world is in the books. HBO, ESPN, and two separate shows in the UK featured fights that resulted in some significant movement, most prominently in the junior welterweight division. Josh Taylor and Jose Carlos Ramirez are your big winners this week.
First off, apologies for this coming out a day later than normal. It shouldn’t happen too often going forward.
As for the rankings, heavyweight say some movement in its back few fighters thanks to Eddie Hearn’s American promotional debut on HBO. Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller moved up two spots from twenty first to #19, on spot behind Carlos Takam. Conversely, his opponent Mariusz Wach fell two spots from twenty third to the last fighter in at #25 with his loss.
Continuing with that HBO card, both Danny Jacobs and Luis Arias held on to their #3 and #21 spots respectively in the middleweight division. That fight basically looked like what it was supposed to and neither did anything to change their standing. Cletus Seldin, however, hammered his way into my junior welterweight top 25 with his blistering wipe out of Roberto Ortiz. The Hebrew Hammer is now #24.
British boxing brought us a fairly prominent rematch between #6 Liam Smith and #9 Liam Williams in England, but Smith again won a competitive fight and it did nothing to change their junior middleweight rankings. Rising Scottish star Josh Taylor did move up, however, following his second consecutive impressive career best win when he became the first man to stop the always difficult Miguel Vasquez on Saturday. He is now my #7 junior welterweight, up a couple spots from tenth.
Also impressing in the junior welterweight division, 2012 US Olympian Jose Carlos Ramirez picked up a career best win in a sensational two round performance over solid prospect Mike Reed. Reed fell from nineteenth to #22, but the real story here is Ramirez rocketing up to #15 from previously not being ranked at all. Artur Beterbiev picked up a win on the very same Top Rank on ESPN card, but he did so much less impressively and remains the #8 light heavyweight.
