The sport of boxing continues to quiet down a bit heading into the holidays, but there were still several fights that had a big impact on the rankings this weekend. Chief among them was Sadam Ali’s world title winning upset performance over Puerto Rican legend Miguel Cotto.
Sadam Ali has exploded into my junior middleweight rankings, debuting all the way up at #7 after beating the previously fourth ranked Miguel Cotto. Cotto himself fell to #8. I know he is technically retired and I believe he will stay that way, but I ignore talk and only value results. When he hasn’t fought for a year, I’ll remove him.
I also moved Rey Vargas up to #2 at super bantamweight following his win over Oscar Negrete on the undercard of Cotto’s retirement fight. It wasn’t so much this performance specifically, but over time it has become clear to me that I think Vargas would beat now #3 Jessie Magdaleno. It really is that simple.
Also at junior middleweight, Michel Soro stays at #9 following his easy get well win at home in France. Omar Douglas (#14 at junior lightweight), Anthony Yigit (#17 at 140), Igor Mikhalkin (#18 at 175), and Mark John Yap (#18 at 118) all held onto their positions despite winning too. None of them beat a significant enough opponent to move up past those ahead of them. In addition, Oscar Negrete did the opposite. The #23 bantamweight moved up to super bantamweight for an ill fated shot at Rey Vargas. Losing a fight that he was clearly supposed to lose is not going to hurt Negrete’s ranking.
In Russia, tenth ranked junior welterweight and recent titleholder smashed out fringe top 25 fighter Carlos Portillo of Paraguay in one. This was a reminder of what the powerful Russian could do and I moved him up to #8 accordingly.
Finally, light flyweight found itself in a shake up when its #1 guy Kosei Tanaka announced he was vacating his belt and moving up. I won’t move him in the rankings until he actually takes a fight at the new weight, but recent Tanaka victim Angel Acosta was able to win his vacant belt with a good win over previous number fifteen Juan Alejo. Acosta has risen to #10 while Alejo has fallen to #20.
