The weekend that was featured plenty of activity amongst S8C Top 25 ranked fighters. Super middleweight and welterweight were particularly active thanks to the World Boxing Super Series and a pair of PBC cards. We also have to evaluate Ray Beltran’s title win and more.
The super middleweight and welterweight divisions were quite active this week and saw some movement within their rankings. First, #2 super middleweight George Groves holds his spot with his clear win over former third ranked Chris Eubank Jr. Given how sloppy the son of the legend looked, I dropped him all the way to #9 after his defeat. Vincent Feigenbutz was also active in Europe, but he got a gift cuts stoppage in a fight he was losing. I dropped him from twenty first to right out of the rankings.
Stateside, #5 David Benavidez and #19 Ronald Gavril didn’t see their rankings change following Benavidez’s dominant decision win in their rematch. That is about how 5 versus 19 should work. Caleb Plant’s dominant win over Rogelio “Porky” Medina brought some movement, however, with young Plant debuting at #20 and Medina falling from seventeenth to one spot behind him at #21.
Stopping Brandon Rios wasn’t enough for Danny Garcia to climb up from his #3 spot at welterweight, but it did send Rios from sixteenth to #19. That isn’t actually a punishment, however, as Rios looked better than expected in many ways in that fight despite the stoppage loss. It was the quality work of others that pushed him back. Devon Alexander didn’t get the win he deserved against Victor Ortiz thanks to bad judging, but I moved him up from seventeenth to #13 anyway. Yordenis Ugas also moved up from eighteen to #16 thanks to his title eliminator win. Egidijus Kavaliauskas also makes his debut in the rankings at #18 following his big win over previously twenty third David Avanesyan. All three of those men simply pushed Rios back a slot one at a time. As for the losers, or at least the should have been losers, Avanesyan fell out of the rankings while Victor Ortiz is now the last man in at #25.
At lightweight, Ray Beltran moved up a spot to #7 following his vacant title win over Paulus Moses. Moses actually came into the fight unranked after being passed without losing by a couple other guys a while back, but I brought him back in at #24 following his quality performance in the loss.
The last bit of movement took place at light heavyweight. Thomas Williams Jr was upset by an unheralded opponent off television and fell out of the rankings. Edwin Rodriguez Jr came back in at #25 thanks to that opening and his quality win over Lionell Thompson, also off TV on a PBC card this weekend.
Otherwise #4 and #13 junior middleweights Austin Trout and Tony Harrison, #14 cruiserweight Mike Perez, and #11 heavyweight Bryant Jennings all won tune ups that didn’t impact their rankings.
