Holy fights, Batman. The week that was might just have been the busiest in terms of S8C Top 25 action since I began doing this. Not only were there the cards on HBO and Showtime, but the week also featured two major cards in the UK, two major shows in Japan, ranked fighters competing off-television, and even more than that. Let’s dive in.
First, let’s take a look at the fallout in the light heavyweight division mostly surrounding HBO’s card. #2 light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev retains that spot following his win over #17 Igor Mikhalkin. I left the challenger in his spot as well. He fought admirably against a much more highly regarded foe and his ranking was more or less confirmed. Kovalev is still #2 behind Andre Ward until Ward has not fought for a year in my rankings. Fighters “retire” and then don’t keep to it so often that I just ignore their word and let them time out of the rankings after a year of inactivty.
More interesting is the result of Dmitry Bivol’s domination of top Cuban contender Sullivan Barrera. I moved Bivol up to #8 from eleventh in a suddenly crowded top ten. Barrera fell all the way from fourth to #9. Coincidentally, Lucian Bute and Chad Dawson both timed out of the rankings this week as well They were previously number sixteen and twenty second ranked respectively. This brought in recent Thomas Williams conqueror Humberto Torres of Mexico in at #24 and British titleholder Frank Buglioni in at #25.
As for the Showtime card, Deontay Wilder remains #3 at heavyweight behind Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko following his epic rally of a stoppage win over Luis Ortiz. Wlad times out next month and will leave the rankings provided he doesn’t unretire and book a fight between then and now. Counter intuitively, I moved Luis Ortiz up a spot to #6 following his loss. I had Kubrat Pulev ahead of his for recent resume reasons, but after watching his strong performance against Wilder I just couldn’t defend that to myself anymore.
In the show’s co-main event, Jose Uzcategui erased any controversial memories of their first meeting by battering and forcing Andre Dirrell to retire. With the win, the Mexican based Venezuelan cracks the super middleweight top five at #5, up two spots from seventh. Dirrell falls from third all the way down to #8. Honestly though, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Flint fighter simply retire and eventually time out of the rankings following this fight. #19 British super middleweight Rocky Fielding also picked up a low level win and maintained his ranking overseas.
Speaking of the United Kingdom, Kell Brook officially changed weight classes in his move to junior middleweight. I see no chance Brook returns to welterweight, so I removed him from those rankings. Luis Collazo, previously sixteenth, also timed out at 147. These two openings brought in former elite prospect Jose Benavidez at #24 and recent Top Rank signee Carlos Adames at #25.
Of course, the real question is where Brook fights in at junior middleweight. I found the decision to be easy though. I can’t automatically slot him in ahead of a division stalwart like fourth ranked Austin Trout no matter how good Brook looked, but he is clearly better than Liam Smith who was ranked behind Trout. Therefore, Kell Brook is the new #5 ranked junior middleweight. Also in the UK, red hot junior welterweight prospect Josh Taylor held his #7 ranking following his dominant win over his late replacement opponent.
As for the action in Japan, I had a decision to make with #1 bantamweight Luis Nery. In consecutive fights he has now failed a drug test and then badly missed weight, but he has destroyed a legend of the division in Shinsuke Yamanaka in both as well. For now, I am leaving Nery at bantamweight and he is retaining his #1 spot. Still, if he misses weight again or moves up, Nery will be removed. Yamanaka fell from fourth to #6 following his defeat, though by all accounts this will be his last fight.
Super bantamweight titleholder Ryosuke Iwasa also held his #13 ranking following his easy title defense. I do believe Iwasa is my lowest ranked titleholder in their respective division going today. Masayuki Ito held his #24 spot as well, though this was his second consecutive fight at lightweight. I think there is a good chance he moves back down, but if he doesn’t he will be removed from the junior lightweight rankings. Unfortunately for him, I don’t think I can work him into the much deeper lightweight rankings. #10 flyweight Masayuki Kuroda retained his spot with a win too. His win over Katsunori Nagamine sent his domestic rival from twenty second to #25.
Gavin McDonnell also held on to his super bantamweight ranking one spot behind Iwasa at #14 after sending back unbeaten prospect Gamal Yafai to the drawing board. #13 middleweight Willie Monroe and #19 super flyweight David Carmona also got wins this weekend.
Finally, South African cruiserweight contender Kevin Lerena picked up his second consecutive quality win in the division over Dmytro Kucher. His Ukrainian opponent wasn’t ranked, but only due to inactivity. With the victory, Lerena moves from sixteenth to #14. He is now a fringe top ten player in a really good cruiserweight division. What a busy week internationally.
