Nothing Earth shattering took place this week inside the ring that would dictate major changes in the S8C Top 25 divisional rankings, but we did have prominent matchups with highly ranked fighters in action. We have fallout from Showtime’s tripleheader Saturday night and the two major UK cards earlier in the day to go over. The biggest question of the week was where to put Amir Khan back in now that he has returned to the sport.
The biggest action of the weekend mostly took place at welterweight where Jessie Vargas and Adrien Broner battled to their entertaining draw. They remain #7 and #9 respectively at 147 lbs. Good old Andre Berto timed out at #8, however. He has been inactive for a year and does not have a fight scheduled. That should have at least moved Broner up a spot, but it didn’t because of the return of Amir Khan. Sure, Khan didn’t technically fight at welterweight here and hasn’t officially made the limit in basically three years now, but he is adamant that he is a “47 pounder” and I think he can make it easily. I am ranking him at welterweight going forward.
Middleweight also saw action on Showtime’s card and had a top ranked fighter time out for inactivity. In the case of 160 lbs, apparent organized crime participant Avtandil Khurtsidze has been inactive for a year and removed from the rankings. As he was fifth ranked, that is a big removal. That slid Jermall Charlo up one spot to Khurtsidze’s former #5 position following his two round demolition of Hugo Centeno Jr. I still can’t move him ahead of GGG, Canelo, Danny Jacobs, or Billy Joe Saunders though. As for Centeno, he was never expected to win this so I didn’t penalize him much. I dropped him one spot to #14.
At the lighter weights, Tank Davis held his #4 junior lightweight ranking following his dominant Showtime opener win. Carl Frampton similarly held his #2 featherweight spot after outboxing Nonito Donaire in Belfast. The defeated Filipino was a more interesting case to look at, however, as I had to determine how his downfall impacts his standing in two different divisions. At featherweight where he lost, Nonito is weaker and the field is stronger. Yet, he was always supposed to lose the fight too. In the end I moved him from twelfth down one spot to #13 at 126 lbs. At super bantamweight, where Donaire is much better rand the field weaker, I dropped him from fifth to #7. I also brought back previously timed out Tank Davis victim Jesus Cuellar to the rankings. Despite competing at junior lightweight on Saturday, I worked him back in at featherweight. He had never fought at 130 lbs before and I don’t suspect he will again after that performance. Looking at the competition, I slotted him in at #11 at 126 lbs. He was previously just inside the top ten before his year of inactivity removed him.
In other less prominent action, Germany based heavyweight Agit Kabayel entered the rankings at #24 following his second decent win on the Euro scene. Polish cruiserweight Mateusz Masternak picked up a huge revenge rematch stoppage win over Youri Kalenga and made a big jump from twenty fourth to #18 in the 200 lb rankings. British contender Sam Eggington was removed from the fringes of the welterweight rankings with his junior middleweight debut and I slotted him at #24 at 154 lbs. Finally, back in the US, #8 super flyweight Rau’shee Warren won a stay busy fight that didn’t impact his standing while previously sixteenth ranked junior middleweight Charles Hatley timed out of the rankings entirely.
