Despite the major cards on Sky and HBO, there isn’t a lot of movement to report in the rankings this week. In fact, only Tony Bellew and David Haye move at all if you don’t count entering or timing out. The biggest change of the week however is the removal of Wladimir Klitschko from the heavyweight rankings.
Goodbye, Wladimir Klitschko. Wlad has been second in the heavyweight rankings ever since falling to Anthony Joshua last April in their epic encounter. Though he has said he is retired all along, I do not remove fighters until they’ve been inactive for a year as many change their minds. Dr. Klitschko now has met the criteria for removal. I do not think we will see the legend in action again either. Previously seventh ranked Kubrat Pulev also timed out for the same reason, but I suspect we will see him back sooner rather than later as his name is in discussion for title eliminator opportunities.
Also at heavyweight, Tony Bellew moved up one spot to #12 following his second and more convincing stoppage of David Haye on Saturday. This time Haye did not appear to be injured and the result was much more meaningful. As for the popular former heavyweight titleholder, I dropped The Hayemaker from sixteenth down to #22. The aging heavyweight is clinging to relevancy at this point. I also went back and forth on whether or not to leave Bellew double ranked at cruiserweight as well, but I really think he goes back there for his next fight so I decided to do so. I am close to pulling him though.
The only other move of the week was the entrance of Vanes Martirosyan into the junior middleweight rankings. I know Vanes hadn’t fought in two years and took the Gennady Golovkin short notice challenge at middleweight, but I strongly suspect he will return to his former junior middleweight stomping grounds when he does fight again. I was able to slide him in at #18. Gennady Golovkin also held onto his #1 middleweight ranking, of course.
Otherwise we just had a few ranked opponents fighting low level, stay busy type opposition and holding their rankings. #5 lightweight Luke Campbell, #7 bantamweight Liborio Solis, #13 middleweight Spike O’Sullivan, and #17 super bantamweight Tomoki Kameda all picked up wins. #14 bantamweight Ricardo Nunez technically picked up a loss, but it was a pretty ridiculous third round disqualification after an accidental headbutt left his opponent bleeding and unable to continue. I am not going to adjust his ranking because of a bad call by a local Panamanian referee.
