Welcome to What Does it All Mean, the weekly look back at the action after having a few days to process. The Top 25 rankings are updated here as well.
Manny Pacquiao is back! That’s the narrative now, isn’t it? I’m going to dispute the notion of the Filipino icon as being back though. I just never saw him leave. Look, Manny Pacquiao is an inactive, aging, part time fighter. These are indisputable facts. Yet, what also seems indisputable to me is that he has a remained an elite welterweight through all of it. Is Pacman the same force of destruction that he was back in 2009? Obviously not. He isn’t in the pound for pound conversation anymore. Time and maybe PED accusations saw to that. Just because he isn’t one of the top two figures in the sport anymore doesn’t mean he still isn’t outstanding though. In the three years since his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr, Pacquiao has dominated Tim Bradley, Jessie Vargas, and Lucas Matthysse. He deserved a close decision over Jeff Horn at a massive size disadvantage too. That’s great stuff. Manny Pacquiao remains the S8C #5 ranked welterweight.
More than a Pacquiao resurgence, what we actually saw was the continuing fall of Lucas Matthysse. He looked helpless in there, uncoordinated and slow. Here’s the kicker though. When exactly was Lucas Matthysse ever a top fighter? It was after his demolition of Lamont Peterson, of course. He went into the fight on a nice little win streak that included a stoppage of Humberto Soto too, but it was really the Peterson win that briefly gave him his aura of invincibility in 2013. It was well earned too. I am not going to deny that. What has he done since 2013 though? He’s gone life and death with fun, but limited fighters in Ruslan Provodnikov and John Molina Jr. He was dominated by Viktor Postol and stopped late. After vanishing for a while, he came back for two midlevel wins, the last of which was a dreadful fight against Tewa Kiram on HBO. He looked bad there and he looked bad here. Lucas Matthysse is barely a Top 25 fighter at this point. I’ve dropped him from fourteenth to #20.
How about Rocky Fielding over in Europe? We have to take the time to tip our hats to the British contender for his big win in Germany. Of course stopping Tyron Zeuge isn’t going to register much at all here stateside, but it is a good win. Add it to the David Brophy demolition and Fielding has rebounded much more nicely than much of anyone anticipated following the disaster against Callum Smith. I do have to rain on his parade in one way though; Rocky Fielding is not a world titleholder. The WBA world title means nothing when they have a super title in the same division. They do at super middleweight and it is held by George Groves. Sorry, Rocky. Maybe he can get the big payday against Groves to “unify” the WBA belts. As he stands now, I have Fielding knocking on the door of a pretty good top ten up at #12. He was previously nineteenth. Tyron Zeuge has fallen from sixteenth to #20.
Regis Prograis and Teofimo Lopez looked plenty exciting on ESPN in their stoppage wins in New Orleans. Both are dynamic offensive fighters with some questionable defensive tendencies, but neither were in at a level that they could be exposed too badly. Both young men do get hit in there though. Prograis moves on to some tougher competition in the World Boxing Super Series season two junior welterweight tournament next and remains my #5 junior welterweight. I’m salivating at the thought of a potential fight with Josh Taylor in the bracket. Either man could come out my top ranked guy at the weight class with the right performances, especially if I decide to stop ranking Mikey Garcia at the weight by its end. Teofimo isn’t in my rankings yet, but the talent is certainly there.
Back in Malaysia on Pacquiao’s undercard, South African flyweight Moruti Mthalane reclaimed his old IBF belt by hanging on to beat highly touted Pakistani prospect Muhammad Waseem by decision. Mthalane never actually lost his title in the ring, but he stopped taking the IBF’s mandatories because he wasn’t making enough money in them and was stripped. He performed well here early, but Waseem’s youth prevailed late as he surged, dropping the South African in the eleventh. It was too little, too late though and I really feel for him. Given the complete lack of infrastructure for the sport in the Muslim world, Waseem has had a tough road despite his talent. He has had to relocate to South Korea and has had open difficulty financing his training camps. His shot here probably came a little early in his ninth pro fight, but the Pakistani contender really grew up in this fight as a result. Waseem holds at #3 at 112 lbs, but I actually shot Waseem way up from twenty fourth to #15 even in defeat. I clearly had him underrated.
The S8C Top 25 also said goodbye to a trio of fighters this weekend due to inactivity. Formerly fourth ranked featherweight Takashi Miura retired a while back, but so many boxers change their mind that I don’t remove them anyway until they’ve been inactive for a year. Miura now has been. Omar Figueroa has not retired, but the formerly thirteenth ranked welterweight may as well be at this point. He has fought once in the past two and a half years. Former twentieth ranked junior middleweight John Jackson has checked out as well. These departures brought Ryan Garcia, Carlos Adames, and Terrell Gausha all back in the rankings at #25 in their respective divisions.
Finally, Mexican power punching prospect Eduardo Hernandez holds at #23 at junior lightweight following another quick knockout win on the Mexican domestic scene. He’s one to watch for sure. Check him out on Youtube. The kid can punch.
