It can’t exactly be said that Nathaniel Collins’ loss is Brandon Figueroa’s gain, because Collins didn’t lose. He didn’t win either, and that result prompted a shuffling in Figueroa’s favor atop the WBC’s featherweight rankings.

Last month, Collins was rated No. 1, followed by Figueroa at No. 2 and Mikito Nakano at No. 3. Only one of them was active in the interim: Collins was held to a draw against the unbeaten Cristobal Lorente, who at the time was ranked No. 10 by the WBC. 

Figueroa is a two-division titleholder who won the WBC belt at junior featherweight and then lost it to Stephen Fulton, and soon became the WBC titleholder at 126lbs only to lose it to Fulton in their rematch this past February. Figueroa didn’t exactly impress in his last outing, taking a unanimous decision over Joet Gonzalez in July; some feel Gonzalez deserved the nod.

The WBC’s featherweight title picture is complicated. Fulton has the primary belt, followed by interim titleholder Bruce Carrington and then Rey Vargas, whose injury led him to abdicate his throne and instead be named “champion in recess.”

After Figueroa, Nakano and Collins come Carlos Castro at No. 4 and Lorente receiving a big bump up to No. 5, followed by Sulaiman Segawa, Omar Trinidad, Sam Goodman, Reiya Abe, Joet Gonzalez, Michael Conlan, Otabek Kholmatov, Tomoki Kameda, Lerato Dlamini and Liam Davies.

Figueroa is also ranked highly by the other sanctioning bodies. He is No. 1 with the WBA, which has ordered a bout between him and titleholder Nick Ball; and Figueroa is second with the WBO and fourth with the IBF.

Speaking of the IBF, Nakano (rated fifth by that sanctioning body) and Ra’eese Aleem (rated third) are scheduled to fight November 24 in an elimination bout for the right to challenge titleholder Angelo Leo.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.