Heavyweight Moves and More: Review, Ratings Update
by Cliff Rold
Boxing hasn’t had a ton of big fights since mid-December and the holidays meant a brief rest for the ratings.
Rest time is over.
Since the last update, Tomasz Adamek-Steve Cunningham II caused discussion at Heavyweight, some of Japan’s best have gone to scratch, and a number of fighters saw a year go by without stepping in the ring.
How does it shake out?
Heavyweight: Steve Cunningham’s excellent performance against Tomasz Adamek merited a ranking but was there room? Ultimately, former titlist and previous #9 Ruslan Chagaev was determined to lack the merit to continue to be ranked at this time. Old accomplishment only counts for so long. Cunningham comes in at #10 and David Price rises to #9.
Cruiserweight: Cunningham exits for a now established Heavyweight campaign, making room for two-time title challenger Francisco Palacios. Heavyweight Eddie Chambers may move down soon, but that’s not a reality just yet.
Super Middleweight: A year of inactivity removes previous #4 Andre Dirrell from the ratings. Again. He’s going to need a real win, and not just evidence of talent, to be rated again. Former Gold Medalist James DeGale enters at #10.
Featherweight: Celestino Caballero exits off a year of inactivity. Ronny Rios enters the ratings.
Jr. Featherweight: Previous #4 and #6 Toshiaki Nishioka and Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym have retired. Victor Terrazas and Scott Quigg enter the top ten.
Bantamweight: A year of inactivity costs Joseph Agbeko a rating. Christian Esquivel exits off of a loss to Malcolm Tunacao. New to the ratings are Jamie McDonnell and WBO titlist Pungluang Sor Singyu.
Jr. Bantamweight: A big shakeup as Kohei Kono pulled off a big upset over Tepparith Kokietgym, the latter sliding and the former entering the top ten. Daniel Rosas, who has not competed at 115 for over a year, exits the ratings.
Flyweight: Rodel Mayol has not competed at 112 in over a year, and Giovanni Segura has been inactive over a year without a fight scheduled. Both exit the top ten. Entering are former 108 lb. titlist Ulises Solis and Rocky Fuentes.
Jr. Flyweight/Strawweight: Kazuto Ioka arrived in victory at 108 and exits the 105 lb. ratings. Ryo Miyazaki dropped a class to defeat Pornsawan Porpramook for one of the belts the once unified Ioka left behind.
The full results of note and impact on the ratings are a click away.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Ratings Board, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com