Erik Badillo’s win last month in a WBC junior flyweight title eliminator has also landed him a top ranking with the WBO.
Badillo, 18-0 (8 KOs), won a wide decision on July 12 over Gerardo Zapata. That put him in position to challenge for the WBC belt, which newly belongs to Carlos Canizales following his rematch win over Panya Pradabsri on August 1.
And now the WBO’s ratings update – released August 21 and reflecting results through August 15 – has Badillo at No. 1 at 108lbs as well.
The WBO’s previous No. 1 was Vince Paras, who had just been inserted into that slot last month. And as we noted last month, Paras’ ranking was incredibly dubious given that he hadn’t competed at junior flyweight in nearly seven years, dating back to a September 2018 decision loss to Jonathan Taconing.
At last, the WBO has corrected the situation in its most recent update by ranking Paras in the 12th slot at 115lbs.
That left Paras’ former position open for Badillo, who leapfrogged Regie Suganob (still No. 2) and Shokichi Iwata (still No. 3).
The WBO belt is held by Rene Santiago, 14-4 (9 KOs). In March, Santiago traveled to Japan and upset Iwata via unanimous decision for the title.
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.
