WBSS - Bantamweights

[DMWordsmith]

Word on the street is that this will be 1 of the 3 divisions announced for this year's WBSS. Apparently Ryan Burnett has already committed, also the winner of McDonnell-Inoue will reportedly be given the #1 seed. Not sure if the loser of that fight retains a spot. Zolani Tete would have to be included obviously. Outside of that I'm not getting too excited about the other possible participants. Paul Butler maybe? Narvaez is still damn good but is older than dirt and is likely gonna get his ass handed to him by Tete on April 21st. Who else does that leave us with? Do we possibly see any other guys move up from super flyweight where there is a lot more depth? Or even a fighter move down from super bantam? Who would you like to see? Not much to work with past those names so here's what I'm going with:

-Ryan Burnett

-Zolani Tete

-Naoya Inoue

-Jamie McDonnell (only if he puts up a good showing vs Inoue)

-Paul Butler

-Kal Yafai (moving up from superfly, already has several fights at bantam)

-Jason Moloney (interesting Australian prospect, stepping up in next fight against Kohei Kono and if he wins convincingly will be ready for this tournament)

-Luis Nery (fought for a long time at bantam, just moved up 2 fights ago and weighed in at 120 both times. Hopefully would still be able to make 118)

I love the WBSS so far, but honestly I feel there are plenty of other divisions they could have went with. Will be interesting to see what the other two will be. Who would be your 8 for bantams?

[jamamb]

burnett
inoue
tete
butler-rodriguez winner
mcdonell (likewise only if a good showing vs inoue)
moloney (i mentioned him as a possibility on another thread, theyve never had an australian wbss fighter either)

maybe then nery could move up like you say. maybe also liborio solis could be an option, or maybe raushee warren could move back up?

i would like one at 175 now: kovalev, bivol, beterbiev, adonis, jack, browne, alvarez, gvodzyk. though i suppose a few of these matches are already scheduled with adonis-jack and kov-browne

[DMWordsmith]

Yes a LHW one would be awesome. Looks like we have similar selections, out of those guys who do you see coming out on top? I don't think there is necessarily a huge favourite, but I would assume the final four would be Burnett, Tete, Nery and Inoue assuming none of them met each other in the first round. Not sure who I would pick out of those 4 I'd have to see how they performed in their first fights before making a decision on that one. Too hard.

[jamamb]

hmmm, not really sure whod win. burnett and tete both look top level to me, hard to split them. inoues a beast but i wonder how moving up will impact him. same goes for nery, especially with physical styles that are a lot about overpowering guys.

butler i think i know his level and while good id doubt hed win

moloney and rodriguez would be more of mysterys. i do like what ive seen of moloney though.