Rng Rankings Update – Reshuffle at Light Heavyweight & Featherweight

[Ruthless-RKO]

Feathweight

The action started with Josh Warrington’s gutsy split decision victory over IBF featherweight titleholder Lee Selby on his home turf of Leeds, England. Warrington (26-0, 7 knockouts), who entered the bout (which was streamed on Showtime’s Facebook page in the U.S.) as THE RING’s No. 9-rated 126 pounder and a decided underdog despite hometown advantage, lifted Selby’s IBF belt. Selby (26-2, 9 KOs), a respected Welsh boxer and THE RING’s No. 5-rated featherweight, lost for the first time since dropping a four-rounder in his fifth pro bout back in 2009.

The other 126-pound title bout featured THE RING’s No. 3-rated contender Gary Russell Jr. in the third defense of his WBC belt against mandatory challenger (and THE RING’s No. 7-rated featherweight) Joseph Diaz Jr. in his home region of Oxon Hill, Maryland. Russell (29-1, 17 KOs), whose only loss is a majority 2014 decision to Vasiliy Lomachenko, outworked, outboxed and outmaneuvered the game-but-still-a-bit-green Diaz (26-1, 14 KOs) to a unanimous decision in a bout that was competitive in the early rounds but controlled by the 29-year-old defending titleholder in the middle and late rounds.

THE RING Ratings Panel voted to move Russell up one spot in the rankings. Warrington advanced to No. 6. Selby drops to No. 7 and Diaz dips to No. 8. The new RING featherweight rankings is as follows:

1. Leo Santa Cruz, 2. Russell, 3. Carl Frampton, 4. Oscar Valdez, 5. Abner Mares, 6. Warrington, 7. Selby, 8. Diaz, 9. Jesus Rojas, and 10. Scott Quigg

Light heavyweight

In the most dramatic fight of the night, Adonis Stevenson, THE RING’s No. 2-rated light heavyweight, retained his WBC belt for the ninth time with a majority draw against Badou Jack, who was the magazine’s No. 8 contender going into the title bout held in Toronto, Canada.

Some members of the Panel thought Jack proved that he was at least on par with Stevenson and deserved to be side-by-side with the long-reigning beltholder in the rankings, thus suggesting a jump all the way to No. 3. Others thought a No. 3 ranking was too high for Jack, who they thought gave the fight away by boxing too tentatively during the first six rounds of the bout.

“That fight was boring for six rounds before igniting,” said Martin Mulcahey. “Jack has no one to blame but himself for taking the first three rounds off. I think Badou would be too high at No. 3 given that he has yet to beat a top-five light heavyweight, so I would move him to No. 5 until he does.”

A member of the Editorial Board suggested dropping Stevenson in the rankings because he thought the 40 year old looked every bit of his age in gassing out as soon as Jack began to apply pressure. He also felt that Jack “beat the s__t” out Stevenson in the rounds that he won.

We ultimately decided to drop Stevenson to No. 3 and advance the hard-luck Jack to No. 4. The new 175-pound line up is as follows:

1. Sergey Kovalev, 2. Dmitry Bivol, 3. Stevenson, 4. Jack, 5. Eleider Alvarez, 6. Oleksandr Gvozdyk, 7. Artur Beterbiev, 8. Sullivan Barrera, 9. Marcus Browne, and 10. Joe Smith Jr.
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Other divisional rankings updates:

Bantamweight – No. 10-rated Jason Moloney (17-0, 14 KOs) moved up a spot to No. 9 after stopping Japanese veteran Kohei Kono after six rounds on Saturday in Australia.

Junior flyweight – No. 6-rated Hekkie Budler traveled from South Africa to Japan where he narrowly outpointed heavily favored RING champ Ryoichi Taguchi by unanimous scores of 114-113 on Sunday.

Strawweight – No. 3-rated Hiroto Kyoguchi (10-0, 7 KOs) keeps his rankings after getting up off the canvas to outpoint 19-year-old Filipino prospect Vince Paras (13-1, 11 KOs) and retain his IBF title by unanimous decision in the co-feature to Taguchi-Budler.

[JCS]

Wow, a New Ring Champion? Should've been in PTBF.

Kind of sad that out of 17 divisions, there's only 4 champions?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Wow, a New Ring Champion? Should've been in PTBF.

Kind of sad that out of 17 divisions, there's only 4 champions?

Goes to show how often the best fight the best. Over the years, it was any 2 fighters in their top 5 that could fight for the vacant title.