Some healthy movement in this week's boxing rankings update, marking the first weekend with a bunch of shifts this year, as this was the first big weekend in boxing in 2012. Let's run through the changes and non-changes.

Click here for the full rankings!

Super Bantamweight

Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KO) moves in at No. 2 in his new weight class following Saturday's win over Wilfredo Vazquez Jr (21-2-1, 18 KO) in San Antonio. Donaire injured his left hand in the bout, which may have contributed greatly to what was a very good but not thrilling victory against a strong opponent.

As good as Donaire is, I just couldn't see bringing him from No. 1 at bantamweight to No. 1 in the new division, but I do feel as though he absolutely belongs ahead of Guillermo Rigondeaux, who drops a spot to No. 3. Donaire won a title belt, so he's done just about as much at 122 as Rigondeaux has, and Donaire also beat a better fighter in Vazquez than Rigondeaux has beaten to date, and comparing Vazquez to Rico Ramos is in my opinion a no-contest in Vazquez's favor.

Continue reading this post »

We haven't had a proper ratings post in a few weeks, but the ratings have been updated every week, even without any movement as boxing has passed its dead season and now we're starting to get things moving again.

Click here for the full rankings!

Super Bantamweight

With his decisive sixth round knockout of Rico Ramos on Friday night, Guillermo Rigondeaux (9-0, 7 KO) jumps to No. 2 in the division, trailing only Toshiaki Nishioka, a fighter he may be favored to defeat should they ever hook it up, but Nishioka has accomplished much more in the division than Rigondeaux has to this point. Pure talent, Rigondeaux is probably, at current standing, the best 122-pound fighter in the world, though Nonito Donaire will soon be in the discussion, at least if he wins as expected on February 4.

Vanishing from the top ten is the previous No. 2, Ramos. I overrated Ramos for his KO win over Akifumi Shimoda last year, in part because someone had to be No. 2 (Shimoda had been before that fight), and in part because it was a pretty thrilling knockout.

Continue reading this post »

I should probably just move this to officially a Tuesday weekly update, since it seems to work out better that way coming out of busy weekends. Anyway there are some changes at 140 and 112 due to big results this past weekend, and I did some house-cleaning at 160, too.

Click here for the full rankings!

Junior Welterweight

Lamont Peterson, of course, makes the jump from No. 5 up to No. 2 following his Saturday night upset of Amir Khan in Washington, DC. I did score the fight for Khan, personally, but by one point -- it's not exactly tough to see Peterson winning the fight legitimately, I don't think the scoring deserves any great debate whatsoever, and the point deductions which ultimately cost Khan the fight are, in the end, his own fault, particularly the second deduction, without which he would have had a majority draw.

So Peterson jumps up, trailing only Timothy Bradley, whose grip on the No. 1 spot in the division is now 100% firm. There are no more questions for the time being: Tim Bradley is the man at 140.

Continue reading this post »

Plenty of movement after a super busy and eventful weekend in boxing, so let's get to it.

Click here for the full rankings!

Heavyweight

Dereck Chisora is in at No. 10, with former No. 7 Robert Helenius dropping out. I know, I know. Helenius "won." But I felt this was no less a robbery than Paul Williams "beating" Erislandy Lara, and the decision was made then to give Williams zero credit just for getting a bogus +1 in his W column. Helenius gets the same. If you didn't think that fight was a robbery, that's cool -- for one thing, it's just web site rankings, and for another thing, I guess I don't much mind people who are OK with watching rubbish and shrugging their shoulders. Chisora clearly won. It's not even kind of a question.

[ Related: Chisora Robbed in Finland ]

Alexander Povetkin makes no move from No. 5. It's not that he looked bad on Saturday or anything, but end of the day, it was still just Cedric Boswell, and while he may indeed be better than Chris Arreola, and may indeed win that fight, I'm still not sold on the amateur star whose pro career has basically been in one gear forever.

[ Related: Povetkin Knocks Out Boswell ]

Continue reading this post »

Not a lot of big updates here, but a little movement at 154 that is up for debate. This weekend is going to be a big, big, big one for ranked fighters: 17 are in action this week, and there are four fights where ranked fighters face one another.

Click here for the full rankings!

Junior Middleweight

I've moved Canelo Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO) up to No. 3 from No. 5. I did this simply comparing what he'd done against what the guys previously above him have done. Those men are Austin Trout and Carlos Molina.

I've taken a cautionary stance when it comes to ranking Canelo so far, but honestly his 2011 resume is as good as anyone else has done at the weight, if not better. He beat a guy who was top ten at the time (Ryan Rhodes), plus the wins over Gomez, Hatton and Cintron, while not unexpected or earth-shattering, hold up just fine to Molina's win over Cintron and draw with Erislandy Lara, and Trout's wins over Rigoberto Alvarez, David Lopez and the hopeless Frank LoPorto.

Simply put, this entire division, and trying to rank it, is a game of inches. Nobody has separated themselves from the pack at 154 pounds. Miguel Cotto has the best overall resume, but at 154 he's beaten Yuri Foreman, who was never all that good, and Ricardo Mayorga, who hasn't been any good in years. Antonio Margarito has sort of the same issue -- good overall record, little at 154 of note. Everyone else has question marks even with their biggest wins: Was Lara's robbery loss to Paul Williams (we count it a win) all that impressive, or is Williams a severely damaged fighter? Was Kirkland's win over Angulo really all that great, or was Angulo massively overrated and overhyped? What has Martirosyan ever really done? Or Wolak?

But I really do love this weight class, for now. It's right on the line where it could be a great division instead of a division with a bunch of pretty good fighters all not fighting each other.

Continue reading this post »

Rankings usually go up on Monday, but sometimes it slips my mind. So here they are on Tuesday morning!

Click here for the rankings!

Anyway, enough exclamation marks.

Super Bantamweight

Victor Terrazas is in at No. 8, which will be No. 7 next week as Jorge Arce is headed back down to bantamweight on Saturday. Fernando Montiel drops from 8 to 9 after losing to Terrazas. This is still a strong division, one of the more competitive 1-9 in the sport. I could see anyone losing to anyone else in that top nine.

Middleweight

OK, let's talk about Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. His last two performances on HBO have drawn some mildly positive reaction, but that's just not enough. Even though middleweight is still a fairly weak division, Chavez's best wins (Zbik, Manfredo, Duddy) still aren't much. But styles make fights, so how would he do against the top ten guys?

To be perfectly honest, I'd give Chavez a shot to beat any of the top ten except for Sergio Martinez. I would solidly favor a lot of them, but a Chavez upset wouldn't shock me, either. In other words, he's creeping toward the top ten, and if you had him back end over someone like Darren Barker, then I couldn't really argue.

Continue reading this post »

We've got one big change this week in the welterweight division, and a couple minor changes here and there.

Click here for the full rankings!

Welterweight

Headline says it all: There's a new No. 1 in the division, and it is undefeated Floyd "Money" Mayweather, who bumps up from No. 2 after Manny Pacquiao struggled on Saturday night to eke out a razor-thin, passionately-debated majority decision win over lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez.

This is not meant to be some big shot at Pacquiao, for those who aren't regular readers and don't realize we try our very best to not play into the "WHO DO YOU LIKE, FLOYD OR MANNY, IT CAN ONLY BE ONE BECAUSE THE OTHER IS EVIL!" crap. These are two great fighters.

But Mayweather hasn't had a fight like Manny had last night, and even though Floyd is older than Manny, one has to wonder if Pacquiao's greater number of career fights, and more important his greater number of tough fights where he took damage haven't made Manny, physically, a little older than Floyd.

Right now, I just can't see keeping Manny ranked No. 1 in the division. Doesn't compute for me. The top dog is Floyd.

Continue reading this post »

Click here for the full rankings!

A few moves this week, and two pretty significant.

Junior Middleweight

James Kirkland is back in the rankings, coming in at No. 8 after his decimation of Alfredo Angulo on November 5 in Cancun. Angulo, who was ranked No. 5 last week, is out of the rankings for now. He may well come back, but he has to prove something. It's been since April 2010 that he beat even a credible opponent (Joel Julio) who wasn't shot or decidedly overmatched, and Julio was also his best win to date. Angulo just doesn't have enough resume to match his reputation, and he was thrashed over the final five rounds of the Kirkland fight. That could have been a career-changer, and not in a good way.

Continue reading this post »