Divisions Affected: P4P, Super Middleweight, Lightweight, Featherweight, Flyweight, Strawweight
Pound-for-Pound: I re-examined the latter part of the list, and after thinking it over, I could find no real reason to keep Rafael Marquez (previously 16) in the list at this point. He's been mostly inactive since March 2008, winning just one fight. He wasn't unimpressive or anything, but there are a lot of terrific fighters in the sport, and right now, Rafael doesn't have the juice to keep his spot. I know a lot of people would say he deserves it, and I don't really argue, but that's just not the way I think about these things.
Entering with a bullet to No. 14 is Lucian Bute. Bute has grown into a sharpshooter with slickness and power. In my estimation, he's the best in the world at 168 pounds. The rest of the list from 14-20 rearranges a bit, with Kelly Pavlik slipping to 17 and Celestino Caballero rising up to 16.
Super Middleweight: Bute holds his No. 1 spot, even strengthens it. The back end shakes up slightly. Librado Andrade falls from No. 8 to No. 10, and could easily fall out of the top ten. The truth is, he's really not very good. As we've said many times, he gets a lot out of a little with his talent. But his losses have come to Bute twice and Mikkel Kessler. Not much to be ashamed of, and when I looked at next few guys that might pop up (Denis Inkin, Karoly Balzsay, Jermain Taylor), I found that in my mind's eye, Andrade wore them down and stopped them all. Robert Stieglitz (who lost to Andrade) and Allan Green move up a spot each to No. 8 and No. 9, and Andrade might well beat both of them, too.
Lightweight: Minor movement. The previous top fight was Juan Manuel Marquez, Edwin Valero, Joan Guzman, Juan Diaz and Ali Funeka. After Funeka's should-have-been win over Guzman on Saturday in Quebec, it now goes Marquez, Valero, Diaz, Funeka and Guzman. That might not seem fitting for Funeka, but it's a good division at the top. Just for the record, and for whatever it's worth, I think Edwin Valero would break Funeka in half with body shots.
Featherweight: Slight re-arranging at the top. Rafael Marquez dips from No. 2 to No. 4. Steven Luevano and Yuriorkis Gamboa move up a spot each. Featherweight will really look different after that HBO card in January with Luevano-Lopez and Gamboa-Mtagwa.
Flyweight: Koki Kameda springs from No. 3 to No. 1 with his win over Daisuke Naito, who drops a spot to No. 2. Other than that and previous No. 2 Pongsaklek Wonjongkam dropping a spot, everything stays the same. Luis Concepcion's win over Roberto Leyval in Panama keeps him steady at No. 8.
Strawweight: No shifts, but fourth-ranked Oleydong Sithsamserchai won this weekend.