Bad Left Hook Boxing Rankings (Sept. 17, 2019): Tyson Fury gets gritty, holds onto top spot at heavyweight

Rankings will be posted Tuesdays at Noon ET.

This week’s ranked fights:

• Cruiserweight: (7) Kevin Lerena vs Sefer Seferi, Sept. 21
• Super Featherweight: (6) Joseph Diaz Jr vs Jesus Cuadro, Sept. 21

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Notes: Tyson Fury remains the No. 1 fighter in the division, at least for me, for now. He fought through an ugly cut that took away half his vision on Saturday and still got the duke over a very determined Otto Wallin, who wasn’t half the mug that Tom Schwarz was in June. You’d be reasonable to question Fury a bit more coming out of the fight, though; Wallin had never fought near top level and nobody expected him to make much of the fight. But he did, so is that a knock on Fury or credit to Wallin? Frankly, we can make guesses on that now, but they’d just be guesses. We’ll have to see more of Wallin in with other type fighters to get a better perspective on it. Personally, I’m chalking it up to a tough fight for Fury where he proved he still has the stomach for a tough fight. Based on him being competitive with Fury, I also considered sliding Wallin into the No. 10 spot, but have decided against it for the time being. Again, I can’t really be sure about Wallin just yet, even based on a valiant performance. We need to see if maybe Wallin fought the fight of his life aided by the cut on Fury — a fair cut, mind you, it came from a legal blow — or if he really is a serious new contender at heavyweight.

Upcoming Fights: (9) Joseph Parker vs Dereck Chisora, Oct. 26 ... (3) Andy Ruiz Jr vs (4) Anthony Joshua, Dec. 7 ... (2) Deontay Wilder vs (6) Luis Ortiz, TBA ... (1) Tyson Fury vs (2) Deontay Wilder, Feb. 22

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyrone Spong, Oct. 12 [heavyweight] ... (2) Mairis Briedis vs (4) Yuniel Dorticos, Dec. 4

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Nots: The big news of the week at 175 is we’re getting Canelo’s move up to face Kovalev on Nov. 2. If Canelo wins I might do a gimmick where I rank him at 160, 168, and 175 simultaneously. It’d be defensible — he’d have titles at 160 and 175, and the WBA is letting him keep their secondary “world” belt at 168 — but it’s something I generally like to avoid doing. This would be too fun, though.

Upcoming Fights: (3) Dmitry Bivol vs TBA, Oct. 12 ... (1) Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs (2) Artur Beterbiev, Oct. 18 ... (4) Sergey Kovalev vs Canelo Alvarez, Nov. 2

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Notes: There could be movement here next week. Peter Quillin faces Alfredo Angulo on Saturday, and we’ll see how that goes. Angulo is a punching bag at higher levels in recent years, but if the winner looks good, it’s not as if Rocky Fielding has a firm grip on that No. 10 spot or anything. In fact, the last three spots here are pretty open — Truax is on the shelf, and Ryder and Fielding are somewhat shaky cases, with due respect to both. 168 should get an infusion soon from Daniel Jacobs, at the very least.

Upcoming Fights: (2) David Benavidez vs (4) Anthony Dirrell, Sept. 28 ... (1) Callum Smith vs (9) John Ryder, TBA ... (6) Billy Joe Saunders vs TBA, Nov. 9 ... (10) Rocky Fielding vs TBA, Nov. 15

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Upcoming Fights: (2) Gennadiy Golovkin vs (5) Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Oct. 5 ... (1) Canelo Alvarez vs Sergey Kovalev [light heavyweight], Nov. 2

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Notes: Here’s the thing. I like Jaime Munguia as a fighter in many ways. I think he’s great television, I’ll always be happy to watch him go out there and throw punches, and at 154 he’s dangerous because he’s a bit of a weight bully, clearly bigger in the ring than his opponents. (I’m not even really knocking this, if you make weight, you make weight.) But he’s very limited, and despite his smash job on No. 138 Patrick Allotey on Saturday, he showed the limitations again. Allotey had success early. Then Jaime found him and broke him down, and Allotey looked pretty disinterested in taking punches. The talk going in was it would be Munguia’s last fight at 154 before a move to 160, but post-fight Jaime kinda downplayed that, leaving the door open to fighting at 154. I’m not sure he’s as anxious to go up to middleweight as the promoters are to get him there.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Julian Williams vs (2) Jarrett Hurd, Dec. 14

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Notes: Since they can’t get him a fight, maybe Top Rank and ESPN should try to get Bud Crawford on a reality show or something.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Errol Spence Jr vs (4) Shawn Porter, Sept. 28 ... (10) Kudratillo Abdukakhorov vs Luis Collazo, Oct. 18

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Notes: Zepeda was skillful and largely effective in beating Jose Pedraza, a two-division titleholder who was coming up from 135. Pedraza is inconsistent as all hell, but it’s still a good win for Zepeda, who expressed interest in rematching Jose Ramirez, but Ramirez is injured at the moment and will have two mandatories to take care of when he returns. So that’s probably not on the table right now, really.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Regis Prograis vs (2) Josh Taylor, Oct. 26

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Notes: Two fighters drop out, with Jose Pedraza moving up to 140 and losing to Jose Zepeda, and last week’s No. 10, Zaur Abdullaev, getting his face crushed by Devin Haney on Friday. So that meant two openings. I went with Nakatani, who proved no joke against Teofimo Lopez and has long been a top domestic lightweight in Japan, and ... well, the last spot was tougher. I went with Jorge Linares, whose intention is to fight at 135 again when he’s fighting seriously. He returned on Sept. 7 in Japan with an easy win, weighing in at 137, following his ill-advised move to 140 resulting in a TKO loss to Pablo Cesar Cano in January. It kinda came down to Linares or Anthony Crolla for me. But either way, both of those guys are kinda old guard at the weight at this point — this is a division moving toward the future with Lopez, Haney, and maybe Ryan Garcia as immediate flag bearers. Or as long as they stay at 135, which in every case could be “not terribly long.” You’ve got a king in Lomachenko and some young stars, though, with plenty of solid contenders between the two sides. It’s a fun division at the moment, at least to think about.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Richard Commey vs (8) Teofimo Lopez, Dec. 14 ... (9) Devin Haney vs TBA, Nov. 9

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Notes: Ito fought on Friday at Korakuen Hall, winning a lightweight bout via sixth round TKO. He might be moving up in weight, but it could also just have been a bounce-back, tune-up sort of fight where he didn’t want to cut all the way down to 130. So he stays here for now.

Upcoming Fights: (6) Joseph Diaz Jr vs Jesus Cuadro, Sept. 21 ... (1) Miguel Berchelt vs Jason Sosa, Nov. 2 ... (5) Jamel Herring vs Lamont Roach Jr, Nov. 9 ... (4) Andrew Cancio vs Rene Alvarado, Nov. 23

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Upcoming Fights: (2) Josh Warrington vs Sofiane Takoucht, Oct. 12 ... (7) Shakur Stevenson vs Joet Gonzalez, Oct. 26 ... (8) Can Xu vs Manny Robles III, Nov. 23 ... (4) Oscar Valdez vs TBA [super featherweight], Nov. 30 ... (5) Carl Frampton vs Isaac Dogboe, Nov. 30

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Notes: I made a change at No. 10, not because Carlos Castro, who sat in the spot before, lost a fight or anything. But when I had that slot to fill a few weeks back, I went with Castro, nudging him over Stephen Fulton and Murodjon Akhmadaliev, with the idea, basically, that MJ was going to have his chance to prove his standing either way on Sept. 13 when he faced Daniel Roman. But Roman pulled out and Akhmadaliev instead had to stay busy. On paper, MJ, Castro, and Fulton have pretty similar résumés as pros, but Akhmadaliev was also a major amateur standout, and right now, I’d pick him over either of those guys. So I’m putting Akhmadaliev in now. Hopefully that Roman fight is rescheduled soon, because it’s a really interesting matchup. Akhmadaliev has flaws, Roman is a true battler, and it could be a hell of a fight.

Upcoming Fights: (6) Isaac Dogboe vs Carl Frampton [featherweight], Nov. 30

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Naoya Inoue vs (3) Nonito Donaire, Nov. 7 ... (6) Nordine Oubaali vs (9) Takuma Inoue, Nov. 7 ... (5) Zolani Tete vs John Riel Casimero, Nov. 23

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Upcoming Fights: (5) Jerwin Ancajas vs Jonathan Rodriguez, Nov. 2

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Notes: Selby and Waseem both fought in Dubai this weekend, winning easy first round knockouts against nobody in particular.

Upcoming Fights: (4) Julio Cesar Martinez vs (5) Charlie Edwards, TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (2) Hiroto Kyoguchi vs Tetsuya Hisada, Oct. 1 ... (8) Milan Melindo vs Junto Nakatani [super flyweight], Oct. 5

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Wanheng Menayothin vs (3) Simpiwe Konkco, Oct. 25