Bad Left Hook Boxing Rankings (Mar. 3, 2020): Roman Gonzalez ‘back’ at 115, Mikey Garcia back in the rankings at all

Rankings will be posted each Tuesday at Noon ET.

Ranked fights this week:

• Junior Featherweight: (5) TJ Doheny vs Ionut Baluta, Mar. 6

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Notes: Parker stayed busy this past weekend with a win over a game but overmatched Shawndell Winters, making it three straight tune-up wins for the Kiwi former titleholder. Parker is playing a pretty smart game right now, I think; he’s still only 28, which makes him the youngest guy in the top 10, and he seems to be biding his time waiting for what he thinks is the right fight. He wants Dereck Chisora (he’s not getting him) and he wants a rematch with Dillian Whyte, which you can understand because Whyte barely survived Parker the first time, and Parker can certainly do better than he did in that fight. And even if the fights he wants don’t come along, by attrition he’ll be back in a world title fight at some point in the next few years, when he’ll still be younger than the rest of these guys, and it’s not as if there’s some massive crap of youngsters just soaring up the ranks, either.

Upcoming Fights: (5) Dillian Whyte vs (7) Alexander Povetkin, May 2 ... (10) Oleksandr Usyk vs Dereck Chisora, May 23 ... (2) Anthony Joshua vs (8) Kubrat Pulev, Jun. 20 ... (1) Tyson Fury vs (3) Deontay Wilder, Jul. 18

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Mairis Briedis vs (2) Yuniel Dorticos, Mar. 21

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Artur Beterbiev vs Meng Fanlong, Mar. 28 ... (4) Sergey Kovalev vs Sullivan Barrera, Apr. 25 ... (5) Eleider Alvarez vs (10) Joe Smith Jr, TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (3) Canelo Alvarez vs TBA, May 2 ... (10) Fedor Chudinov vs TBA, Mar. 21

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Canelo Alvarez vs TBA, May 2 ... (2) Gennadiy Golovkin vs Kamil Szeremeta, TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (6) Brian Castano vs (10) Patrick Teixeira, Apr. 25

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Notes: I said last week that if Garcia were impressive against Jessie Vargas, I’d probably rank him. I don’t know how impressive he was — I scored the fight for Vargas, though that’s debatable even to myself — but I think a solid win over a solid fighter like Vargas is enough to claim the No. 10 spot here from Kudratillo Abdukakhorov, who hasn’t exactly been lighting up the airwaves in wins over Keita Obara and Luis Collazo. I’ve said this a million times now, but after the No. 7 spot this division unravels pretty fast into guys who have proven a little but not a lot at 147. Frankly I think you could argue Mikey up to No. 8; he beat Lipinets at 140, and what’s Lipinets done, really? Beat Lamont Peterson? What has Vergil Ortiz done, some good prospect wins? I’ve got Mikey at 10. It might sound crazy, but it’s just that this is a division where there aren’t many good arguments for a spot past Ugas, and eventually overall track record does come into play. Garcia has that in spades. He got smoked by Spence last year, but a lot of No. 10s would get smoked by a division’s No. 1 or 2.

Upcoming Fights: (9) Vergil Ortiz Jr vs Samuel Vargas, Mar. 28 ... (8) Sergey Lipinets vs (10) Kudratillo Abdukakhorov, May 16

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Upcoming Fights: (3) Regis Prograis vs (4) Maurice Hooker, Apr. 17 ... (1) Josh Taylor vs Apinun Khongsong, May 2 ... (2) Jose Ramirez vs (6) Viktor Postol, May 9

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Upcoming Fights: (4) Luke Campbell vs (7) Javier Fortuna, Apr. 17 ... (1) Vasiliy Lomachenko vs (2) Teofimo Lopez, May 30

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Upcoming Fights: TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (3) Shakur Stevenson vs Miguel Marriaga, Mar. 14 ... (7) Jessie Magdaleno vs Sakaria Lukas, Mar. 14 ... (9) Ryan Walsh vs Jazza Dickens, TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (5) TJ Doheny vs Ionut Baluta, Mar. 6 ... (10) Azat Hovhannisyan vs Jose Sanmartin, Mar. 28

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Upcoming Fights: (2) Luis Nery vs Aaron Alameda [junior featherweight], Mar. 28 ... (1) Naoya Inoue vs (5) John Riel Casimero, Apr. 25 ... (8) Jason Moloney vs Joshua Greer, Apr. 25 ... (3) Nordine Oubaali vs (4) Nonito Donaire, TBA

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Notes: Some reshuffling here. Donnie Nietes is out; he was No. 3 before, but he hasn’t fought since Dec. 2018 and at this point was just taking up a spot with nothing in the works. I don’t stick to the one-year thing hard and fast because sometimes there are odd circumstances, but this isn’t that odd. He had a belt and gave it up and has done nothing since. Anyway, the big jump comes from Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, who didn’t just beat Kal Yafai to win the WBA title, he dominated Kal Yafai, showing himself to be simply on another level. Gonzalez is back up to No. 3 in the division, leapfrogging fellow titleholders Ioka and Ancajas, the latter of which wasn’t much of a tough call at all. With Nietes dropping out, the second half of the top 10 stays the same-ish, with Andrew Moloney hopping up to No. 6 and Jeyvier Cintron coming in at No. 10.

Upcoming Fights: (4) Kazuto Ioka vs Kosei Tanaka, TBA

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Notes: Julio Cesar Martinez ticks up to No. 2, switching spots with Moruti Mthalane, and with Kosei Tanaka’s time in the division about up, that’s really the argument for No. 1 at this point. Martinez’ win over Jay Harris was a terrific fight, and while Harris lost clean and clear, I’ve got him in at No. 8 now; he proved plenty capable of hanging with a top fighter in the division, and looked more like a contender in defeat than some guys do in victory.

Upcoming Fights: (9) Cristofer Rosales vs Szilveszter Kanalas, Mar. 13 ... (10) Muhammad Waseem vs TBA, Mar. 28 ... (5) Charlie Edwards vs TBA [junior bantamweight], Apr. 18 ... (1) Kosei Tanaka vs Kazuto Ioka [junior bantamweight], TBA

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Notes: Minor shuffle here, too, as I decided what’s good for the goose, etc., and Hekkie Budler is out of the rankings after also sitting on the sidelines since Dec. 2018 with nothing on the horizon. That puts Jonathan Gonzalez in at the No. 10 slot.

Upcoming Fights: (4) Felix Alvarado vs (9) DeeJay Kriel, Apr. 25

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Notes: Knockout CP Freshmart won this morning in Thailand, beating Norihito Takaiwa. As usual, Knockout knocked nobody out.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Wanheng Menayothin vs Marco John Rementizo, Apr. 25