Cruiserweight: 2011, Oct 24-30
#5 Marco Huck prevailed over the weekend in an apparently very dirty fight in Ludwigsburg, Germany over Argentine fringe contender Rogelio Rossi. The fight featured knockdowns, point deductions, low blows, and hitting after the bell. A veritable smorgasbord of entertainingly outrageous action. Rossi was down 3 times in total, including a stone-cold knockout in round 5, not long after Huck was docked two points for intentionally hitting after the bell (he said he didn’t hear the bell). On the undercard, novice Welshman Hari Miles ended up hanging in there for the full 8 with #16 Enad Licina, but that would have to be victory enough, as Licina won a foregone conclusion of a unanimous decision.
4) Krzysztof Wlodarczyk
5) Denis Lebedev 6) Troy Ross 7) Antonio Tarver
8) Giacobbe Fragomeni
9) Ola Afolabi
10) Guillermo Jones
Champ: None
1) Denis Lebedev (14-90-90) Last Fight: 5/21/2011- TKO10 Roy Jones, Jr. (UNR) Next Fight: 11/4/2011- vs. James Toney (UNR) Lebedev follows his ugly beat-down of washed-up legend Roy Jones, Jr. with a fight against…washed-up legend James Toney. 2) Antonio Tarver (4-14-14) Last Fight: 7/20/2011- RTD9 #7 Danny Green Next Fight: Unknown Danny Green was looking for a rematch, but after meeting deafening silence from the Tarver camp, has moved on. 3) Yoan Pablo Hernandez (4-70-70) Last Fight: 10/1/2011- W(SD6) vs. #2 Steve Cunningham Next Fight: Unknown Hernandez’s mandatory for now appears to be Troy Ross. It seems possible that popular demand could lead to a rematch with Cunningham, though, too.
4) Steve Cunningham (4-384-384) Last Fight: 10/1/2011- L(SD6) vs. #6 Yoan Pablo Hernandez Next Fight: Unknown Cunningham was all but robbed in his last fight, but left just enough doubt by getting knocked down in the first to leave him behind his opponent in the rankings. 5) Marco Huck (4-255-255) Last Fight: 10/22/2011- KO5 Rogelio Rossi (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Huck may be literally getting too big for his britches, as he has been publicly agitating for a fight with heavyweight #1 contender Vitali Klitschko. Vitali seems to have some interest, and there are talks that the fight might happen in February or March.
6) Ola Afolabi (4-137-137) Last Fight: 9/10/2011- UD8 Lukasz Rusiewicz (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 7) Guillermo Jones (14-56-56) Last Fight: 10/2/2010- TKO11 Valery Brudov (UNR) Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. Michael Marrone (UNR) If it’s still possible to do so, Jones is making a mockery of his alphabet title. He hasn’t fought a mandatory defense in something like 3 years, injury-free, and is now set to fight a joke of a defense against Michael Marrone. 8) Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (30-331-331) Last Fight: 4/2/2011- W(SD12*) vs. Francisco Palacios (UNR) Next Fight: 11/30/2011- vs. #9 Danny Green A really good matchup on tap between Wlodarczyk and Green- two contenders with a lot to prove. 9) Danny Green (14-99-99) Last Fight: 7/20/2011- L(RTD9) vs. Antonio Tarver (UNR) Next Fight: 11/30/2011- vs. #8 Krzysztof Wlodarczyk See Wlodarczyk’s comments, above. 10) Giacobbe Fragomeni (14-154-154) Last Fight: 7/8/2011- UD6 Remigijus Ziausys (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 11) B.J. Flores (2-70) Last Fight: 10/15/2011- UD10 Paul Jennette (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown The natural assumption is that Flores is in line for a shot at Don King stablemate Guillermo Jones. 12) Francisco Palacios (2-30) Last Fight: 4/2/2011- L (SD12*) vs. #6 Krzysztof Wlodarczyk Next Fight: Unknown In my opinion he did just enough to win one of the worst fights I’ve ever seen against Wlodarczyk, so I’m in no hurry to see him again. That being said, he performed well against a top 10 guy and deserved the win on that night, so I can’t exactly ignore that. 13) Lateef Kayode (2-49) Last Fight: 9/9/2011- UD10 Felix Cora, Jr. (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Kayode has engaged in close fights with less-than-stellar opposition in 2 of his last 3 outings. 14) Troy Ross (2-139) Last Fight: 10/30/2010- UD10 Carl Handy (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Ross is reportedly the mandatory challenger for newly (and dubiously) crowned beltholder Yoan Pablo Hernandez. I have not been able to find any reason for Ross not fighting Garrett Wilson on November 19 as had been announced. I talked to Wilson, and even he doesn’t know. I attempted to contact Ross himself, but received no reply. Unfortunately this means I’ve got to remove Ross from the rankings for inactivity next week unless I either hear he’s scheduled a fight or can verify that he tried to make a fight with Wilson and was somehow blameless in withdrawing. 15) Steve Herelius (2-69) Last Fight: 2/12/2011- L(KO7) vs. #6 Yoan Pablo Hernandez Next Fight: Unknown 16) Enad Licina (2-70) Last Fight: 10/22/2011- UD8 Hari Miles (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Date- vs. #18 Alexander Alexeev It appears that the EBU-mandated fight between Licina and Alexeev is essentially made for an unnamed date in January. 17) Firat Arslan (2-15) Last Fight: 7/15/2011- TKO5 Lubos Suda (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Arslan has finally got his comeback on the right track after the Herelius setback by destroying the decent Suda. 18) Alexander Alexeev (2-41) Last Fight: 6/11/2011- TKO2 Damian Norris (UNR) Next Fight: 11/18/2011- vs. Daniel Bruwer (UNR) See Licina’s notes, above. 19) Matt Godfrey (2-6) Last Fight: 6/10/2011- L(UD10) vs. #17 Lateef Kayode Next Fight: Unknown It’s a testament to the stagnation in the bottom half of the rankings that Godfrey- who last had a significant win over 3 years ago- continues to hang around the top 20. 20) Eric Fields (2-2) Last Fight: 9/2/2011- TKO2 Rubin Williams (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Fields is the latest in a fairly long line of iffy candidates to enter in the rankings. He’s a one-loss prospect with a win over marginal gatekeeper Danny Batchelder back in June. What separates him from the 2 or 3 guys he beat out for this spot is the fact that his loss- in 2008 against current #6 Ola Afolabi- is a lot more forgivable than the losses of his competitors.
Since Steve Cunningham is only ranked as low as #4 as a sort of necessary evil, Huck can’t really hope to advance past him by beating a mere fringe contender at this time.
For Comparison, here are the Current Ring Magazine Cruiserweight Rankings: Champ: None 1) Marco Huck 2) Yoan Pablo Hernandez 3) Steve Cunningham
4) Krzysztof Wlodarczyk
5) Denis Lebedev 6) Troy Ross 7) Antonio Tarver
8) Giacobbe Fragomeni
9) Ola Afolabi
10) Guillermo Jones
Champ: None
1) Denis Lebedev (14-90-90) Last Fight: 5/21/2011- TKO10 Roy Jones, Jr. (UNR) Next Fight: 11/4/2011- vs. James Toney (UNR) Lebedev follows his ugly beat-down of washed-up legend Roy Jones, Jr. with a fight against…washed-up legend James Toney. 2) Antonio Tarver (4-14-14) Last Fight: 7/20/2011- RTD9 #7 Danny Green Next Fight: Unknown Danny Green was looking for a rematch, but after meeting deafening silence from the Tarver camp, has moved on. 3) Yoan Pablo Hernandez (4-70-70) Last Fight: 10/1/2011- W(SD6) vs. #2 Steve Cunningham Next Fight: Unknown Hernandez’s mandatory for now appears to be Troy Ross. It seems possible that popular demand could lead to a rematch with Cunningham, though, too.
4) Steve Cunningham (4-384-384) Last Fight: 10/1/2011- L(SD6) vs. #6 Yoan Pablo Hernandez Next Fight: Unknown Cunningham was all but robbed in his last fight, but left just enough doubt by getting knocked down in the first to leave him behind his opponent in the rankings. 5) Marco Huck (4-255-255) Last Fight: 10/22/2011- KO5 Rogelio Rossi (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Huck may be literally getting too big for his britches, as he has been publicly agitating for a fight with heavyweight #1 contender Vitali Klitschko. Vitali seems to have some interest, and there are talks that the fight might happen in February or March.
6) Ola Afolabi (4-137-137) Last Fight: 9/10/2011- UD8 Lukasz Rusiewicz (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 7) Guillermo Jones (14-56-56) Last Fight: 10/2/2010- TKO11 Valery Brudov (UNR) Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. Michael Marrone (UNR) If it’s still possible to do so, Jones is making a mockery of his alphabet title. He hasn’t fought a mandatory defense in something like 3 years, injury-free, and is now set to fight a joke of a defense against Michael Marrone. 8) Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (30-331-331) Last Fight: 4/2/2011- W(SD12*) vs. Francisco Palacios (UNR) Next Fight: 11/30/2011- vs. #9 Danny Green A really good matchup on tap between Wlodarczyk and Green- two contenders with a lot to prove. 9) Danny Green (14-99-99) Last Fight: 7/20/2011- L(RTD9) vs. Antonio Tarver (UNR) Next Fight: 11/30/2011- vs. #8 Krzysztof Wlodarczyk See Wlodarczyk’s comments, above. 10) Giacobbe Fragomeni (14-154-154) Last Fight: 7/8/2011- UD6 Remigijus Ziausys (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 11) B.J. Flores (2-70) Last Fight: 10/15/2011- UD10 Paul Jennette (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown The natural assumption is that Flores is in line for a shot at Don King stablemate Guillermo Jones. 12) Francisco Palacios (2-30) Last Fight: 4/2/2011- L (SD12*) vs. #6 Krzysztof Wlodarczyk Next Fight: Unknown In my opinion he did just enough to win one of the worst fights I’ve ever seen against Wlodarczyk, so I’m in no hurry to see him again. That being said, he performed well against a top 10 guy and deserved the win on that night, so I can’t exactly ignore that. 13) Lateef Kayode (2-49) Last Fight: 9/9/2011- UD10 Felix Cora, Jr. (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Kayode has engaged in close fights with less-than-stellar opposition in 2 of his last 3 outings. 14) Troy Ross (2-139) Last Fight: 10/30/2010- UD10 Carl Handy (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Ross is reportedly the mandatory challenger for newly (and dubiously) crowned beltholder Yoan Pablo Hernandez. I have not been able to find any reason for Ross not fighting Garrett Wilson on November 19 as had been announced. I talked to Wilson, and even he doesn’t know. I attempted to contact Ross himself, but received no reply. Unfortunately this means I’ve got to remove Ross from the rankings for inactivity next week unless I either hear he’s scheduled a fight or can verify that he tried to make a fight with Wilson and was somehow blameless in withdrawing. 15) Steve Herelius (2-69) Last Fight: 2/12/2011- L(KO7) vs. #6 Yoan Pablo Hernandez Next Fight: Unknown 16) Enad Licina (2-70) Last Fight: 10/22/2011- UD8 Hari Miles (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Date- vs. #18 Alexander Alexeev It appears that the EBU-mandated fight between Licina and Alexeev is essentially made for an unnamed date in January. 17) Firat Arslan (2-15) Last Fight: 7/15/2011- TKO5 Lubos Suda (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Arslan has finally got his comeback on the right track after the Herelius setback by destroying the decent Suda. 18) Alexander Alexeev (2-41) Last Fight: 6/11/2011- TKO2 Damian Norris (UNR) Next Fight: 11/18/2011- vs. Daniel Bruwer (UNR) See Licina’s notes, above. 19) Matt Godfrey (2-6) Last Fight: 6/10/2011- L(UD10) vs. #17 Lateef Kayode Next Fight: Unknown It’s a testament to the stagnation in the bottom half of the rankings that Godfrey- who last had a significant win over 3 years ago- continues to hang around the top 20. 20) Eric Fields (2-2) Last Fight: 9/2/2011- TKO2 Rubin Williams (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Fields is the latest in a fairly long line of iffy candidates to enter in the rankings. He’s a one-loss prospect with a win over marginal gatekeeper Danny Batchelder back in June. What separates him from the 2 or 3 guys he beat out for this spot is the fact that his loss- in 2008 against current #6 Ola Afolabi- is a lot more forgivable than the losses of his competitors.
THE WEEK AHEAD: A remarkably slow week in the highest 7 weight divisions in general, but #14 Troy Ross will be removed for inactivity if he does not schedule a fight, and if I do not receive an adequate excuse for the cancellation of his recently-scheduled date with Garrett Wilson.
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