Here are The Ring’s top 10 for comparison purposes:
1) Andre Ward 2) Carl Froch 3) Lucian Bute 4) Mikkel Kessler
5) Robert Stieglitz
6) Sakio Bika 7) Glen Johnson 8) Arthur Abraham 9) Thomas Oosthuizen 10) George Groves
Dan’s Top 20 Champ: None
1) Andre Ward (48-127-127)
Last Fight: 5/14/2011- UD12 #6 Arthur Abraham
Next Fight: 12/17/2011- vs. #2 Carl Froch Ward-Froch has been rescheduled for December 17 in Atlantic City. 2) Carl Froch (48-280-280)
Last Fight: 6/4/2011- W(MD12) vs. #12 Glen Johnson
Next Fight: 12/17/2011- vs. #1 Andre Ward See Ward’s comments above. 3) Lucian Bute (48-289-289)
Last Fight: 7/9/2011- KO4 Jean Paul Mendy (UNR)
Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. #13 Glen Johnson Bute passed up Mikkel Kessler for a potentially slightly easier night with #12 Glen Johnson in early November.
4) Mikkel Kessler (48-359-359)
Last Fight: 6/4/2011- TKO6 Mehdi Bouadla (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown Date- vs. #5 Robert Stieglitz Kessler had surgery for a broken finger last week, and the Stieglitz bout figures to be postponed for a good long while.
5) Robert Stieglitz (29-113-113)
Last Fight: 4/9/2011- W(DQ10) vs. Khoren Gevor (UNR)
Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. #4 Mikkel Kessler See Kessler’s notes above. 6) Thomas Oosthuizen (8-21-69)
Last Fight: 9/3/2011- UD12 #9 Aaron Pryor, Jr.
Next Fight: 11/23/2011- vs. Unknown Opponent Oosthuizen will fight on November 23. Maxim Vlasov was originally the opponent, but backed out shortly thereafter. 7) Arthur Abraham (8-105-105)
Last Fight: 5/14/2011- L(UD12) vs. #1 Andre Ward
Next Fight: Unknown Abraham now expects to fight in December in Germany.
8) Dimitri Sartison (8-65-69)
Last Fight: 7/31/2010- UD12 Khoren Gevor (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown Sartison badly injured his knee in training and will be out until about October. He will be given adequate time to schedule a fight thereafter without being removed. I probably won’t even consider removing him until February.
9) Peter Quillin (8-26-26) Last Fight: 7/23/2011- TKO5 Jason LeHoullier (UNR) Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. Craig McEwan (UNR) Quillin will fight Craig McEwan on the Angulo-Kirkland undercard in Cancun on November 5. 10) Sakio Bika (8-8-238)
Last Fight: 11/27/2010- L(UD12) vs. #2 Andre Ward
Next Fight: Unknown 11) Andy Lee (4-33) Last Fight: 10/1/2011- UD10 #14 Bryan Vera Next Fight: Unknown Exorcised whatever demons he had left in his career with the win over Vera, and is now ready to move on like the sure-fire contender he was originally seen as. 12) Aaron Pryor, Jr. (4-25) Last Fight: 9/3/2011- L(UD12) vs. #10 Thomas Oosthuizen Next Fight: 12/10/2011- vs. Adonis Stevenson (UNR) Pryor looks to rebound from his momentum-halting loss to Oosthuizen with another tough fight against human highlight reel Adonis Stevenson in October. 13) Glen Johnson (4-51) Last Fight: 6/4/2011- L(MD12) vs. #2 Carl Froch Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. #3 Lucian Bute With no apparent buzz leading up to the announcement, Johnson suddenly had a fight signed with Bute for November. 14) Isaac Chilemba (4-69) Last Fight: 3/26/2011- UD12 Vikapita Meroro (UNR) (at LHW)
Next Fight: Unknown Chilemba seems to be toying with the idea of moving up to 175. We’ll have to see if he ultimately takes that route or not.
15) Bryan Vera (4-38) Last Fight: 10/1/2011- L(UD10) vs. #15 Andy Lee Next Fight: Unknown Totally outclassed by Lee in the rematch of a fight he won last time around. 16) Librado Andrade (9-9) Last Fight: 8/27/2011- TKO3 Matt O’Brien (UNR) Next Fight: 12/17/2011- vs. Don George (UNR) Andrade has not been deterred from fighting top prospects after the Pryor loss, and is now scheduled to fight knockout artist Don George in December. 17) Jesus Gonzalez (9-16) Last Fight: 7/8/2011- UD12 Francisco Sierra (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown With a fairly comfortable win over a generally solid and much bigger opponent, Gonzalez finds his way easily within the top 20. 18) James DeGale (2-2) Last Fight: 10/15/2011- W(MD12) vs. Piotr Wilczewski (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown DeGale finally gets a measure of justice after a questionable loss to Groves now that he has another good win under his belt, albeit a close one. He already appears to have Italian journeyman Cristian Sanavia in line as his next opponent, likely in December.
19) George Groves (2-23) Last Fight: 5/21/2011- W(MD12*) vs. #20 James DeGale
Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. Paul Smith (UNR) Groves and Smith were originally scheduled to fight December 17, but perhaps because of a conflict with Ward-Froch, it has been moved up to November 5. 20) Ezequiel Maderna (2-34) Last Fight: 8/28/2011- TKO3 Jorge Rodriguez Olivera (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown
The Week Ahead: No notable fights at 168 this week for a second week in a row. This was to be the week of Ward-Froch originally.