Light Heavyweight: 2011, Oct 3-9
In a bit of an upset, #14 Karo Murat managed a split draw with #4 Gabriel Campillo. It was a very back-and-forth fight, in which one fighter would dominate a significant stretch of the fight and then lose control of the style of the fight and get dominated for a while, himself. Campillo falls a spot in the ratings, yielding to Nathan Cleverly, who beat Murat. Murat surges to just behind Campillo at #6. It was a little bit of a close call because now-7th-ranked Gutknecht doesn’t have any black marks on his resume at this weight, but he’s also got only one major win- a stoppage of then-11th-ranked Danny McIntosh. Murat does have the stoppage loss to then-9th-ranked Cleverly, but has now stopped then-#17 Otis Griffin and drawn with 4th-ranked Campillo, which gives him the edge narrowly, for me. This forces down everyone rated #6-13 last week, including Adrian Diaconu, who falls from the top 10 after 8 weeks back in.
2) Tavoris Cloud 3) Chad Dawson 4) Nathan Cleverly 5) Adrian Diaconu
6) Zsolt Erdei 7) Beibut Shumenov
8) Karo Murat 9) Gabriel Campillo 10) Ismayl Sillakh
Champ: Bernard Hopkins (20-278-278)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- UD12 Champ Jean Pascal
Next Fight: 10/15/2011- vs. #2 Chad Dawson Hopkins will defend the title on October 15 against #2 Chad Dawson, who just a year ago was as close to a legit champion as you could be without having beaten a Champion or #1 contender before he was shockingly upset by Jean Pascal. The fight will be on PPV.
1) Jean Pascal (20-120-120)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- L(UD12) vs. #1 Bernard Hopkins
Next Fight: Unknown Pascal, it appears, will return on December 10, but Cloud has now been ruled out as an opponent.
2) Chad Dawson (42-279-279)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- UD12 #11 Adrian Diaconu
Next Fight: 10/15/2011- vs. Champ Bernard Hopkins Dawson will look to finally be crowned as Champion against the man whose refusal to fight him kept him perpetually a step away until recently. 3) Tavoris Cloud (42-110-110)
Last Fight: 6/25/2011- TKO8 #8 Yusaf Mack
Next Fight: Unknown Cloud was deep in discussions for an excellent fight with Pascal, but they failed. 4) Nathan Cleverly (1-87-87)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- TKO4 Alexei Kuziemski (UNR)
Next Fight: 10/15/2011- vs. Tony Bellew (UNR) Cleverly is skipping his mandatory and will fight bitter domestic rival Tony Bellew on October 15. 5) Gabriel Campillo (1-67-67)
Last Fight: 10/1/2011- Draw (SD12) vs. #14 Karo Murat
Next Fight: Unknown Campillo had my sympathy after being robbed against Shumenov, but hasn’t helped his case with a long stretch of inactivity against good fighters followed by a back-and-forth draw with Murat. 6) Karo Murat (1-1-22) Last Fight: 10/1/2011- Draw (SD12) vs. #4 Gabriel Campillo Next Fight: Unknown I never thought this would happen, but I now rate the long-overrated Murat even higher than does Ring Magazine. 7) Eduard Gutknecht (1-22-22) Last Fight: 7/16/2011- UD12 Lorenzo Di Giacomo (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Ho-hum victory over Di Giacomo. Hopefully he steps back up soon.
8) Beibut Shumenov (1-63-67) Last Fight: 7/29/2011- TKO9 Danny Santiago (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown 9) Yusaf Mack (1-31-67)
Last Fight: 6/25/2011- L(TKO8) vs. #3 Tavoris Cloud
Next Fight: Unknown Mack looks a little too small to compete with the top guys at this weight, but still has a good enough resume to avoid dropping too far. 10) Dmitri Sukhotski (1-20-49) Last Fight: 3/11/2011- TKO5 Konstantin Piternov (UNR) Next Fight: 10/8/2011- vs. Nadjib Mohammedi (UNR) Sukhotski is set to fight Mohammedi this weekend in Russia.
11) Adrian Diaconu (1-230)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- L(UD12) vs. #2 Chad Dawson
Next Fight: Unknown A quality fighter, Diaconu is nevertheless slipping in the rankings simply because he never wins against anyone above the journeyman level. He ought to try and find some kind of mid-range fringe contender just to get a decent win, because fighting journeymen or top contenders isn’t working out for him.
12) Ismayl Sillakh (1-38) Last Fight: 5/21/2011- TKO3 Hamza Wandera (UNR) (as CW) Next Fight: Unknown The WBC has ordered a tournament to determine their mandatory challenger to Hopkins, involving Sillakh, Chris Henry, Shumenov, and Erdei. The only one that appears interested is Sillakh. 13) Zsolt Erdei (1-46) Last Fight: 6/4/2011- KO6 Byron Mitchell (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown There is some buzz at present about a potential fight with Pascal. 14) Danny McIntosh (1-67)
Last Fight: 5/7/2011- L(TKO8) vs. Eduard Gutknecht (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown Significantly diminished by his loss to Gutknecht, but still has a better win in Thierry Karl than the two guys rated immediately below him: Karo Murat and…well…Thierry Karl. 15) Yordanis Despaigne (9-10) Last Fight: 7/29/2011- W(DQ5) vs. Edison Miranda (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown There was talk immediately after the Miranda fight of a rematch taking place, but no new news on that. 16) Jesus Gonzales (9-13) Last Fight: 7/8/2011- UD12 Francisco Sierra (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown His present and future are probably both at 168, but he beat a good enough light heavyweight to earn this ranking, nevertheless. 17) Thierry Karl (9-67) Last Fight: 1/22/2011- L (TKO11) vs. #17 Danny McIntosh
Next Fight: Unknown Will probably see a long layoff and a few tune-ups after being stopped by McIntosh. Karl might be done as a major contender. 18) Luis Garcia (9-38) Last Fight: 11/6/2010- TKO2 Byron Mitchell (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 19) Dyah Davis (9-28) Last Fight: 4/8/2011- UD10* Marcus Johnson (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Pulled off a bit of an upset in beating hot prospect Marcus Johnson on ShoBox. Seems to be a magnet for controversial scoring, though, as he’s now been on both the good and bad side of at least debatable scorecards in his last two fights. 20) Marcus Johnson (9-9) Last Fight: 4/8/2011- L*(UD10) vs. #19 Dyah Davis Next Fight: Unknown Got bounced for just a week before Glen Johnson kindly excused himself from the ratings.
Later in the night on the Martinez-Barker undercard, African rising star Isaac Chilemba knocked out gatekeeper Jameson Bostic in the 2nd round. Chilemba is already rated at Super Middleweight (which it looks like he’ll soon vacate), but falls just short of a rating here.
For comparison, here are the current Ring Magazine Ratings: Champ: Bernard Hopkins 1) Jean Pascal
2) Tavoris Cloud 3) Chad Dawson 4) Nathan Cleverly 5) Adrian Diaconu
6) Zsolt Erdei 7) Beibut Shumenov
8) Karo Murat 9) Gabriel Campillo 10) Ismayl Sillakh
Dan’s Top 20
Champ: Bernard Hopkins (20-278-278)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- UD12 Champ Jean Pascal
Next Fight: 10/15/2011- vs. #2 Chad Dawson Hopkins will defend the title on October 15 against #2 Chad Dawson, who just a year ago was as close to a legit champion as you could be without having beaten a Champion or #1 contender before he was shockingly upset by Jean Pascal. The fight will be on PPV.
1) Jean Pascal (20-120-120)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- L(UD12) vs. #1 Bernard Hopkins
Next Fight: Unknown Pascal, it appears, will return on December 10, but Cloud has now been ruled out as an opponent.
2) Chad Dawson (42-279-279)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- UD12 #11 Adrian Diaconu
Next Fight: 10/15/2011- vs. Champ Bernard Hopkins Dawson will look to finally be crowned as Champion against the man whose refusal to fight him kept him perpetually a step away until recently. 3) Tavoris Cloud (42-110-110)
Last Fight: 6/25/2011- TKO8 #8 Yusaf Mack
Next Fight: Unknown Cloud was deep in discussions for an excellent fight with Pascal, but they failed. 4) Nathan Cleverly (1-87-87)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- TKO4 Alexei Kuziemski (UNR)
Next Fight: 10/15/2011- vs. Tony Bellew (UNR) Cleverly is skipping his mandatory and will fight bitter domestic rival Tony Bellew on October 15. 5) Gabriel Campillo (1-67-67)
Last Fight: 10/1/2011- Draw (SD12) vs. #14 Karo Murat
Next Fight: Unknown Campillo had my sympathy after being robbed against Shumenov, but hasn’t helped his case with a long stretch of inactivity against good fighters followed by a back-and-forth draw with Murat. 6) Karo Murat (1-1-22) Last Fight: 10/1/2011- Draw (SD12) vs. #4 Gabriel Campillo Next Fight: Unknown I never thought this would happen, but I now rate the long-overrated Murat even higher than does Ring Magazine. 7) Eduard Gutknecht (1-22-22) Last Fight: 7/16/2011- UD12 Lorenzo Di Giacomo (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Ho-hum victory over Di Giacomo. Hopefully he steps back up soon.
8) Beibut Shumenov (1-63-67) Last Fight: 7/29/2011- TKO9 Danny Santiago (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown 9) Yusaf Mack (1-31-67)
Last Fight: 6/25/2011- L(TKO8) vs. #3 Tavoris Cloud
Next Fight: Unknown Mack looks a little too small to compete with the top guys at this weight, but still has a good enough resume to avoid dropping too far. 10) Dmitri Sukhotski (1-20-49) Last Fight: 3/11/2011- TKO5 Konstantin Piternov (UNR) Next Fight: 10/8/2011- vs. Nadjib Mohammedi (UNR) Sukhotski is set to fight Mohammedi this weekend in Russia.
11) Adrian Diaconu (1-230)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- L(UD12) vs. #2 Chad Dawson
Next Fight: Unknown A quality fighter, Diaconu is nevertheless slipping in the rankings simply because he never wins against anyone above the journeyman level. He ought to try and find some kind of mid-range fringe contender just to get a decent win, because fighting journeymen or top contenders isn’t working out for him.
12) Ismayl Sillakh (1-38) Last Fight: 5/21/2011- TKO3 Hamza Wandera (UNR) (as CW) Next Fight: Unknown The WBC has ordered a tournament to determine their mandatory challenger to Hopkins, involving Sillakh, Chris Henry, Shumenov, and Erdei. The only one that appears interested is Sillakh. 13) Zsolt Erdei (1-46) Last Fight: 6/4/2011- KO6 Byron Mitchell (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown There is some buzz at present about a potential fight with Pascal. 14) Danny McIntosh (1-67)
Last Fight: 5/7/2011- L(TKO8) vs. Eduard Gutknecht (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown Significantly diminished by his loss to Gutknecht, but still has a better win in Thierry Karl than the two guys rated immediately below him: Karo Murat and…well…Thierry Karl. 15) Yordanis Despaigne (9-10) Last Fight: 7/29/2011- W(DQ5) vs. Edison Miranda (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown There was talk immediately after the Miranda fight of a rematch taking place, but no new news on that. 16) Jesus Gonzales (9-13) Last Fight: 7/8/2011- UD12 Francisco Sierra (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown His present and future are probably both at 168, but he beat a good enough light heavyweight to earn this ranking, nevertheless. 17) Thierry Karl (9-67) Last Fight: 1/22/2011- L (TKO11) vs. #17 Danny McIntosh
Next Fight: Unknown Will probably see a long layoff and a few tune-ups after being stopped by McIntosh. Karl might be done as a major contender. 18) Luis Garcia (9-38) Last Fight: 11/6/2010- TKO2 Byron Mitchell (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 19) Dyah Davis (9-28) Last Fight: 4/8/2011- UD10* Marcus Johnson (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Pulled off a bit of an upset in beating hot prospect Marcus Johnson on ShoBox. Seems to be a magnet for controversial scoring, though, as he’s now been on both the good and bad side of at least debatable scorecards in his last two fights. 20) Marcus Johnson (9-9) Last Fight: 4/8/2011- L*(UD10) vs. #19 Dyah Davis Next Fight: Unknown Got bounced for just a week before Glen Johnson kindly excused himself from the ratings.
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