Dan's Weekly Boxer Rankings and Blog

#20 Marcus Johnson fought a stay-busy 6-rounder against journeyman Billy Bailey in Houston Saturday, scoring a shutout and apparently a knockdown, too, as all 3 judges had it 60-53.  Friday, Enzo Maccarinelli was back in action for the first time in over a year, in a fight that was supposed to represent the first in his move to light heavyweight.  In reality, neither he nor undefeated/untested Hungarian prospect Gyorgi Marosi made 175, with both being 2-3 pounds over.  In any case, the former cruiserweight contender wasted no time- winning by a first round TKO in London.  Also on Saturday, undefeated Australian prospect Blake Caparello kept up his career-long winning streak by stopping 5-1 fellow Australian Michael Van Nimwegen in 7.  And in Saturday’s other action, French gatekeeper Nadjib Mohammedi knocked out low-level Ghanaian journeyman Ayitey Powers in the final round of an 8-rounder in Algeria.

 

No changes in the rankings.

 

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 (27-285-285)
Last Fight: 10/15/2011- NC* vs. #2 Chad Dawson
Next Fight: Unknown

The first official blow against Pat Russell’s bad TKO decision has been struck, as the WBC announced that its title would stay with Hopkins despite the call.

1) Jean Pascal (27-127-127)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- L(UD12) vs. #1 Bernard Hopkins
Next Fight: Unknown

Dawson wants Pascal, but a Dawson-Hopkins rematch may supersede that before it’s all said and done.

2) Chad Dawson (49-286-286)
Last Fight: 10/15/2011- NC* vs. Champ Bernard Hopkins
Next Fight: Unknown

See Hopkins’ notes, above.

3) Tavoris Cloud (49-117-117)
Last Fight: 6/25/2011- TKO8 #8 Yusaf Mack
Next Fight: 12/31/2011- vs. #14 Zsolt Erdei

Cloud looks to close out the year in fine fashion by beating arguable lineal title claimant Zsolt Erdei as the ball drops on 2011.

4) Gabriel Campillo (6-74-74)
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.

5) Nathan Cleverly (6-94-94)
Last Fight: 10/15/2011- W*(MD12) vs. Tony Bellew (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown

The WBO has ordered him to fight Dmitri Sukhotski in 2012.

6) Karo Murat (8-8-29)

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) Tony Bellew (6-6-6)

Last Fight: 10/15/2011- L*(MD12) vs. #4 Nathan Cleverly

Next Fight: Unknown

Deserved better than a majority decision loss against Cleverly.  I thought he won the fight or deserved, at worst, a draw.

8) Eduard Gutknecht (6-29-29)

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.

9) Beibut Shumenov (6-70-74)

Last Fight: 7/29/2011- TKO9 Danny Santiago (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown

10) Yusaf Mack (6-38-74)
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.

11) Dmitri Sukhotski (6-56)

Last Fight: 10/8/2011- TKO2 Nadjib Mohammedi (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

See Cleverly’s notes, above.
12) Adrian Diaconu (6-237)
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.

13) Ismayl Sillakh (6-45)

Last Fight: 11/4/2011- TKO4 Ali Ismailov (UNR) (at CW)

Next Fight: Unknown

14) Zsolt Erdei (6-53)

Last Fight: 6/4/2011- KO6 Byron Mitchell (UNR)

Next Fight: 12/31/2011- vs. #3 Tavoris Cloud (UNR)

See Cloud’s notes, above.

15) Danny McIntosh (6-74)
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.

16) Yordanis Despaigne (6-17)

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.

17) Jesus Gonzales (6-20)

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.

18) Thierry Karl (6-74)

Last Fight: 11/5/2011- KO1 Mile Nikolic (UNR) (at CW)
Next Fight: Unknown

Karl is a threat to be removed in late January if he doesn’t schedule a light heavyweight fight soon.

19) Dyah Davis (3-35)

Last Fight: 10/21/2011- UD6 Darnell Boone (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

20) Marcus Johnson (3-3)

Last Fight: 11/19/2011- UD6 Billy Bailey (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

 

The Week Ahead: Undefeated Cuban Luis Garcia- who was removed from his #19 spot in the rankings 3 weeks ago for inactivity- is scheduled for fight against an unannounced opponent.  This fight was made too late to save him from losing his ranking, but will likely get him a spot back if he avoids losing.

This entry was posted on December 25, 2011 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Light Heavyweight, Rankings with tags Bernard Hopkins, Blake Caparello, Chad Dawson, Enzo Maccarinelli, Jean Pascal, Luis Garcia, Marcus Johnson, Nadjib Mohammedi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.