Dan's Weekly Boxer Rankings and Blog

#9 Aaron Pryor, Jr.’s string of surprisingly good performances ended Saturday in Biloxi, Mississippi, when South African contender #10 Thomas Oosthuizen won a uniformly 117-111 decision over him.  A few days earlier, on Wednesday in Tasmania, one-loss prospect Serge Yannick won on cuts in the second round over fallen former prospect Jamie Pittman.

 

Oosthuizen surges to #6 in the rankings after his win over Pryor, and Pryor slumps two spots to #11.  This allows Sakio Bika to re-enter the top 10 at #10.  Everybody rated #6-8 last week falls one spot each.

 

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 (40-119-119)
Last Fight: 5/14/2011- UD12 #6 Arthur Abraham
Next Fight: 10/29/2011- vs. #2 Carl Froch

We now have a date certain for the Championship fight between Ward and Froch: October 29 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

2) Carl Froch (40-272-272)
Last Fight: 6/4/2011- W(MD12) vs. #12 Glen Johnson
Next Fight: 10/29/2011- vs. #1 Andre Ward

See Ward’s comments above.

3) Lucian Bute (40-281-281)
Last Fight: 7/9/2011- KO4 Jean Paul Mendy (UNR)
Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. #12 Glen Johnson

Bute passed up Mikkel Kessler for a potentially slightly easier night with #12 Glen Johnson in early November.
4) Mikkel Kessler (40-351-351)
Last Fight: 6/4/2011- TKO6 Mehdi Bouadla (UNR)
Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. #5 Robert Stieglitz

The Stieglitz bout is now official, and will be in Copenhagen.
5) Robert Stieglitz (21-105-105)
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 (1-13-61)
Last Fight: 9/3/2011- UD12 #9 Aaron Pryor, Jr.
Next Fight: Unknown

Oosthuizen is one of the most accomplished fighters out there that nobody has ever heard of.

7) Arthur Abraham (1-97-97)
Last Fight: 5/14/2011- L(UD12) vs. #1 Andre Ward
Next Fight: 11/5/2011- vs. Unknown Opponent

Abraham is scheduled to return to the ring on November 5, probably in a catchweight fight between 160 and 168, and probably against a tune-up-type opponent.

8) Dimitri Sartison (1-57-61)
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 (1-18-18)

Last Fight: 7/23/2011- TKO5 Jason LeHoullier (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Quillin turned down an offer to fight Ishe Smith on the Hopkins-Dawson undercard.  He has bigger ambitions, hoping to fight Sergio Martinez or the winner of Vera-Lee.

10) Sakio Bika (1-1-230)
Last Fight: 11/27/2010- L(UD12) vs. #2 Andre Ward
Next Fight: Unknown

11) Aaron Pryor, Jr. (1-17)

Last Fight: 9/3/2011- L(UD12) vs. #10 Thomas Oosthuizen

Next Fight: Unknown

12) Glen Johnson (20-43)

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.

13) Isaac Chilemba (18-61)

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.

14) Bryan Vera (13-30)

Last Fight: 6/24/2011- KO8 Eloy Suarez (UNR)

Next Fight: 10/1/2011- vs. #15 Andy Lee

Now officially scheduled for a rematch with #15 Andy Lee on October 1, on the Martinez-Barker undercard.  Not sure yet whether that will be a Middleweight or Super Middleweight fight.

15) Andy Lee (13-25)

Last Fight: 5/18/2011- UD10 Alex Bunema (UNR) (at MW)

Next Fight: 10/1/2011- vs. #14 Bryan Vera

See Vera’s notes, above.

16) Librado Andrade (2-2)

Last Fight: 8/27/2011- TKO3 Matt O’Brien (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Still appears to be well on the downside of his career, but with his past success he only needs to stay active and win to stay in the rankings at this point.

17) Jesus Gonzalez (2-8)

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) Ezequiel Maderna (2-26)

Last Fight: 8/28/2011- TKO3 Jorge Rodriguez Olivera (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

19) Jesse Brinkley (2-61)
Last Fight: 4/29/2011- L (TKO3) vs. Peter Quillin (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown

Brinkley’s career now appears a shambles after he was destroyed by rising star Peter Quillin.

20) George Groves (2-15)

Last Fight: 5/21/2011- W(MD12*) vs. #20 James DeGale
Next Fight: Unknown

Very questionable outcome in his fight with DeGale, but Groves edges out his rival  on the strength of the win.

 

The Week Ahead: No fights of note this week in the division.

This entry was posted on December 28, 2011 at 11:19 am and is filed under Rankings, Super Middleweight with tags Aaron Pryor Jr., Andre Ward, Carl Froch, Lucian Bute, Mikkel Kessler, Robert Stieglitz, Serge Yannick, Thomas Oosthuizen. 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.