Cruiserweight: 2012, Feb 13-19
A pair of top 50 cruisers met in Moscow on Wednesday. Jamaica’s Richard Hall- a one-time fringe contender- had settled into a role as the kind of challenge you might put your undefeated prospect in with for his first fight against a solid opponent, but he recently cemented his credentials as a bona fide gatekeeper when he slammed the door on former champion O’Neil Bell, effectively vetoing his countryman’s attempt at a comeback. Russian Grigory Drozd rated somewhere between a prospect and a fringe contender. At 32, he is maybe on the old side for a prospect, but his only career loss came against the fairly credible Firat Arslan, now over 5 years ago. So this shaped up to be a pretty intriguing fight. In the end, it was the Russian winning on cuts after the 9th round, and now that Drozd has won his last 3 fights against top 50 opponents, he as certainly earned a ranking. His best win is not really nearly as good as Matt Godfrey’s, but Godfrey has not won in a very long time, and has looked very ordinary (to be charitable) in his last couple outings. Drozd therefore surpasses him in a somewhat close call. It’s very possible that Drozd has a better resume overall than Arslan, but even with the fight being back in what amounts to irrelevant dinosaur times, the prior head-to-head victory for Arslan tips the scales in his favor when all is said and done.
Last week’s #15 Steve Herelius exits for inactivity, and that allows the recently-defeated Enad Licina to reclaim his old position. The recently re-activated Troy Ross edges up to claim the #16 spot. Arslan advances to #17. Drozd debuts at #18, while Godfrey and Fields stand pat at #19 and #20, respectively.
Dan’s Top 20
Champ: None
1) Yoan Pablo Hernandez (2-86-86) Last Fight: 2/4/2012- UD12 #4 Steve Cunningham Next Fight: Unknown Erased any doubt as to the better fighter between him and Cunningham. A fight with Lebedev now would be huge.
2) Denis Lebedev (2-106-106) Last Fight: 11/4/2011- UD12 James Toney (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown There has been speculation that Lebedev might fight Steve Cunningham next. 3) Antonio Tarver (2-30-30) Last Fight: 7/20/2011- RTD9 #7 Danny Green Next Fight: Unknown The latest word is that there is a 75% chance that Tarver will fight Wlodarczyk on Showtime, April 28. 4) Marco Huck (2-271-271) Last Fight: 10/22/2011- KO5 Rogelio Rossi (UNR) Next Fight: 2/25/2011- vs. HW #2 Alexander Povetkin (at HW) Povetkin vs. Huck is now set a division to the north. 5) Steve Cunningham (2-400-400) Last Fight: 2/4/2012- L(UD12) vs. #3 Yoan Pablo Hernandez Next Fight: Unknown See Lebedev’s notes, above. 6) Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (11-347-347) Last Fight: 11/30/2011- TKO11 #9 Danny Green Next Fight: Unknown See Tarver’s notes, above. 7) Ola Afolabi (11-153-153) Last Fight: 9/10/2011- UD8 Lukasz Rusiewicz (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Afolabi claims that BJ Flores is ducking him. He is of course also in line for a shot at the alphabet title currently held by Marco Huck. 8) Guillermo Jones (11-72-72) Last Fight: 11/5/2011- TKO6 Michael Marrone (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown After discussions with Lebedev fell apart, it now appears that his mandatory obligation against Kayode is the most probable next fight for Jones. 9) Danny Green (30-115-115) Last Fight: 11/30/2011- L(TKO11) vs. #8 Krzysztof Wlodarczyk Next Fight: Unknown Green says he would like a rematch with Anthony Mundine- something that’s unlikely at best now that Mundine is fighting about 4 divisions to the south of him. I do not believe retirement has been ruled out for Green. 10) Giacobbe Fragomeni (30-170-170) Last Fight: 7/8/2011- UD6 Remigijus Ziausys (UNR) Next Fight: 3/17/2012- vs. Silvio Branco (UNR) Fragomeni will fight fellow Italian Silvio Branco for some silly color-coordinated “world title” on St. Patrick’s day. The combined age of the two combatants: 87. 11) B.J. Flores (18-86) Last Fight: 1/28/2012- TKO6 Hugo Pineda (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Flores has been accused by Afolabi of ducking. 12) Francisco Palacios (18-46) Last Fight: 11/5/2011- UD8 Joell Godfrey (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown The WBC has mandated a rematch with Wlodarczyk, but that seems almost forgotten as Wlodarczyk appears poised for a fight with Antonio Tarver. 13) Alexander Alexeev (2-57) Last Fight: 2/4/2012- UD12 #15 Enad Licina Next Fight: Unknown If his record is any indication, he has probably reached just about the ranking he currently tops out at. 14) Lateef Kayode (2-65) Last Fight: 9/9/2011- UD10 Felix Cora, Jr. (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown WBA titlist Guillermo Jones has been ordered to fight Kayode. 15) Enad Licina (1-86) Last Fight: 2/4/2012- L(UD12) vs. #17 Alexander Alexeev Next Fight: Unknown May be getting a little shopworn. He’s not a pushover by any means, but you’d have to be crazy to imagine him as a top-10-type guy. 16) Troy Ross (1-2) Last Fight: 2/4/2012- UD8 Lukasz Rusiewicz (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Inactivity combined with poor competition are killing the career of top-level talent Ross, but at least he’s technically an active cruiserweight again, and thus eligible to remain in the rankings. 17) Firat Arslan (1-31) Last Fight: 1/28/2012- TKO2 Orlando Farias (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Arslan is 41 and not getting any younger. Unless he’s already decided to call it a day, expect a better opponent in his next fight than Farias. 18) Grigory Drozd (1-1) Last Fight: 2/8/2012- RTD9 Richard Hall (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Drozd hasn’t been doing badly whatsoever when he steps into the ring. The only problem? He has averaged less than 1 fight per year since the start of 2009. 19) Matt Godfrey (2-22) 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 (2-18) Last Fight: 1/28/2011- UD8 Derrick Brown (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: After a few consecutive weeks of heavy activity and/or major ratings shakeups, the cruisers take a well-deserved breather this week.
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