Dan's Weekly Boxer Rankings and Blog

Polish prospect Andrzej Fonfara- who was once busted for using steroids- was presumably clean when he dropped journeyman and former fringe contender Byron Mitchell 3 times en route to a 3rd round TKO in his adopted home of Chicago.  No changes to the rankings.

 

Dan’s Top 20

Champ: Bernard Hopkins (44-302-302)
Last Fight: 10/15/2011- NC vs. #2 Chad Dawson
Next Fight: 4/28/2012- vs. #2 Chad Dawson

Hopkins and Dawson will square off- hopefully to a conclusion this time- on regular HBO in late April.

1) Jean Pascal (44-144-144)
Last Fight: 5/21/2011- L(UD12) vs. #1 Bernard Hopkins
Next Fight: Unknown

Pascal plans a tuneup in April or May, followed by a fight with Dawson.

2) Chad Dawson (66-303-303)
Last Fight: 10/15/2011- NC* vs. Champ Bernard Hopkins
Next Fight: 4/28/2012- vs. Champ Bernard Hopkins

See Hopkins’ notes, above.

3) Gabriel Campillo (5-91-91)
Last Fight: 2/18/2012- L*(UD12) vs. #3 Tavoris Cloud (Robbery)
Next Fight: Unknown

The IBF unsurprisingly rejected Campillo’s appeal and request for an immediate rematch.  Hopefully Campillo won’t need it since everyone saw him win.

4) Tavoris Cloud (5-134-134)
Last Fight: 2/18/2012- UD12* vs. #4 Gabriel Campillo (Robbery)
Next Fight: Unknown Date- vs. #6 Karo Murat

With the IBF’s complicity, he’s ducking a rematch with the man who clearly beat him, and will instead fight Karo Murat next.  Kessler is agitating for a fight with him, as well.

5) Nathan Cleverly (23-111-111)
Last Fight: 2/25/2012- UD12 Tommy Karpency (UNR)
Next Fight: 4/28/2012- vs. Unknown Opponent

Cleverly will fight April 28 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with the opponent to be announced.

6) Karo Murat (25-25-46)

Last Fight: 10/1/2011- Draw (SD12) vs. #4 Gabriel Campillo

Next Fight: Unknown Date- vs. #4 Tavoris Cloud

After a draw with Campillo, he’ll now get a chance to get screwed just as badly against Cloud.

7) Tony Bellew (23-23-23)

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

Next Fight: 4/14/2012- vs. #18 Danny McIntosh

Bellew will face McIntosh in Liverpool on April 14.

8) Beibut Shumenov (7-87-91)

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

Shumenov’s attempts to get a fight with Cleverly have apparently failed.  Shumenov wants to unify the alphabet titles, but he appears to be the odd man out in a lot of those fights.  This might be an ideal time for a rematch with Campillo if he can’t get a unification at this point.

9) Yusaf Mack (7-55-91)
Last Fight: 6/25/2011- L(TKO8) vs. #3 Tavoris Cloud
Next Fight: 4/27/2012- vs. Omar Sheika (UNR)

Mack will apparently be fighting journeyman Omar Sheika on April 27 in Atlantic City.

10) Dmitri Sukhotski (7-7-73)

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

Next Fight: Unknown

Sukhotski has a fight with Cleverly on the horizon, but it appears unlikely to be in Cleverly’s next appearance in February.

11) Isaac Chilemba (7-7)

Last Fight: 2/3/2012- UD10 #16 Edison Miranda

Next Fight: Unknown

Chilemba, a former super middleweight, now has the highest ranking of his career at either weight after beating fringe contender Miranda.

12) Eduard Gutknecht (7-46)

Last Fight: 2/4/2012- UD12* vs. Vyacheslav Uzelkov (UNR)

Next Fight: 3/31/2012- vs. Tony Averlant (UNR)

Gutknecht will follow up his shaky performance against Uzelkov with what looks like a much easier fight against french journeyman Tony Averlant on the Abraham-Wilczewski undercard.

13) Vyacheslav Uzelkov (7-7)

Last Fight: 3/4/2012- L*(UD12) vs. #8 Eduard Gutknecht

Next Fight: Unknown

Deserved much better than a unanimous decision loss against Gutknecht, and is rewarded for it in my rankings.

14) Adrian Diaconu (7-254)
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.

15) Ismayl Sillakh (7-62)

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

Next Fight: Unknown

The WBC has slated Sillakh for an eliminator against Pascal, but that appears to be dead as Pascal apparently never wanted the fight.

16) Cornelius White (7-14)

Last Fight: 12/17/2011- UD6 #16 Yordanis Despaigne

Next Fight: Unknown

White, who was blown out in one round by prospect Don George at super middleweight early in 2011, may be a fluke.  But at least for one night, he looked a lot better against former top amateur Yordanis Despaigne than did established fringe contender Edison Miranda.

17) Zsolt Erdei (7-70)

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

Next Fight: Unknown

Had a fight with Pascal lined up, but Showtime couldn’t come up with the money to make it happen.

18) Danny McIntosh (7-91)
Last Fight: 5/7/2011- L(TKO8) vs. Eduard Gutknecht (UNR)
Next Fight: 4/14/2012- vs. #7 Tony Bellew

McIntosh will travel to Liverpool to fight Bellew for the British title.

19) Edison Miranda (7-14)

Last Fight: 2/3/2012- L(UD10) vs. Isaac Chilemba (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Miranda was winning the fight with Chilemba before suffering a cut that appeared to really throw him off.  Hopefully he can bounce back from this setback.

20) Luis Garcia (5-5)

Last Fight- 12/30/2011- UD8 Alexander Johnson (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Hopefully 2012 looks a more like 2010 than 2011 for Garcia.  The prospect fought 6 times in the former and only once in the latter.

 

The Week Ahead: Rhode Island fringe prospect Joe Spina meets journeyman Jerson Ravelo on Saturday in Atlantic City.

This entry was posted on April 9, 2012 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Light Heavyweight, Rankings with tags Andrzej Fonfara, Bernard Hopkins, Chad Dawson, Gabriel Campillo, Jean Pascal, Joe Spina, Nathan Cleverly, Tavoris Cloud. 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.