Dan's Weekly Boxer Rankings and Blog

Undefeated South African #6 Thomas Oosthuizen dominated and- in the 11th round- stopped Mexican gatekeeper Francisco Sierra (who actually made 168 this time only to find that he still have more than a 6 pound advantage over the inexplicably tiny Oosthuizen. 

 

Pablo Farias, an undefeated Argentine prospect, lost by what has to be considered a controversial DQ on Friday in Buenos Aires.  There was a break.  I can’t tell what the ref said or when he said it, and since I don’t speak Spanish, I couldn’t understand anyone who perhaps could tell.  After taking a half-step back, Farias landed a nice sucker punch on Clavero’s chin.  Clavero bounced back to the ropes and then proceeded to act up a storm, it appeared to me.  He became progressively less conscious as the referee tried to figure out what to do, it appeared.  Anyway, long story short, I’m going to basically ignore this fight, for a few reasons.  First, it’s inconclusive.  Taking a punch and not getting up is certainly not going to get Clavero a rating (though I must say he was doing pretty well in the fight), and Farias has nothing to gain from a win in any case since Clavero isn’t a top 50 fighter.  But most importantly, the fight took place at light heavyweight.  Farias was soft at that weight, and he wasn’t sufficiently credible at that weight for this fight to amount to anything there.  So I really only mentioned this at all because I teased the fight last week while believing it would be at 168.

 

Moving on.  Not-so-impressive and aging “undefeated prospect” (yes, sarcasm and outright smack-talk) Nikola Sjekloca, who lost to Khoren Gevor in July but got the decision anyway, won a majority decision in his adopted home of Montenegro.  That’s highly fishy, but unfortunately there is no video I can find.  So this fight passes into the night as a near miss for unheralded opponent Peter Mashamaite of South Africa, regardless of whatever the truth of the matter may have been. 

 

Oosthuizen’s win is the only one that under any circumstances could have affected the rankings, but utlimately he’s at the top of the 2nd tier of contenders, while Stieglitz is at the bottom of the top tier in terms of accomplishment, and there’s too much of a gap between the tiers for a Sierra to make any difference.

 

Dan’s Top 20

Champ: None

1) Andre Ward (53-132-132)
Last Fight: 5/14/2011- UD12 #6 Arthur Abraham
Next Fight: 12/17/2011- vs. #2 Carl Froch

Ward-Froch has been rescheduled for December 17 in Atlantic City.

2) Carl Froch (53-285-285)
Last Fight: 6/4/2011- W(MD12) vs. #12 Glen Johnson
Next Fight: 12/17/2011- vs. #1 Andre Ward

See Ward’s comments above.

3) Lucian Bute (53-294-294)
Last Fight: 11/5/2012- UD12 #13 Glen Johnson
Next Fight: Unknown

Maybe we’ll see him against the Froch-Ward winner next?
4) Mikkel Kessler (53-364-364)
Last Fight: 6/4/2011- TKO6 Mehdi Bouadla (UNR)
Next Fight: 4/14/2012- vs. #5 Robert Stieglitz

The big fight between Kessler and Stieglitz finally has a date: April 14.
5) Robert Stieglitz (34-118-118)
Last Fight: 4/9/2011- W(DQ10) vs. Khoren Gevor (UNR)
Next Fight: 4/14/2012- vs. #4 Mikkel Kessler

See Kessler’s notes above.

6) Thomas Oosthuizen (13-26-74)
Last Fight: 11/23/2011- TKO11 Francisco Sierra (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown

Oosthuizen had no problem with trial horse Francisco Sierra, and we hope to see him in with a world-class opponent soon.

7) Arthur Abraham (13-110-110)
Last Fight: 5/14/2011- L(UD12) vs. #1 Andre Ward
Next Fight: 1/14/2012- vs. Unknown Opponent

Abraham returns to action on January 14 in Offenburg, Germany.

8) Dimitri Sartison (13-70-74)
Last Fight: 11/12/2011- W(MD8) vs. Arturs Kulikauskis (UNR) (at LHW)
Next Fight: Unknown

Sartison had trouble keeping up with the movement of truly awful journeyman Arturs Kulikauskis in his comeback fight from knee surgery.  Hopefully it gets better with time, because otherwise the once-promising Sartison is fodder.
9) Peter Quillin (13-31-31)

Last Fight: 11/5/2011- TKO6 Craig McEwan (UNR) (at MW)

Next Fight: Unknown

Quillin netted a nice win at Middleweight against Craig McEwan, though it doesn’t affect his ranking here.

10) Sakio Bika (13-13-243)
Last Fight: 11/27/2010- L(UD12) vs. #2 Andre Ward
Next Fight: 12/3/2011- vs. Alfredo Contreras (UNR)

Alfredo Contreras is nothing more than a stay (or in this case, get) busy opponent.  Enough to keep him ranked and nothing more.

11) Andy Lee (9-38)

Last Fight: 10/1/2011- UD10 #14 Bryan Vera

Next Fight: Unknown

Exorcised whatever demons he had left in his career with the win over Vera, and is now ready to move on like the sure-fire contender he was originally seen as.

12) Aaron Pryor, Jr. (9-30)

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

Next Fight: 12/10/2011- vs. Adonis Stevenson (UNR)

Pryor looks to rebound from his momentum-halting loss to Oosthuizen with another tough fight against human highlight reel Adonis Stevenson in October.

13) Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye (3-3)

Last Fight: 11/11/2011- TKO12 Andrea Di Luisa (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Dominated and stopped a bona fide fringe contender in Di Luisa, and earned a nice ranking in the process.

14) Glen Johnson (3-56)

Last Fight: 11/5/2011- L(UD12) vs. #3 Lucian Bute

Next Fight: Unknown

The Bute fight was the only one of Johnson’s recent career that wasn’t really close.  Bute is certainly a top fighter, but it could be that the Road Warrior is starting to wind down a bit.

15) Bryan Vera (3-43)

Last Fight: 10/1/2011- L(UD10) vs. #15 Andy Lee

Next Fight: Unknown

Totally outclassed by Lee in the rematch of a fight he won last time around.

16) Librado Andrade (3-14)

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

Next Fight: 12/17/2011- vs. Don George (UNR)

Andrade has not been deterred from fighting top prospects after the Pryor loss, and is now scheduled to fight knockout artist Don George in December.

17) Jesus Gonzales (3-21)

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, Gonzales finds his way easily within the top 20.

18) James DeGale (3-7)

Last Fight: 10/15/2011- W(MD12) vs. Piotr Wilczewski (UNR)

Next Fight: 12/9/2011- vs. Jose Maria Guerrero (UNR)

With Groves pulling out of the scheduled December 9 doubleheader, DeGale will now headline the show alone, defending his EBU in what should be a relatively easy outing against Spaniard Jose Maria Guerrero.

19) George Groves (3-28)

Last Fight: 11/5/2011- TKO2 Paul Smith (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown

Groves has injured his hand and will no longer make his scheduled appearance on December 9.

20) Ezequiel Maderna (3-39)

Last Fight: 11/5/2011- TKO1 Dario Balmaceda (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

No problem with a relatively weak opponent in Balmaceda.

 

The Week Ahead:

Friday: One-loss French prospect Hugo Kasperski battles countryman/journeyman Christopher Rebrasse in France.  Stateside, Quebec fringe contender Renan St. Juste battles undefeated Detroit prospect Anthony Dirrell, the less-tested twin brother of lapsed contender Andre Dirrell, in Santa Ynez, California on a ShoBox telecast.

 

Saturday: #10 Sakio Bika returns from a 1-year layoff with a get-busy fight against sub-.500 journeyman Alfredo Contreras in Anaheim.

This entry was posted on May 11, 2012 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Rankings, Super Middleweight with tags Andre Ward, Carl Froch, Francisco Sierra, Hugo Kaspersky, Nikola Sjekloca, Renan St. Juste, Sakio Bika, 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.