Dan's Weekly Boxer Rankings and Blog

Time to call out the posse, because there was an absolute robbery on the ShoBox telecast from New Jersey on Friday.  Undefeated prospect Brandon Gonzales proved to be in WAY over his head against Ghanaian gatekeeper Ossie Duran who, though clearly slower and less athletic than his younger opponent, was able to get potshots in with a good deal of consistency against Gonzales, for whom consistency wasn’t in the vocabulary.  Except that he consistently lost rounds.

 

But that’s where the robbery comes in.  Julie Lederman and John McKaie….it’s really had to believe that judges can be this bad.  And it wasn’t just the one fight.  In the co-feature, Artemio Reyes lost at most 1 round, and yet Lederman gave his opponent 3, and McKaie gave 2.  But Gonzales-Duran was sooo much worse.  Gonzales won between 0-2 of the 8 rounds.  Lederman and McKaie somehow gave him six!!!!  SIX!!!!  I’m no math major, but I’m pretty sure if you flipped a coin, you would have come up with a better card than those two something like 9 of 10 times.  This was literally one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen.  Why are these judges allowed to keep working?  I mean of the six rounds in which there was legitimately a clear winner, the two of them fully botched at least four.  The only sport that we allow that high a failure rate is baseball, among hitters.  This is pathetic.  This wasn’t a close fight, nor a particularly hard one to score.  And the decision was a disgrace.  But God bless George Hill, who had it exactly right at 78-74 Duran.

 

So needless to say, this was a win for Duran in my book.  But Gonzales lacked the resume for the win to do Duran any good for our purposes.  Also, for whatever it’s worth, the fight was contested a pound or so over the divisional limit.  No changes to the rankings this week.

 

Dan’s Top 20 (Weeks in Current Position-Weeks in Top 10 if applicable-Weeks in Top 20)

Champ: Sergio Martinez (81-81-81)

Last Fight: 10/1/2011- KO11 #20 Darren Barker

Next Fight: Unknown

Macklin and Lee both called Sergio out immediately after his less than dominant victory over Barker, as has Pirog- whose offer to fight Sergio in Moscow is reportedly some kind of record.  Sergio expressed interest in the winner of Cotto-Margarito, and also shot down any suggestion of him moving up to 168.  He still wants Chavez, who claims he’d be interested for the right money.  Pacquiao has also been mentioned, but the Filipino superstar would only be interested if Sergio could make 147.  Sergio thinks he could make 150.

1) Daniel Geale (19-124-124)

Last Fight: 8/31/2011- UD12 Eromosele Albert (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Geale says he’s 90% sure he’ll be fighting Pirog on New Year’s Eve.

2) Grzegorz Proksa (5-29-29)

Last Fight: 10/1/2011- RTD3 #4 Sebastian Sylvester

Next Fight: Unknown

After destroying Sylvester, Proksa may be in for a fight with fringe contender Sebastian Zbik next.

3) Felix Sturm (5-424-424)

Last Fight: 6/25/2011- W*(SD12) vs. #11 Matthew Macklin

Next Fight: 12/2/2012- vs. Martin Murray (UNR)

Apparently ducking a rematch with British contender Matthew Macklin, Sturm will instead fight his countryman, undefeated prospect Martin Murray, in Mannheim.

4) Matthew Macklin (5-19-110)

Last Fight: 6/25/2011- L*(SD12) vs. #1 Felix Sturm

Next Fight: Unknown
Macklin couldn’t secure a rematch of his borderline robbery loss to Sturm, as the German has opted to fight countryman Martin Murray, instead.

5) Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (17-53-53)

Last Fight: 4/2/2011- UD12 Giovanni Lorenzo (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

A fight rumored to be in the works with Gennady Golovkin has reportedly been scuttled by N’Dam’s unwillingness to fight the Kazakh, but N’Dam says he wants to fight someone in January.

6) Dmitry Pirog (17-66-66)

Last Fight: 9/25/2011- RTD10 Gennady Martirosyan (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Geale says there’s a 90% chance he’ll be fighting Pirog on New Year’s Eve.

7) Sebastian Sylvester (5-325-325)

Last Fight: 10/1/2011- L(RTD3) vs. #9 Grzegorz Proksa

Next Fight: Unknown

Sylvester may be getting long in the tooth after being destroyed by Proksa.

8) Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (5-22-40)

Last Fight: 6/4/2011- W(MD12) vs. #19 Sebastian Zbik

Next Fight: 11/19/2011- vs. Peter Manfredo, Jr. (UNR)

Chavez is now claiming a hand injury, and will likely now skip his scheduled fight with Ronald Hearns in September and go straight to his second scheduled fight with Peter Manfredo in November.

9) Marco Antonio Rubio (5-30-40)

Last Fight: 9/3/2011- TKO5 Mohammed Akrong (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

The WBC wants Rubio to fight Martinez, with the winner to face Chavez.

10) Anthony Mundine (17-17-40)

Last Fight: 10/19/2011- UD12 Rigoberto Alvarez (UNR) (at JMW)

Next Fight: Unknown

Mundine believes he’s been blacklisted in the US for comments he made in 2001 blaming the US for 9/11 and supporting Al Quaeda.  Well boo-hoo, asshole.  Austin Trout is also trying to make a fight with Mundine.

11) Osumanu Adama (4-32)

Last Fight: 10/6/2011- TKO9 Roman Karmazin (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Adama has now quietly put together a really respectable resume after battering Karmazin.

12) Max Bursak (4-40)

Last Fight: 10/22/2011- TKO3 Abdulaziz Matazimov (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Bursak had little trouble with his latest weak opponent.

13) Paul Williams (17-134)

Last Fight: 7/9/2011- W*(MD12) vs. JMW #15 Erislandy Lara (at JMW)

Next Fight: Unknown

Lara handled him easily despite what the awful judges said, and his poor performance earns him a demotion even though the fight took place at JMW.

14) Garth Wood (3-40)

Last Fight: 4/13/2011- L (UD10) vs. #20 Anthony Mundine

Next Fight: Unknown

Wood appeared set to fight journyeman Johannes Mwetupunga on the Geale-Albert undercard, but pulled out of that fight.

15) Nobuhiro Ishida (2-30)

Last Fight: 4/9/2011- TKO1 James Kirkland (UNR)

Next Fight: 12/17/2011- vs. #17 Avtandil Khurtsidze

Ishida is fighting Khurtsidze in the Ukraine a week before Christmas.

16) Gennady Golovkin (2-20)

Last Fight: 6/17/2011- KO10 Kassim Ouma (UNR)

Next Fight: 12/9/2011- vs. Lajuan Simon (UNR)

Golovkin is now set to fight journeyman Lajuan Simon in December.

17) Avtandil Khurtsidze (2-40)

Last Fight: 10/3/2012- TKO2 Jason LeHoullier (at SMW)

Next Fight: 12/17/2011- vs. #15 Nobuhiro Ishida

See Ishida’s notes, above.

18) Demetrius Andrade (2-11)

Last Fight: 9/21/2011- RTD3 Saul Duran (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

19) Darren Barker (2-3)

Last Fight: 10/1/2011- L(KO11) vs. Champ Sergio Martinez

Next Fight: Unknown

Barker has been receiving interest from Chavez and Geale after his over-performance against Martinez.

20) Billi Godoy (2-2)

Last Fight: 10/8/2011- W(TD4) vs. Claudio Abalos (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

 

The Week Ahead: A ton of good fights this week:

Friday in Indio, California, fringe contender Sergio Mora takes on Mexican journeyman Jose Flores, who was a contender 10-15 years ago.

 

Saturday in London, American gatekeeper Elvin Ayala and Polish fringe contender Patrick Majewski are both in action against journeyman opponents- Ayala against Mexican Juan Astorga, and Majewski against Colombian Jose Miguel Torres.

 

That same night in Mexico, on the Kirkland-Angulo undercard, Contender Peter Quillin and gatekeeper Craig McEwan meet up in a battle of well-known middleweights that have never actually fought a significant fight under the middleweight limit.  We’ll see what their weights are for this fight.

This entry was posted on October 2, 2012 at 3:56 am and is filed under Middleweight, Rankings with tags Craig McEwan, Daniel Geale, Elvin Ayala, Ossie Duran, Patrick Majewski, Peter Quillin, Sergio Martinez, Sergio Mora. 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.