Cruiserweight: 2013: Feb 11-17
No fights to mention this week, but #4 Steve Cunningham is removed after 451 weeks in the top 10 alone, having not competed below heavyweight since his February 4, 2012 loss to Yoan Pablo Hernandez. If you miss him, take a look at heavyweight, where he’s ranked even higher.
1) Denis Lebedev (22-158-158) Last Fight: 12/17/2012- KO4 Santander Silgado (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Date- vs. Guillermo Jones (UNR) After much speculation that he’d be making his US debut against Eddie Chambers, it now appears he’ll be fighting heavily inactive former titlist Guillermo Jones in either Miami, Panama, or Nigeria. Don King is the promoter, so you never know for sure if it’ll come off, but it’s looking likely for April.
2) Yoan Pablo Hernandez (22-138-138) Last Fight: 9/15/2012- W*(UD12) vs. #20 Troy Ross Next Fight: Unknown Hernandez pulled out of his scheduled 2/2 fight with Eric Fields with a fractured hand. 3) Troy Ross (22-22-54) Last Fight: 9/15/2012- L*(UD12) vs. #1 Yoan Pablo Hernandez Next Fight: Unknown Ross deserved to beat Hernandez. 4) Ola Afolabi (1-205-205) Last Fight: 5/5/2012- Draw* (MD12) vs. #4 Marco Huck Next Fight: Unknown Though Huck admits he doesn’t want the fight, he says he will fight his mandatory rematch with Afolabi in either late March or early April. There should be an announcement soon. 5) Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (1-399-399) Last Fight: 9/22/2012- UD12 #13 Francisco Palacios Next Fight: Unknown
After Mormeck withdrew with injury, Wlodarczyk has a fight with Fragomeni on the horizon, but probably after a voluntary defense.
6) Firat Arslan (1-40-83) Last Fight: 11/3/2012- L*(UD12) vs. #5 Marco Huck (Robbery) Next Fight: Unknown A bizarre twist in Arslan’s schedule, as he signed on to save Felix Sturm’s 12/1 show by replacing Ruslan Chagaev as the main support on just 2 days’ notice, but then he mysteriously changed his mind just hours before the bell. 7) Marco Huck (1-323-323) Last Fight: 11/3/2012- W*(UD12) vs. #10 Firat Arslan (Robbery) Next Fight: Unknown See Afolabi’s notes, above. 8) Lateef Kayode (1-37-117) Last Fight: 6/2/2012- Draw (SD12) vs. ‘Roided up #3 Antonio Tarver Next Fight: Unknown All indications are that Kayode will next fight at heavyweight, but the plans to get him in the ring in February appear unlikely to come to fruition. 9) Danny Green (1-14-167) Last Fight: 11/21/2012- UD12 Shane Cameron (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown As has been the case after every fight since he had very serious surgery a couple years ago, there is speculation that Green may retire following his win over Shane Cameron. Green himself remains non-committal. 10) B.J. Flores (1-1-138) Last Fight: 10/6/2012- TKO2 David McNemar (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Flores says he’s looking to fight Lebedev or the Huck-Afolabi winner. I’ll believe it when I see it, as he’s talked about fighting good fighters before recently, only to fight the likes of David McNemar.
11) Giacobbe Fragomeni (1-222) Last Fight: 12/15/2012- W*(SD12) vs. #13 Silvio Branco Next Fight: Unknown After limping to back-to-back tossup fights with the painfully old Silvio Branco, Fragomeni is now looking to step up to what would have to be seen as a cash-out trilogy fight with the much better Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. 12) Silvio Branco (1-48) Last Fight: 12/15/2012- L*(SD12) vs. #12 Giacobbe Fragomeni Next Fight: Unknown Branco can still hang with whippersnappers like 43 year-old countryman Fragomeni, but you’ve gotta think his active days are numbered at 46. 13) Mateusz Masternak (1-46) Last Fight: 12/15/2012- UD12 Juho Haapoja (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Masternak just put it on cruise control and walked away with a European title belt. 14) Francisco Palacios (1-98) Last Fight: 9/22/2012- L(UD12) vs. #7 Krzysztof Wlodarczyk Next Fight: Unknown Very little of note left on his resume after his should-be win over Wlodarczyk was neutralized by a close but clear loss to same, and with his win over Louis Azille over 5 years old now. 15) Alexander Alekseev (1-109) Last Fight: 5/11/2012- Draw*(MD12) vs. #19 Firat Arslan (robbery- should have been L) Next Fight: 2/22/2013- vs. Garrett Wilson (UNR) Alekseev will fight fringe contender Garrett Wilson in Romania on February 22. 16) Thabiso Mchunu (1-14) Last Fight: 11/10/2012- TKO5 #20 Danie Venter Next Fight: Unknown Mchunu is probably ready to take the Chilemba/Oosthuizen journey out of South Africa and into the international scene after conquering the local scene in the form of Venter. He may have some unfinished business with Zack Mwekassa first, however. 17) Dmitro Kucher (1-33) Last Fight: 12/22/2012- UD8 Willie Herring (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Kucher snuck in a fight on December 22 that was never on the schedule on Boxrec. Not that big a deal, anyway. 18) Enad Licina (1-138) Last Fight: 11/10/2012- TKO2 Koeksal Orduhan Next Fight: Unknown Really, Enad? He just fought the most obviously terrible opponent I think I’ve ever had to write about on here. The record of said fighter? 0-15. No joke. 19) Grigory Drozd (1-14) Last Fight: 12/17/2012- UD12 Jean-Marc Monrose (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 20) Pawel Glazewski (1-1) Last Fight: 12/9/2012- TKO3 Alexander Garaschenko (UNR) Next Fight: 2/23/2013- vs. Bartlomiej Grafka (UNR) It was with a bit of regret that I chose Glazewski to assume the #20 spot, as I expect him to campaign around the light heavyweight limit for the foreseeable future.
As for who is taking Cunningham’s place, it wasn’t an easy call. There are a few guys on one hand like William Souza Bezerra, Krzysztof Glowacki, and Rakhim Chakhkiev who have one or two wins over low-level gatekeepers and undefeated records. On another hand, you have guys who have had a little higher-level success, but also a loss to contend with, such as Alejandro Valori and Danie Venter. For Valori, the loss was against a complete non-entity, but was over 4 years ago. For Venter, the loss was recent, but was at the same level as his best win. Finally, you have a guy in Pawel Glazewski who is undeniably a light heavyweight for the most part, but whose key win (or robbery loss, in this case) came against a big-name fringe contender (Roy Jones, Jr.) at a contract weight in the low 180s.
Even at his age and with his recent struggles, Jones remains the most credible name beaten by any of the above-mentioned fighters. The question is whether or not the name holds up at cruiserweight. I’d have to say that it does to some extent. At an even lower catchweight, it got Danny Green a top 10 ranking a couple years ago (though obviously Jones was more prestigious at that time). The end result is that, in my estimation, Jones is a sufficiently prestigious win that even at 17 pounds below the divisional limit, he is enough to support Glazewski’s bid for a ranking ahead of the other somewhat worthy contenders, and he debuts at #20 accordingly. Everyone ranked #5 and below last week advances a spot, including B.J. Flores, who re-enters the top 10 for the first time since May.
Dan’s Top 20 (weeks in current position-weeks in top 10 (if applicable)-weeks in top 20) Champ: None
1) Denis Lebedev (22-158-158) Last Fight: 12/17/2012- KO4 Santander Silgado (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Date- vs. Guillermo Jones (UNR) After much speculation that he’d be making his US debut against Eddie Chambers, it now appears he’ll be fighting heavily inactive former titlist Guillermo Jones in either Miami, Panama, or Nigeria. Don King is the promoter, so you never know for sure if it’ll come off, but it’s looking likely for April.
2) Yoan Pablo Hernandez (22-138-138) Last Fight: 9/15/2012- W*(UD12) vs. #20 Troy Ross Next Fight: Unknown Hernandez pulled out of his scheduled 2/2 fight with Eric Fields with a fractured hand. 3) Troy Ross (22-22-54) Last Fight: 9/15/2012- L*(UD12) vs. #1 Yoan Pablo Hernandez Next Fight: Unknown Ross deserved to beat Hernandez. 4) Ola Afolabi (1-205-205) Last Fight: 5/5/2012- Draw* (MD12) vs. #4 Marco Huck Next Fight: Unknown Though Huck admits he doesn’t want the fight, he says he will fight his mandatory rematch with Afolabi in either late March or early April. There should be an announcement soon. 5) Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (1-399-399) Last Fight: 9/22/2012- UD12 #13 Francisco Palacios Next Fight: Unknown
After Mormeck withdrew with injury, Wlodarczyk has a fight with Fragomeni on the horizon, but probably after a voluntary defense.
6) Firat Arslan (1-40-83) Last Fight: 11/3/2012- L*(UD12) vs. #5 Marco Huck (Robbery) Next Fight: Unknown A bizarre twist in Arslan’s schedule, as he signed on to save Felix Sturm’s 12/1 show by replacing Ruslan Chagaev as the main support on just 2 days’ notice, but then he mysteriously changed his mind just hours before the bell. 7) Marco Huck (1-323-323) Last Fight: 11/3/2012- W*(UD12) vs. #10 Firat Arslan (Robbery) Next Fight: Unknown See Afolabi’s notes, above. 8) Lateef Kayode (1-37-117) Last Fight: 6/2/2012- Draw (SD12) vs. ‘Roided up #3 Antonio Tarver Next Fight: Unknown All indications are that Kayode will next fight at heavyweight, but the plans to get him in the ring in February appear unlikely to come to fruition. 9) Danny Green (1-14-167) Last Fight: 11/21/2012- UD12 Shane Cameron (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown As has been the case after every fight since he had very serious surgery a couple years ago, there is speculation that Green may retire following his win over Shane Cameron. Green himself remains non-committal. 10) B.J. Flores (1-1-138) Last Fight: 10/6/2012- TKO2 David McNemar (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Flores says he’s looking to fight Lebedev or the Huck-Afolabi winner. I’ll believe it when I see it, as he’s talked about fighting good fighters before recently, only to fight the likes of David McNemar.
11) Giacobbe Fragomeni (1-222) Last Fight: 12/15/2012- W*(SD12) vs. #13 Silvio Branco Next Fight: Unknown After limping to back-to-back tossup fights with the painfully old Silvio Branco, Fragomeni is now looking to step up to what would have to be seen as a cash-out trilogy fight with the much better Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. 12) Silvio Branco (1-48) Last Fight: 12/15/2012- L*(SD12) vs. #12 Giacobbe Fragomeni Next Fight: Unknown Branco can still hang with whippersnappers like 43 year-old countryman Fragomeni, but you’ve gotta think his active days are numbered at 46. 13) Mateusz Masternak (1-46) Last Fight: 12/15/2012- UD12 Juho Haapoja (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Masternak just put it on cruise control and walked away with a European title belt. 14) Francisco Palacios (1-98) Last Fight: 9/22/2012- L(UD12) vs. #7 Krzysztof Wlodarczyk Next Fight: Unknown Very little of note left on his resume after his should-be win over Wlodarczyk was neutralized by a close but clear loss to same, and with his win over Louis Azille over 5 years old now. 15) Alexander Alekseev (1-109) Last Fight: 5/11/2012- Draw*(MD12) vs. #19 Firat Arslan (robbery- should have been L) Next Fight: 2/22/2013- vs. Garrett Wilson (UNR) Alekseev will fight fringe contender Garrett Wilson in Romania on February 22. 16) Thabiso Mchunu (1-14) Last Fight: 11/10/2012- TKO5 #20 Danie Venter Next Fight: Unknown Mchunu is probably ready to take the Chilemba/Oosthuizen journey out of South Africa and into the international scene after conquering the local scene in the form of Venter. He may have some unfinished business with Zack Mwekassa first, however. 17) Dmitro Kucher (1-33) Last Fight: 12/22/2012- UD8 Willie Herring (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Kucher snuck in a fight on December 22 that was never on the schedule on Boxrec. Not that big a deal, anyway. 18) Enad Licina (1-138) Last Fight: 11/10/2012- TKO2 Koeksal Orduhan Next Fight: Unknown Really, Enad? He just fought the most obviously terrible opponent I think I’ve ever had to write about on here. The record of said fighter? 0-15. No joke. 19) Grigory Drozd (1-14) Last Fight: 12/17/2012- UD12 Jean-Marc Monrose (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 20) Pawel Glazewski (1-1) Last Fight: 12/9/2012- TKO3 Alexander Garaschenko (UNR) Next Fight: 2/23/2013- vs. Bartlomiej Grafka (UNR) It was with a bit of regret that I chose Glazewski to assume the #20 spot, as I expect him to campaign around the light heavyweight limit for the foreseeable future.
THE WEEK AHEAD: Despite having a name more reminiscent of a Victorian poet than a prizefighter, British titlist Jon Lewis Dickinson defends his title against mid-range journeyman David Dolan in Houghton-le-Spring, which is near Dolan’s hometown in Tyne-on-Wear in England.
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