Middleweight: 2013, Apr 8-14

One-loss Australian prospect Jarrod Fletcher unanimously won every round and then stopped mid-range and much smaller Filipino journeyman Randy Suico in Altona North, Australia. No changes to the rankings.

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

Champ: Sergio Martinez (156-156-156)

Last Fight: 9/15/2012- UD12 #4 Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.

Next Fight: 4/27/2013- vs. #9 Martin Murray

Martinez will look to come back strong from knee surgery when he takes on Martin Murray in Argentina on April 27. The fight will be revolutionary in that instant replay will be available to the referee.

1) Daniel Geale (94-199-199)

Last Fight: 1/30/2013- UD12 #11 Anthony Mundine

Next Fight: Unknown

With Soliman testing positive for a PED, his expected fight with Geale is probably out. Perhaps a Sturm rematch is the most obvious follow-up.

2) Felix Sturm (6-499-499)

Last Fight: 2/1/2013- L* (UD12) vs. #12 Sam Soliman (on PEDs)

Next Fight: Unknown

Sturm says on Twitter that he’s resumed light training, and will soon announce his plans for his next fight, which he describes as a big event.

3) Gennady Golovkin (6-32-95)

Last Fight: 3/30/2013- KO3 #19 Nobuhiro Ishida

Next Fight: 6/29/2013- vs. #4 Matthew Macklin

Golovkin-Macklin appears to be on for June 29 on HBO, and that’s huge.

4) Matthew Macklin (6-94-185)

Last Fight: 9/15/2012- TKO1 Joachim Alcine (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

See Golovkin’s notes, above.

5) Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. (6-97-115)

Last Fight: 9/15/2012- L (UD12) vs. Champ Sergio Martinez

Next Fight: 6/22/2013- vs. Unknown Opponent

Lots of Chavez news breaking. He’s staying with Freddie Roach after it looked like they were splitsville. It looks likely that Darren Barker is likely his guy for 6/22, and he’s saying that Andre Ward and Gennady Golovkin are his top choices for a fall fight, rather than a rematch with Martinez.

6) Peter Quillin (6-25-46)

Last Fight: 10/20/2012- UD12 #6 Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam

Next Fight: 4/27/2013- vs. Fernando Guerrero (UNR)

Quillin’s fight with Guerrero has been postponed from February 9 to April 27 due to an injury to the card’s headliner, Danny Garcia.

7) Dmitry Pirog (6-141-141)

Last Fight: 5/1/2012- UD12 #20 Nobuhiro Ishida

Next Fight: Unknown

After bleak reports of his back injury situation surfaced over recent weeks, finally we get a bit of hopeful news, as Pirog’s US promoter Art Pelullo says that Pirog is hoping to return in late August if all goes well.

8) Grzegorz Proksa (6-104-104)

Last Fight: 2/9/2013- UD6 Norbert Szekeres (UNR)

Next Fight: 6/28/2013- vs. Unknown Opponent

Proksa will bounce back from a hand injury and return on June 28 in the US. No further details yet.

9) Martin Murray (6-71-71)

Last Fight: 11/24/2012- TKO6 Jorge Navarro (UNR)

Next Fight: 4/27/2013- vs. Champ Sergio Martinez

Murray will look to prove that he belongs at or above the level he achieved by drawing with Sturm when he fights the Champ in Argentina on April 27.

10) Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam (6-6-128)

Last Fight: 10/20/2012- L (UD12) vs. #20 Peter Quillin

Next Fight: Unknown

N’Dam was recently seen sparring at Mayweather’s gym with some of his top prospects. This has fueled speculation of his possibly signing with Mayweather Promotions, himself.

11) Marco Antonio Rubio (4-115)

Last Fight: 3/23/2013- UD12 Marcus Upshaw (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Rubio seems to be the mandatory for both the Quillin-Guerrero and the Martinez-Murray winner unless I’ve missed something.

12) Anthony Mundine (4-115)

Last Fight: 1/30/2013- L (UD12) vs. #1 Daniel Geale

Next Fight: Unknown

Mundine expects to fight again in June, but doesn’t know against whom or in what division yet. He has hinted he may be moving back down to 154.

13) Osumanu Adama (4-107)

Last Fight: 3/16/2012- W(SD10) vs. Grady Brewer (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Adama came in heavy and nearly lost to 42 year-old Grady Brewer. The fact that he missed weight by only a half pound gives him the opportunity to schedule a middleweight fight by September 7 to maintain a ranking, though.

14) Darren Barker (5-78)

Last Fight: 3/9/2013- RTD4 Simone Rotolo (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Barker is the leading candidate for a 6/22 fight with Chavez.

15) Max Bursak (5-115)

Last Fight: 2/2/2013- TKO3 Julien Marie Sainte (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Bursak is now the EBU champion after destroying journeyman Sainte.

16) Demetrius Andrade (5-86)

Last Fight: 1/25/2013- UD10 Freddy Hernandez (UNR) (at JMW)

Next Fight: Unknown

Andrade has impliedly called out Keith Thurman, Erislandy Lara, and explicitly challenged Ishe Smith.

17) Bryan Vera (6-25)

Last Fight: 3/29/2013- TKO7* Donatas Bondorovas (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Vera looked like absolute crap against ordinary journeyman Donatas Bondas, getting a potential gift from the referee in a highly questionable 7th round stoppage, which saved him from needing the robbery that the judges were cooking up on the scorecards. He remains one of the top candidates to fight JCC in June.

18) Curtis Stevens (6-12)

Last Fight: 1/19/2013- KO1 Elvin Ayala (UNR)

Next Fight: 4/20/2013- vs. Derrick Findley (UNR)

Stevens will fight on the Fury-Cunningham undercard at MSG on 4/20 against veteran journeyman Derrick Findley.

19) Makoto Fuchigami (2-6)

Last Fight: 10/12/2012- RTD6 Marlon Alta (UNR)

Next Fight: 5/4/2013- vs. Akio Shibata (UNR)

Fuchigami has a good domestic-level opportunity on his hands, fighting essentially a peer in junior middleweight fringe contender Akio Shibata.

20) Nobuhiro Ishida (2-58)

Last Fight: 3/30/2013- L (KO3) vs. #3 Gennady Golovkin

Next Fight: Unknown

Ishida said before the Golovkin fight that he’d retire if he lost. But that could have just been posturing. I won’t remove him as a retired fighter until I find some post-fight confirmation of his intentions.

The Week Ahead: Saturday features three notable middleweight fights.

In Schwechat, Austria, two Spanish-born fighters square off for the European Union title. Marcos Nader is unquestionably the home fighter. He has lived in Austria for most of his life, and his father is Austrian. Santos is the European Union titlist, and is on quite a hot streak in terms of his performances (slightly less so in terms of his actual results). He was a confirmed journeyman in February of last year and coming off a 6-round decision loss to a 6-2-1 opponent when he somehow got a shot at the vacant EU title against undefeated German Dominik Britsch. Santos clearly beat Britsch, but was robbed by Dave Parris and especially the pathetic Zvonko Rukavina, by way of a split draw, only to remove it from the judges’ hands in the rematch, stopping Britsch in 8. In his first official defense of the belt, he got a very close fight from Nader. I scored it 115-113 Santos, but did think it could have gone the other way. The judges had it a draw, setting up Santos’ second rematch in four fights. I would like to give a similarly detailed breakdown of Nader’s recent career, but the only thing I can really say is that he’s undefeated and had been consistently fighting mid-range journeymen prior to Santos.

Fringe contending one-loss prospect Billi Godoy continues to rebuild after his debateable first loss, fighting weak Brazilian journeyman Valdevan Pereira in Godoy’s hometown of Neuquen, Argentina.

Finally, one-loss prospect Marcos Reyes takes on mid-level journeyman Eric Mitchell in Hidalgo, Mexico.

This entry was posted on April 9, 2013 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Middleweight, Rankings with tags Billi Godoy, Daniel Geale, Felix Sturm, Jarrod Fletcher, Marcos Nader, Marcos Reyes, Roberto Santos, Sergio Martinez. 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.

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