Dan's Weekly Boxer Rankings and Blog

#12 Juergen Braehmer scored a 2nd round knockout of journeyman Tony Averlant with a beautiful left hook to the body.  Averlant beat the count, but clearly wanted no more.  This would have been a good win for Braehmer a few months ago, but Averlant lost to a low-level journeyman in Mounir Toumi between his should-be win over Eduard Gutknecht that had him ranked in the top 20 and now.  No changes to the rankings.

 

Dan’s Top 20 (weeks in current position-weeks in top 10 (if applicable)-weeks in top 20)

Champ: Andre Ward (34-34-34)

Last Fight: 9/8/2012- TKO10 Champ Chad Dawson (at SMW)

Next Fight: Unknown

Ward is looking to return in August, and is reportedly thinking about fighting one of the winners of Kessler-Froch and Pascal-Bute, at least at some point.

1) Chad Dawson (34-361-361)
Last Fight: 9/8/2012- L(TKO10) vs. SMW Champ Andre Ward (at SMW)
Next Fight: 6/8/2013- vs. SMW #7 Adonis Stevenson

Dawson will fight Adonis Stevenson (who moves up from 168) on June 8 in Montreal.

2) Bernard Hopkins (34-360-360)
Last Fight: 3/9/2012- UD12 #6 Tavoris Cloud
Next Fight: 7/27/2013- vs. Karo Murat (UNR)

All the buzz had been revolving around a Hopkins-Cleverly showdown, but with little or no warning, he signed to fight his mandatory, the slightly more proven but inactive Karo Murat, instead.

3) Jean Pascal (34-202-202)
Last Fight: 12/14/2012- UD10 Alexei Kuziemski (UNR)
Next Fight: 5/25/2013- vs. #15 Lucian Bute

Pascal bailed on Dawson for a less internationally compelling fight with Lucian Bute on the same date.

4) Sergey Kovalev (15-15-15)

Last Fight: 1/19/2013- TKO3 #4 Gabriel Campillo

Next Fight: 6/14/2013- vs. #9 Cornelius White

Kovalev is back in action against another pretty tough opponent on June 14.

5) Gabriel Campillo (15-149-149)
Last Fight: 1/19/2013- L(TKO3) vs. Sergey Kovalev (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown

Polish sources report that Campillo is working on a deal to fight Andrzej Fonfara in Chicago’s Comiskey Park on August 16.

6) Tavoris Cloud (15-192-192)
Last Fight: 3/9/2013- L (UD12) vs. #2 Bernard Hopkins
Next Fight: Unknown

Cloud’s manager expects him back in action by the end of the year.  Normally that wouldn’t be saying much, but that would be against type for Cloud.

7) Nathan Cleverly (2-169-169)
Last Fight: 4/20/2013- UD12 Robin Krasniqi (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown

Cleverly is hoping to fight Shumenov and then Hopkins, though he also has a mandatory obligation with Juergen Braehmer to take care of at some point, theoretically.

8) Isaac Chilemba (2-5-65)

Last Fight: 3/30/2013- Draw* (SD12) vs. #9 Tony Bellew (should be win)

Next Fight: 5/25/2013- vs. #10 Tony Bellew

That didn’t take long!  Chilemba will rematch Bellew on the Froch-Kessler undercard in London, less than two months removed from getting borderline robbed the first time around.

9) Cornelius White (2-42-72)

Last Fight: 3/9/2013- UD8 Otis Griffin (UNR)

Next Fight: 6/14/2013- vs. #4 Sergey Kovalev

Moment of truth time for White.  On June 14 we’ll find out if he’s more the guy that beat up Dmitri Sukhotski, or the guy that got spareked out in just seconds by Don George.  If he’s the latter, Kovalev should prove it pretty quickly.

10) Tony Bellew (5-81-81)

Last Fight: 3/30/2013- Draw* (SD12) vs. #13 Isaac Chilemba (should be loss)

Next Fight: 5/25/2013- vs. #7 Isaac Chilemba

See Chilemba’s notes, above.

11) Cedric Agnew (3-3)

Last Fight: 4/12/2013- UD12 #14 Yusaf Mack

Next Fight: Unknown

Agnew may have caught a fading Yusaf Mack at the right time, but he’s clearly a climber, having now beaten both Mack and Otis Griffin.

12) Jürgen Brähmer (3-54)

Last Fight: 4/27/2013- TKO2 Tony Averlant (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Braehmer made an easy first defense of his European belt against Averlant.  He is currently the mandatory for Cleverly’s alphabet strap, as well, though it sounds like the Welshman would prefer bigger fish- or at least fish with bigger belts.

13) Beibut Shumenov (3-149)

Last Fight: 6/2/2012- UD12 Enrique Ornelas (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown

Nathan Cleverly has named Shumenov his preferred next opponent.  No word on whether Shumenov has encouraged this stance behind the scenes or not, though.  Shumenov’s mandatory, I believe, is Marcus Oliveira.

14) Andrzej Fonfara (3-42)

Last Fight: 11/16/2012- TKO7 Tommy Karpency (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Reports out of Poland indicate a deal is being negotiated for Fonfara to fight Gabriel Campillo at Comiskey Park in Chicago on August 16.

15) Lucian Bute (4-26)

Last Fight: 11/3/2012- UD12 #16 Denis Grachev

Next Fight: 5/25/2013- vs. #3 Jean Pascal

Bute will look to prove what I have long believed- that the 168 pound division is much better man-for-man than 175, by fighting his larger peer in Montreal on May 25.

16) Denis Grachev (4-53)

Last Fight: 3/30/2013– W* (SD10) vs. Zsolt Erdei (UNR) (should be draw)

Next Fight: 7/13/2013- vs. SMW #16 Edwin Rodriguez

Grachev will be fighting Edwin Rodriguez at a catchweight of 171.5 in Monte Carlo for a million dollar prize.

17) Dmitri Sukhotski (4-131)

Last Fight: 12/8/2012- TKO1 Vladimir Borovsky (UNR)

Next Fight: 6/4/2013- vs. Mikhail Krinitsin

Sukhotski will fight in Barnaul, Russia on June 4 against low-level Kazakh journeyman Mikhail Krinitsin.

18) Eleider Alvarez (4-14)

Last Fight: 3/22/2013- TKO3 Nicholson Poulard (UNR)

Next Fight: 5/25/2013- vs. Allan Green (UNR)

Alvarez takes on dangerous gatekeeper Allan Green on the Bute-Pascal undercard.

19) Yunieski Gonzalez (4-7)

Last Fight: 3/15/2013- KO8 Rowland Bryant (UNR)

Next Fight: Unknown

Gonzalez took a huge step up in competition and made good, knocking out strong fringe contender Bryant. 

20) Doudou Ngumbu (4-4)

Last Fight: 3/16/2013- UD12 #14 Vyacheslav Uzelkoff

Next Fight: Unknown

 

The Week Ahead: No significant action in the division, unless Anthony Dirrell’s return fight against an unknown opponent strays above the 168 limit.

This entry was posted on May 1, 2013 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Light Heavyweight, Rankings with tags Andre Ward, Bernard Hopkins, Chad Dawson, Gabriel Campillo, Jean Pascal, Juergen Braehmer, Sergey Kovalev, 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.