Light Heavyweight: 2013, May 13-19
Gatekeeper Lionell Thompson came in a pound over the 175 pound limit, and perhaps used that pound to good effect against undefeated prospect Yathomas Riley, who was jailed for nearly 2 years on suspicion of an attempted murder that turned out to be an attempted suicide that he was trying to prevent. Riley was evidently in no mood to waste time rebuilding after the layoff, as Thompson was his best opponent by a long shot. Still, Riley managed to keep it to within a round on 2 of the 3 cards (although one of those was John McKaie and therefore hardly counts).
Champ: Andre Ward (36-36-36) 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 (36-363-363)
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 (36-362-362)
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) Sergey Kovalev (1-17-17) Last Fight: 1/19/2013- TKO3 #4 Gabriel Campillo Next Fight: 6/14/2013- vs. #8 Cornelius White Kovalev is back in action against another pretty tough opponent on June 14. 4) Gabriel Campillo (1-151-151)
Last Fight: 1/19/2013- L(TKO3) vs. Sergey Kovalev (UNR)
Next Fight: 8/16/2013- vs. #13 Andrzej Fonfara Campillo will fight Fonfara in an interesting crossroads fight at Comiskey Park in Chicago. 5) Tavoris Cloud (1-194-194)
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. 6) Nathan Cleverly (1-171-171)
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. 7) Isaac Chilemba (1-7-67) Last Fight: 3/30/2013- Draw* (SD12) vs. #9 Tony Bellew (should be win) Next Fight: 5/25/2013- vs. #9 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. 8) Cornelius White (1-44-74) Last Fight: 3/9/2013- UD8 Otis Griffin (UNR) Next Fight: 6/14/2013- vs. #3 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 sparked out in just seconds by Don George. If he’s the latter, Kovalev should prove it pretty quickly. 9) Tony Bellew (1-83-83) 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. 10) Cedric Agnew (1-1-5) 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. 11) Jürgen Brähmer (1-56) 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. 12) Beibut Shumenov (1-151) Last Fight: 6/2/2012- UD12 Enrique Ornelas (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown At one point, it appeared that Shumenov might step in to fight Pascal when Bute withdrew, but that appears to have gone nowhere, as the card was canceled. 13) Andrzej Fonfara (1-44) Last Fight: 11/16/2012- TKO7 Tommy Karpency (UNR) Next Fight: 8/16/2013- vs. #4 Gabriel Campillo Fonfara will get a huge opportunity to launch himself into the top 5 when he takes on Gabriel Campillo in Chicago. 14) Lucian Bute (1-28) Last Fight: 11/3/2012- UD12 #16 Denis Grachev Next Fight: Unknown Bute aggravated a hand injury and is likely out until at least the fall. This scuttled his anticipated fight with Pascal, and sent Pascal out of the rankings for inactivity as a consequence. 15) Denis Grachev (1-55) Last Fight: 3/30/2013– W* (SD10) vs. Zsolt Erdei (UNR) (should be draw) Next Fight: 7/13/2013- vs. SMW #15 Edwin Rodriguez Grachev will be fighting Edwin Rodriguez at a catchweight of 171.5 in Monte Carlo for a million dollar prize. 16) Dmitri Sukhotski (1-133) 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. 17) Eleider Alvarez (1-16)
Last Fight: 3/22/2013- TKO3 Nicholson Poulard (UNR) Next Fight: 6/8/2013- vs. Allan Green (UNR) Though Alvarez no longer has a fight listed on Boxrec, the word is that the undercard fights from Bute-Pascal have all been moved to the Dawson-Stevenson card on June 8. I will assume that includes Alvarez-Green until I learn otherwise. 18) Yunieski Gonzalez (1-9) 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. 19) Doudou Ngumbu (1-6) Last Fight: 3/16/2013- UD12 #14 Vyacheslav Uzelkoff Next Fight: Unknown 20) Glen Johnson (1-1) Last Fight: 4/19/2013- TKO2 Junior Ramos (UNR) (at CW) Next Fight: Unknown Strangely, even though Johnson looks completely spent, he is once again ranked (barely) at both 175 and 168.
With the news this week that the Bute-Pascal fight is off, Pascal is removed from the rankings, even though it was Bute that withdrew. This might seem unfair, considering the cancellation was none of Pascal’s doing. But he was already hanging by a thread, having canceled on Chad Dawson previously, and having not fought at or under the light heavyweight limit in very nearly 2 years. Everyone ranked #4 and below last week moves up a place, including Cedric Agnew, who makes his debut in the top 10. Perhaps a bit shockingly, the vacant #20 spot is claimed by an apparently shot Glen Johnson.
Dan’s Top 20 (weeks in current position-weeks in top 10 (if applicable)-weeks in top 20)
Champ: Andre Ward (36-36-36) 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 (36-363-363)
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 (36-362-362)
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) Sergey Kovalev (1-17-17) Last Fight: 1/19/2013- TKO3 #4 Gabriel Campillo Next Fight: 6/14/2013- vs. #8 Cornelius White Kovalev is back in action against another pretty tough opponent on June 14. 4) Gabriel Campillo (1-151-151)
Last Fight: 1/19/2013- L(TKO3) vs. Sergey Kovalev (UNR)
Next Fight: 8/16/2013- vs. #13 Andrzej Fonfara Campillo will fight Fonfara in an interesting crossroads fight at Comiskey Park in Chicago. 5) Tavoris Cloud (1-194-194)
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. 6) Nathan Cleverly (1-171-171)
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. 7) Isaac Chilemba (1-7-67) Last Fight: 3/30/2013- Draw* (SD12) vs. #9 Tony Bellew (should be win) Next Fight: 5/25/2013- vs. #9 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. 8) Cornelius White (1-44-74) Last Fight: 3/9/2013- UD8 Otis Griffin (UNR) Next Fight: 6/14/2013- vs. #3 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 sparked out in just seconds by Don George. If he’s the latter, Kovalev should prove it pretty quickly. 9) Tony Bellew (1-83-83) 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. 10) Cedric Agnew (1-1-5) 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. 11) Jürgen Brähmer (1-56) 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. 12) Beibut Shumenov (1-151) Last Fight: 6/2/2012- UD12 Enrique Ornelas (UNR)
Next Fight: Unknown At one point, it appeared that Shumenov might step in to fight Pascal when Bute withdrew, but that appears to have gone nowhere, as the card was canceled. 13) Andrzej Fonfara (1-44) Last Fight: 11/16/2012- TKO7 Tommy Karpency (UNR) Next Fight: 8/16/2013- vs. #4 Gabriel Campillo Fonfara will get a huge opportunity to launch himself into the top 5 when he takes on Gabriel Campillo in Chicago. 14) Lucian Bute (1-28) Last Fight: 11/3/2012- UD12 #16 Denis Grachev Next Fight: Unknown Bute aggravated a hand injury and is likely out until at least the fall. This scuttled his anticipated fight with Pascal, and sent Pascal out of the rankings for inactivity as a consequence. 15) Denis Grachev (1-55) Last Fight: 3/30/2013– W* (SD10) vs. Zsolt Erdei (UNR) (should be draw) Next Fight: 7/13/2013- vs. SMW #15 Edwin Rodriguez Grachev will be fighting Edwin Rodriguez at a catchweight of 171.5 in Monte Carlo for a million dollar prize. 16) Dmitri Sukhotski (1-133) 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. 17) Eleider Alvarez (1-16)
Last Fight: 3/22/2013- TKO3 Nicholson Poulard (UNR) Next Fight: 6/8/2013- vs. Allan Green (UNR) Though Alvarez no longer has a fight listed on Boxrec, the word is that the undercard fights from Bute-Pascal have all been moved to the Dawson-Stevenson card on June 8. I will assume that includes Alvarez-Green until I learn otherwise. 18) Yunieski Gonzalez (1-9) 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. 19) Doudou Ngumbu (1-6) Last Fight: 3/16/2013- UD12 #14 Vyacheslav Uzelkoff Next Fight: Unknown 20) Glen Johnson (1-1) Last Fight: 4/19/2013- TKO2 Junior Ramos (UNR) (at CW) Next Fight: Unknown Strangely, even though Johnson looks completely spent, he is once again ranked (barely) at both 175 and 168.
The Week Ahead: Two notables will see action on back to back nights in France.
On Friday in Pont-Audemer, local gatekeeper Jonathan Profichet takes on mediocre one-loss fringe prospect Patrick Bois for the vacant French title.
Saturday in Marseilles, fringe contender Nadjib Mohammedi fights his 4th consecutive weak opponent in low-to-mid-level journeyman Shalva Jomardishvili of Georgia.
Dan's Weekly Boxer Rankings and Blog 
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