Light Heavyweight: 2013, Sep 30- Oct 6
In what turned out to be the week’s only important action technically at 175, #1 Adonis Stevenson thoroughly dominated #8 Tavoris Cloud, who at this point must be considered a faded former top contender. Stevenson not only brutally thumped Cloud as you might have expected, but also brilliantly outboxed him, which might not have been quite as foreseeable for the vaunted slugger. Cloud has now lost his last three fights by the estimation of anyone who cares about the truth, while Stevenson has proven that his lightning-quick destruction of Chad Dawson was no fluke.
Champ: Andre Ward (56-56-56) Last Fight: 9/8/2012- TKO10 Champ Chad Dawson (at SMW) Next Fight: 11/16/2013- vs. #14 Edwin Rodriguez (at SMW) After tons of posturing, Ward-Rodriguez is now done for 11/16 in Ontario, California. 1) Adonis Stevenson (17-17-17) Last Fight: 9/28/2013- TKO7 #8 Tavoris Cloud Next Fight: 11/30/2013- vs. #6 Tony Bellew Stevenson is tentatively set to fight Tony Bellew on November 30. That’s a quick turnaround from his fight two months earlier, so we’ll see if it happens then or not. 2) Bernard Hopkins (56-382-382) Last Fight: 3/9/2012- UD12 #6 Tavoris Cloud
Next Fight: 10/26/2013- vs. Karo Murat (UNR) Hopkins-Murat has been reset for October 26, with Showtime televising. 3) Sergey Kovalev (16-37-37) Last Fight: 8/17/2013- TKO4 #8 Nathan Cleverly Next Fight: Unknown Kovalev’s mandatory is Braehmer, and Fonfara has been rumored, as well. 4) Chad Dawson (16-383-383) Last Fight: 6/8/2013- L(TKO1) vs. SMW #6 Adonis Stevenson Next Fight: Unknown Dawson may be returning sometime in November. 5) Andrzej Fonfara (7-7-64) Last Fight: 8/16/2013- KO9 #6 Gabriel Campillo Next Fight: Unknown See Kovalev’s notes, above. 6) Tony Bellew (7-103-103) Last Fight: 5/25/2013- UD12 #7 Isaac Chilemba Next Fight: 11/30/2013- vs. #1 Adonis Stevenson Bellew is tentatively scheduled to fight the Stevenson on his November 30 birthday. 7) Gabriel Campillo (7-171-171)
Last Fight: 8/16/2013- L (KO9) vs. #14 Andrzej Fonfara
Next Fight: Unknown Campillo might be on his way to deserved obscurity after being robbed of deserved prominence for so much of his career. He still has plenty of boxing skill, but his will might be fading just a bit. 8) Tavoris Cloud (7-214-214)
Last Fight: 9/28/2013- L (TKO7) vs. #1 Adonis Stevenson
Next Fight: Unknown Cloud should probably get himself back in the win column at some point. 9) Nathan Cleverly (7-191-191) Last Fight: 8/17/2013- L (TKO4) vs. #3 Sergey Kovalev
Next Fight: Unknown Cleverly says he’ll take a vacation after his drubbing at the hands of Kovalev, and is unsure as to whether he’ll keep fighting or not. 10) Isaac Chilemba (7-27-87) Last Fight: 5/25/2013- L (UD12) vs. #9 Tony Bellew Next Fight: Unknown Chilemba may have lost the second fight to Bellew in his opponent’s back yard, but between the two fights, he’s managed to elevate himself somewhat. 11) Cornelius White (7-94) Last Fight: 6/14/2013- L (TKO3) vs. #5 Sergey Kovalev Next Fight: Unknown White was blasted out by Kovalev, but at least he has good company in that regard. 12) Jürgen Brähmer (6-76) Last Fight: 8/24/2013- UD12 Stefano Abatangelo (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Braehmer is Kovalev’s mandatory, for whatever that’s worth. 13) Cedric Agnew (6-25) 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. 14) Edwin Rodriguez (7-12) Last Fight: 7/13/2013- TKO1 #16 Denis Grachev Next Fight: 11/16/2013- vs. Champ Andre Ward (at SMW) See Ward’s notes, above. 15) Lucian Bute (12-48) Last Fight: 11/3/2012- UD12 #16 Denis Grachev Next Fight: 1/18/2014- vs. Jean Pascal (UNR) Bute-Pascal has been pushed back to January 18. 16) Hadillah Mohoumadi (12-14) Last Fight: 6/29/2013- TKO7 CW #20 Pawel Glazewski Next Fight: Unknown Mohoumadi’s fight with De Carolis was briefly rescheduled, but then appears to have been cancelled entirely. 17) Eleider Alvarez (1-36) Last Fight: 9/28/2013- UD10 Edison Miranda (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 18) Enzo Maccarinelli (1-7) Last Fight: 8/17/2013- TKO11 Ovill McKenzie (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Maccarinelli has revitalized his career to an extent with the gutsy McKenzie win. 19) Denis Grachev (1-75) Last Fight: 7/13/2013- L (TKO1) vs. #13 SMW Edwin Rodriguez Next Fight: Unknown 20) Dmitry Sukhotsky (1-153) Last Fight: 6/4/2013- KO3 Mikhail Krinitsin (UNR) (at SMW) Next Fight: Unknown Sukhotsky may be sticking around at 168 from now on, but only time will tell. He has until December to schedule a fight at 175 if he wants to keep his ranking.
Former Champ Jean Pascal looked sensational against aging former gatekeeper George Blades, mercilessly pummeling the Hoosier former title contender for 5 brutal rounds that finally ended (much too late) when the 3 knockdown rule was triggered in that stanza. On a personal note, I met both men in 2011 when I was randomly seated directly behind Pascal and directly in front of Blades at the Alexander-Matthysse fight. Both were very gracious, and I’ve even kept in touch with George. It pained me to see him absorb that beating, and I hope he either retires or settles down to fighting some ham and eggers for easy money, because it’s clear that he doesn’t belong at the contender level- certainly not at this point in his career. The fight was contested at a contract weight of 180, with Pascal scaling 177.25, which means the Haitian contender still has yet to make 175 since losing the Championship to Hopkins well over 2 years ago, and is thus still ineligible for a ranking at this time.
The 180 pound bug bit #20 Eleider Alvarez, too, as his fight with fringe contender and fellow Colombian Edison Miranda was also contested at that weight. Alvarez, who appeared to be the naturally bigger and stronger man, got the nod from all three judges in what was an essentially dead-even see-saw battle. Two of the judges, as usual, were crooks. Richard DeCarufel had it the same as I did (95-94 Alvarez), but the other two were totally out of bounds. Sylvain LeBlanc scored it 97-92, meaning he scored all the close rounds for Alvarez, and at least one pretty clear Miranda round. But the cake was taken by Jean Gauthier, who somehow had only one round for Miranda.
Stevenson’s victory over Cloud merely enforced the status quo, and produces no changes. While Alvarez’s win was debatable and not really that close to the divisional limit, it was a fair fight (judging aside) and a win over a credible known quantity in the division, and therefore it can’t reasonably help but bump him up. Alvarez moves up to #17, bumping Maccarinelli, Grachev, and Sukhotsky down a notch.
In a bit of a surprise, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. ballooned well above the anticipate low super middleweight contract weight for his fight with Bryan Vera, and the fight was renegotiated at nearly the last minute into a 173 pound contest. Chavez almost certainly lost the fight, but was awarded a totally undeserved unanimous decision- though I can’t say a narrow Chavez win was totally inconceivable. It simply wouldn’t make sense to drag a guy like Vera- a small super middleweight at best, to 175 unexpectedly, win dubiously, and get ranked for it. And given my policy of deferring to the official winner slightly in close cases like this, it would not be possible to rank Vera- who would deserve it more- without also ranking the wrongdoer, Chavez. Therefore this fight will have no bearing on this division’s rankings.
Dan’s Top 20 (weeks in current position-weeks in top 10 (if applicable)-weeks in top 20)
Champ: Andre Ward (56-56-56) Last Fight: 9/8/2012- TKO10 Champ Chad Dawson (at SMW) Next Fight: 11/16/2013- vs. #14 Edwin Rodriguez (at SMW) After tons of posturing, Ward-Rodriguez is now done for 11/16 in Ontario, California. 1) Adonis Stevenson (17-17-17) Last Fight: 9/28/2013- TKO7 #8 Tavoris Cloud Next Fight: 11/30/2013- vs. #6 Tony Bellew Stevenson is tentatively set to fight Tony Bellew on November 30. That’s a quick turnaround from his fight two months earlier, so we’ll see if it happens then or not. 2) Bernard Hopkins (56-382-382) Last Fight: 3/9/2012- UD12 #6 Tavoris Cloud
Next Fight: 10/26/2013- vs. Karo Murat (UNR) Hopkins-Murat has been reset for October 26, with Showtime televising. 3) Sergey Kovalev (16-37-37) Last Fight: 8/17/2013- TKO4 #8 Nathan Cleverly Next Fight: Unknown Kovalev’s mandatory is Braehmer, and Fonfara has been rumored, as well. 4) Chad Dawson (16-383-383) Last Fight: 6/8/2013- L(TKO1) vs. SMW #6 Adonis Stevenson Next Fight: Unknown Dawson may be returning sometime in November. 5) Andrzej Fonfara (7-7-64) Last Fight: 8/16/2013- KO9 #6 Gabriel Campillo Next Fight: Unknown See Kovalev’s notes, above. 6) Tony Bellew (7-103-103) Last Fight: 5/25/2013- UD12 #7 Isaac Chilemba Next Fight: 11/30/2013- vs. #1 Adonis Stevenson Bellew is tentatively scheduled to fight the Stevenson on his November 30 birthday. 7) Gabriel Campillo (7-171-171)
Last Fight: 8/16/2013- L (KO9) vs. #14 Andrzej Fonfara
Next Fight: Unknown Campillo might be on his way to deserved obscurity after being robbed of deserved prominence for so much of his career. He still has plenty of boxing skill, but his will might be fading just a bit. 8) Tavoris Cloud (7-214-214)
Last Fight: 9/28/2013- L (TKO7) vs. #1 Adonis Stevenson
Next Fight: Unknown Cloud should probably get himself back in the win column at some point. 9) Nathan Cleverly (7-191-191) Last Fight: 8/17/2013- L (TKO4) vs. #3 Sergey Kovalev
Next Fight: Unknown Cleverly says he’ll take a vacation after his drubbing at the hands of Kovalev, and is unsure as to whether he’ll keep fighting or not. 10) Isaac Chilemba (7-27-87) Last Fight: 5/25/2013- L (UD12) vs. #9 Tony Bellew Next Fight: Unknown Chilemba may have lost the second fight to Bellew in his opponent’s back yard, but between the two fights, he’s managed to elevate himself somewhat. 11) Cornelius White (7-94) Last Fight: 6/14/2013- L (TKO3) vs. #5 Sergey Kovalev Next Fight: Unknown White was blasted out by Kovalev, but at least he has good company in that regard. 12) Jürgen Brähmer (6-76) Last Fight: 8/24/2013- UD12 Stefano Abatangelo (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Braehmer is Kovalev’s mandatory, for whatever that’s worth. 13) Cedric Agnew (6-25) 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. 14) Edwin Rodriguez (7-12) Last Fight: 7/13/2013- TKO1 #16 Denis Grachev Next Fight: 11/16/2013- vs. Champ Andre Ward (at SMW) See Ward’s notes, above. 15) Lucian Bute (12-48) Last Fight: 11/3/2012- UD12 #16 Denis Grachev Next Fight: 1/18/2014- vs. Jean Pascal (UNR) Bute-Pascal has been pushed back to January 18. 16) Hadillah Mohoumadi (12-14) Last Fight: 6/29/2013- TKO7 CW #20 Pawel Glazewski Next Fight: Unknown Mohoumadi’s fight with De Carolis was briefly rescheduled, but then appears to have been cancelled entirely. 17) Eleider Alvarez (1-36) Last Fight: 9/28/2013- UD10 Edison Miranda (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown 18) Enzo Maccarinelli (1-7) Last Fight: 8/17/2013- TKO11 Ovill McKenzie (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Maccarinelli has revitalized his career to an extent with the gutsy McKenzie win. 19) Denis Grachev (1-75) Last Fight: 7/13/2013- L (TKO1) vs. #13 SMW Edwin Rodriguez Next Fight: Unknown 20) Dmitry Sukhotsky (1-153) Last Fight: 6/4/2013- KO3 Mikhail Krinitsin (UNR) (at SMW) Next Fight: Unknown Sukhotsky may be sticking around at 168 from now on, but only time will tell. He has until December to schedule a fight at 175 if he wants to keep his ranking.
The Week Ahead: The French title is on the line in Vignes aux Bois, as low-level one-loss fringe prospect Patrick…well…Bois…fights in what I assume must be his ancestral hometown or something against gatekeeper Nadjib Mohammedi.
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