Junior Middleweight: 2014, Apr 21-27
Saturday in Malvinas, Argentina, #13 Javier Maciel looked like a guy expecting to be given the win just for showing up, much the way his opponent was in his last fight. Turns out he was right. Maciel came out completely flat, allowing his mid-level journeyman opponent Cesar Sastre Silva to box circles around him and beat him to the punch with amazing consistency. Maciel did score a knockdown in the 2nd, a round he otherwise clearly lost, and was given credit for another in the third for no discernible reason, also in a round I thought he lost fairly clearly. Maciel had landed a body shot that caused Sastre Silva to double over somewhat, but his gloves never dipped near the canvas or anything of that nature. I don’t understand Spanish well enough to know, but I might theorize that it was a standing 8 count, something I’ve seen done in Argentina in particular. Either way, it strikes me as supremely unwarranted. But after those two hiccups, Sastre Silva pretty clearly won every round. Weird refereeing aside, it wasn’t a tough fight to score, really. Sastre Silva dominated more often than not. I had it 98-92 Sastre Silva, and frankly it’s hard for me to imagine any given round going the other way. I guess there were about 3 close rounds, but I didn’t see any of them as true toss-ups. The TyC Sports broadcast team had it something like 98-96.5 for Maciel- partly because they somehow didn’t know what scoring system was being used, even though I did. As for the job they did picking the winner of any given round- it was embarrassing. A trained monkey certainly would have done better. The official judges were worse, I think, though again they were using a different scoring system. They had it 98-90 (Edgardo Codutti), 97-91 (Manuel Veliz), and 96-94 (Juan Carlos Palmieri), all for Maciel. One of the biggest jokes I’ve ever seen. With better refereeing, the correct score would have been 99-91 Sastre Silva. Not since at least Campillo-Shumenov II have I seen a fighter dominate the fight to such an extent and still lose on the cards. Truly pathetic.
Since I don’t abide robberies, this obviously will make big waves in my rankings. Sastre Silva’s 9-4 record coming in might lead you to believe that he’d be obviously unqualified to claim a ranking, but a closer look reveals that all 4 of his losses were over 5 years ago, and thus don’t count. He has been very inactive in recent years, but he’s got a 4-0 record against journeymen and prospects in that span, plus this performance. Sastre Silva debuts, with his sole significant performance being a clear win over a #13 contender, at #14. His should-be win over Maciel was much clearer than Demetrius Andrade’s was over an equally-ranked Vanes Martirosyan, but Andrade does add two more solid wins slightly over the divisional limit, which must be a factor, and which put him over the top. All that said, while Sastre Silva does have an effectively clean resume, he was still a clear journeyman coming into the fight, and in all candor, probably isn’t as good as Maciel made him look. That being the case, Maciel has to take a dive out of the rankings. I’ve got him back on the gatekeeper level at this point.
Dan’s Top 20 (Weeks in Current Position-Weeks in Top 10 if applicable-Weeks in Top 20) Champ: None 1) Saul Alvarez (7-164-179) Last Fight: 3/8/2014- TKO10 #10 Alfredo Angulo Next Fight: 7/12/2014- vs. #3 Erislandy Lara Canelo came knocking, and Lara answered the door. 2) Carlos Molina (7-146-161) Last Fight: 9/14/2013- W (SD12) vs. #5 Ishe Smith Next Fight: Unknown At last check, Molina remained in a Las Vegas jail. 3) Erislandy Lara (7-146-168) Last Fight: 12/7/2013- UD12 #4 Austin Trout Next Fight: 7/12/2014- vs. #1 Saul Alvarez Lara traded an intended fight with Ishe Smith for a more lucrative and important showdown with Canelo. The fight might not determine a legitimate champion, but it should at least crown a preeminent top contender. 4) Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (7-32-32) Last Fight: 9/14/2013- W* (MD12) vs. #2 Saul Alvarez Next Fight: 5/3/2014- vs. #4 WW Marcos Maidana (at WW) Floyd will fight Maidana rather than Khan. Thank goodness. 5) Austin Trout (20-99-168) Last Fight: 12/7/2013- L (UD12) vs. #5 Erislandy Lara Next Fight: Unknown Trout might be getting to that unfortunate position of having a record underwhelming enough to be low-reward, while still being easily skilled enough to be high-risk. He says essentially that he wants worthwhile fights in 2014, rather than a soft diet for rebuilding purposes. 6) Ishe Smith (32-61-61) Last Fight: 9/14/2013- L (SD12) vs. #1 Carlos Molina Next Fight: Unknown Smith was left without an opponent after Lara jumped ship on their May 2 fight to battle Canelo. Smith had an offer to replace Lara with Gabe Rosado, but passed. Mundine is reportedly interested, as well. 7) Joshua Clottey (2-2-2) Last Fight: 4/9/2014- UD12 #7 Anthony Mundine Next Fight: Unknown For those looking for a good way to revitalize a practically evaporated career, you couldn’t do much better than the example Clottey just provided. He wants to fight Mayweather, but I’d say he’s at least one top 5 win away from having a chance at that. 8) Miguel Cotto (21-203-203) Last Fight: 10/5/2013- TKO3 #11 Delvin Rodriguez Next Fight: 6/7/2014- vs. MW Champ Sergio Martinez (at MW) Cotto and Martinez have now officially agreed to a Middleweight Championship fight on June 7 at MSG. 9) Anthony Mundine (2-21-21) Last Fight: 4/9/2014- L (UD12) vs. Joshua Clottey (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown Not one to be kept down for long, Mundine has offered to substitute for Erislandy Lara for Ishe Smith’s May 2 date. 10) Cornelius Bundrage (2-194-194) Last Fight: 1/24/2014- UD12 Joey Hernandez (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown It appears that Bundrage has jumped to the front of the line to challenge for Molina’s belt, though there is uncertainty regarding that bout and Molina’s availability for it. 11) Alfredo Angulo (2-239) Last Fight: 3/8/2014- L (TKO10) vs. #4 Saul Alvarez Next Fight: Unknown Angulo could probably use a fight with a gatekeeper or low level fringe contender just to get his career momentum going. 12) Sergey Rabchenko (2-97) Last Fight: 11/16/2013- UD12 Bradley Pryce (UNR) Next Fight: 5/17/2014- vs. Emanuele Della Rosa (UNR) Rabchenko will defend his European belt in Rome on May 17 against a local prospect, and is hoping for a shot at a vacant alphabet belt after that. 13) Demetrius Andrade (1-24) Last Fight: 11/9/2013- W* (SD12) vs. #13 Vanes Martirosyan Next Fight: 6/14/2014- vs. Brian Rose (UNR) Andrade and Rose have agreed to fight in the US, with a date of June 14. 14) Cesar Sastre Silva (1-1) Last Fight: 4/19/2014- Robbery UD10 Loss (should be win) vs. #13 Javier Maciel Next Fight: Unknown Sastre Silva dominated a confused-looking Javier Maciel, but got robbed even worse than Maciel had been robbed against Rose in his previous fight. 15) Delvin Rodriguez (2-145) Last Fight: 10/5/2013- L (TKO3) vs. #7 Miguel Cotto Next Fight: 5/16/2014- vs. Joachim Alcine (UNR) Rodriguez looks to get back on track on May 16 against veteran Alcine on Friday Night Fights. 16) Vanes Martirosyan (2-151) Last Fight: 3/21/2014- UD10 Mario Lozano (UNR) Next Fight: 5/10/2014- vs. Unknown Opponent Vanes successfully stayed busy against Lozano. I’m not sure what his endgame is, but he’ll be back in action again on May 10 on the Stiverne-Arreola undercard in LA. 17) Jermell Charlo (2-46) Last Fight: 1/25/2014- UD10 Gabriel Rosado (UNR) Next Fight: 5/24/2014- vs. Charlie Ota (UNR) With the cancellation of Smith-Lara, Charlo has been bumped back to May 24, and will fight fringe contending prospect Charlie Ota. 18) Gabriel Rosado (2-13) Last Fight: 1/25/2014- L (UD10) vs. #18 Jermell Charlo Next Fight: Unknown Rosado was offered to Ishe Smith as a May 2 replacement, but Smith turned him down. In turn, Rosado is being challenged by Hassan N’Dam. 19) Zaurbek Baysangurov (2-2) Last Fight: 4/12/2014- TKO12 #20 Guido Pitto Next Fight: Unknown Baysangurov looked the best I’ve seen him, by far, against Pitto. 20) Willie Nelson (2-60) Last Fight: 6/29/2013- UD10 Luciano Cuello (UNR) Next Fight: Unknown The once-delayed fight with Kirkland is apparently in the works to headline a May 24 HBO card.
The Week Ahead: Saturday Dieudonne Belinga vs. Matiouze Royer; Haute Vienne, France; TV Unknown Belinga is only a relevant fighter because he earned a draw in his last fight with Jack Culcay, but was robbed by a combination of referee Mikael Hook and the three blind mice at ringside. Even now, however, Belinga is only a borderline member of the top 50, having three totally unforgivable losses on his record along with that performance. Royer is, frankly, a bad fighter. He sports an 8-15 record, and I couldn’t spot a legitimate European-level fighter or better on his entire record.
Jermall Charlo vs. Hector Munoz; Carson, California; Showtime Extreme (US) Charlo gets an easy night on the Thurman-Diaz undercard on Saturday, as he’ll be mixing on the ShoX undercard with veteran mediocre journeyman Hector Munoz. Munoz has been in with a fair number of quality operators, but he’s never come particularly close to beating any of them. Against the type of fighter that most believe Charlo will end up being, he generally gets stopped.
Charles Whittaker vs. Terrell Gausha; Carson, California; Showtime Extreme (US) Whittaker is a gatekeeper from the Cayman Islands who now fights out of Miami. He’s the best opponent of rising prospect Gausha’s career by a long shot, and in truth is the first significant test of any kind. Gausha is a former US Olympian, and seems to project as contender eventually. If he looks good against Whittaker, he’s already going to be roughly a fringe contender.
Dan's Weekly Boxer Rankings and Blog 
Leave a Reply