(Editor’s note: We’re leaving the comments as is, although there may be a different take on the outcome after the Haney vs. Garcia match.) Garcia Fails Drug Test.)
Obviously Devin Haney has to go. I have David Benavidez now. Nobody has an incredibly clear choice, which is always the case with the back end.
Canelo, Inoue, Usyk (and Fury!) will all be in action this month, and the Bivol vs Beterbiev fight is set to begin in June, with Tank Davis, David Benavidez and Bam Rodriguez also set to fight. The next two months could see some changes.
After Ryan Garcia finished smoking a pack of Haney, Devin is officially out of P4P. That puts Junto Nakatani on my list. And soon either Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev will lose, establishing them as the novel sizzling trash. They too will be kicked off the list because that’s how boxing works. Check back soon.
Haney is leaving and will almost certainly never return. I can’t wait to forget I ever ranked him and deny it with passion and sincerity unless someone digs up elderly rankings to prove it to me.
Choosing number 10 to fill the list was complex. No one fully and clearly deserves it, and anyone picked could be beaten to death against five or six other equally good but flawed options. I was thinking of joining Team Esco and drafting Boots Ennis because he’s undefeated, passes the eye test, and inadvertently won himself a welterweight title as the last top-tier talent left standing.
If I’m going to go by eye test and assumptions, I’ll go ahead and put Subriel Matias in the 10th division. The man is a terror and it seems like no one in his weight class wants anything to do with him. He probably had a better argument than the others I mentioned earlier if not for his relative inaction. Yes, he lost one fight over four years ago, by a whisker. But you can’t have a top 10 without a 10th fighter, and there aren’t 10 other fighters who I think are better. right now than Matias.
I’ll walk you through my thought process very quickly.
Devin Haney will not play for obvious reasons, and Ryan Garcia cannot take his place for equally obvious reasons.
There are a few multi-division champions on the fringes of my list, but Kosei Tanaka won his latest title against a delicate opponent, Kazuto Ioka and Juan Francisco Estrada had some heated exchanges up close, and Emanuel Navarrete drew in a fight he should have won cleanly.
I’m tempted to put players who pass the eye test like Jaron Ennis or Subriel Matias there, but they don’t have the huge wins to justify it.
There are only a few options left, and when it comes to who has both a solid track record and recent dominant wins among his peers, Benavidez fits the bill.
OK, OK – I’ll happily return to my lofty Devin Haney rankings now. While he didn’t exactly reek of Garcia, he didn’t put on anything approaching a top P4P contender in a fight that was literally put on a plate to make him look good. The weight issues are a legitimate excuse that can’t be overshadowed now that the dust has settled, but there’s no shortage of names worthy of a bump up the rankings at his expense, and “Dreams” won’t let you sleep.
Benavidez – and his resume speaks for itself – is a man who will sneak into the top 10, unchanged elsewhere.
I was wondering iff yoou evber thoughht oof changing tthe struhture oof your site?
Its vedy well written; I ove what youge got to say. Buut maybe you could a littpe ore inn thhe
way of contesnt soo peple couuld connect wih it better.
Youive got an awful loot off tewxt for only having
oone orr two images. Maybe yyou could space itt out better?
It’s another Wednesday night ProBox and we have live coverage from Bad Left Hook! Tonight, Jarrett Hurd and Jeison Rosario meet in the ProBox TV main event, which will be a 10-round middleweight bout.
The show starts at 8pm EST, so join us for the full live coverage in the comments section below!
Hurd (25-3, 17 KO) was the unified 154-pound champion, winning back-to-back fights over Tony Harrison, Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara, earning him a reputation as an action fighter with deadly power. A surprising loss to Julian “J-Rock” Williams in 2019 showed that earlier battles had taken their toll, with the theory supported by subsequent decision defeats to Luis Arias and stoppage to Armando Resendiz.
Rosario (24-4-1, 18 KO) was also the junior middleweight champion, defeating J-Rock Williams via 5th round TKO in Williams’ first defense of the Hurd belts. Rosario then lost his first title defense to Jermell Charlo by KO-8, lost again the next time by KO-6 to Erickson Lubin, and lost his only significant fight since against Brian Mendoza in 2022, also by knockout.
Without disregarding their significant achievements from 4-5 years ago, both men have clearly seen their best moments in recent performances. But either one or two wins could separate him from another significant shot at the wide-open middleweight division, and both fighters have enough value to lend a hand revive the reputation of tonight’s winner.
You can join us in the comments below for live coverage and commentary, and watch the live stream for FREE! with this video:
Shakur Stevenson will officially face Joe Cordina in an undercard fight on October 1. 12 in Riyad gala, the main character of which was the long-awaited clash between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Stevenson (22-0, 10 KO) will soon return to the ring after a July 6 decision victory over Artem Harutyunyan, which was his last win in the top division. He has an obligation to win the WBC lightweight title against William Zepeda, but that is currently scheduled for February. Meanwhile, Cordina (17-1, 9 KO) will be looking to return in style after losing her IBF super featherweight title to Anthony Cacace in May.
Also on the card:
34-year-old Chris Eubank Jr (33-3, 24 KO) begins his sixth or seventh restart in his career with a fight against Kamil Szeremeta (25-2-2, 8 KO), who had a 10-round draw in February last year in Poland and seems to have never really recovered from back-to-back losses to Gennady Golovkin and Jaime Munguia during the season 2020–2021.
Fabio Wardley (17-0-1, 16 KO) and Frazer Clarke (8-0-1, 6 KO) will meet again in a rematch for Wardley’s British and Commonwealth titles in a very appropriate setting for the British national belts.
Jai Opetaia (25-0, 19 KO) will defend his IBF cruiserweight title against Jack Massey (22-2, 12 KO). Massey will likely be the second-best opponent of Opetaa’s career after a mighty win over Isaac Chamberlain in June, but Opetaia will still be the main favorite.
Ben Whittaker (8-0, 5 KO) will face Liam Cameron (23-6, 10 KO), who gave Lyndon Arthur a good run after his June defeat.
Skye Nicolson (11-0, 1 KO) will defend her WBC featherweight title against Raven Chapman (9-0, 2 KO). Nicolson will be rightly favored, but this is as good a fight as there is for Skye.
Three-time cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis announced on Twitter that after almost 15 years in the ring, he calls it a career.
The Latvian had previously spent his first six years as a gigantic fish in a compact pond on the Euro circuit moving up to heavyweight to destroy Mahmoud Charr with one punch. Two years later, he won his first world title by defeating Marco Huck in Germany, thus earning a place in the inaugural WBSS cruiserweight tournament. There he defeated Mike Perez before giving Oleksandr Usyk probably the toughest fight of his professional career, losing by majority decision.
When WBSS got going again, Briedis reached the semi-finals with a controversial decision over Noel Mikaelian, who has since gone on to win the world title. What followed was an ugly, foul-filled fight with Krzysztof Głowacki, which culminated in Briedis Glowacki brutally hitting the bell in the second second and then getting there in the third.
Briedis ultimately relinquished the WBO belt during another 15-month break. Half a year into the pandemic, he finally had the opportunity to finish his run by defeating Yuniel Dorticos for the IBF title.
After defending his djme title against Artur Mann in his hometown of Riga, Briedis put on a show against Jai Opetaia, fighting in the early rounds but in return breaking his jaw and racing down the stretch en route to another narrow defeat. Their second meeting last May was not as competitive as the aging and rusty Briedis did not impose his will but once again gave Opetaia hell.
It was a career to be proud of; Briedis has remained at or near the top for many eras in the cruiserweight divisions, including some of the most talent-heavy periods in recent memory. Good luck with your future work, champ.
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September 12, 2024 at 10:30 pm
I was wondering iff yoou evber thoughht oof changing tthe struhture oof your site?
Its vedy well written; I ove what youge got to say. Buut maybe you could a littpe ore inn thhe
way of contesnt soo peple couuld connect wih it better.
Youive got an awful loot off tewxt for only having
oone orr two images. Maybe yyou could space itt out better?