RANKINGS: Daniel Dubois makes a statement, Deontay Wilder hits the wall

06/03/2024 08:32 AM

Daniel Dubois crashes the heavyweight top 10, Deontay Wilder is out, and more in this week's update.

Next update will come on Monday, June 17.

Ranked fights this period:

• Cruiserweight: (2) Chris Billam-Smith vs (3) Richard Riakporhe, June 15
• Cruiserweight: (6) Michal Cieslak vs (7) Isaac Chamberlain, June 15
• Light Heavyweight: (7) Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs David Benavidez, June 15
• Light Heavyweight:(9) Dan Azeez vs Hrvoje Sep, June 15
• Super Middleweight: (9) Kevin Lele Sadjo vs Durval Palacio, June 13
• Middleweight: (2) Carlos Adames vs Terrell Gausha, June 15
• Super Lightweight: (1) Subriel Matias vs (8) Liam Paro, June 15
• Super Lightweight: (7) Gary Antuanne Russell vs Alberto Puello, June 15
• Lightweight: (2) Gervonta "Tank" Davis vs (5) Frank Martin, June 15
• Minimumweight: (1) Oscar Collazo vs Gerardo Zapata, June 7

Notes: And now the division waits for Turki Alalshikh to pay for all its next moves. Usyk vs Fury 2 is already set for December, and it seems likely we find out what's next for Anthony Joshua and others soon enough, with dominoes falling after that.

Obviously some big stuff here. Daniel Dubois comes in at No. 6 after his win over Filip Hrgovic, who drops to No. 9, and Zhilei Zhang holds at No. 7 with his win over Deontay Wilder, who is out of the heavyweight top 10 for the first time in many, many years, and looks like a cooked fighter, not even terribly dangerous because he simply doesn't throw punches anymore, and even when he does, it's clearly just not the same. Hard to put into words, but you just don't see the intent or confidence he used to have in his shots.

You could have Zhang a slot higher, or either he or Dubois ahead of Kabayel.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs (2) Tyson Fury, Dec. 21

Upcoming Fights: (2) Chris Billam-Smith vs (3) Richard Riakporhe, June 15 ... (6) Michal Cieslak vs (7) Isaac Chamberlain, June 15

Notes: Michael Eifert would have gone officially inactive in the next set of rankings, but why not now? Whatever, man. He was sitting here out of the sort of laziness I've talked about before, where you just keep a guy there because he did one thing that one time, and he's not doing anything else, and when you think about it, it often wasn't even that great or whatever.

Ravidoje "Hot Rod" Kalajdzic comes in at No. 10, at least for the moment. He faces David Morrell in August, and both Morrell and David Benavidez — who faces Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15 — should be in and shaking this division up soon.

Upcoming Fights: (7) Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs David Benavidez, June 15 ... (9) Dan Azeez vs Hrvoje Sep, June 15 ... (10) Radivoje Kalajdzic vs David Morrell, Aug. 3

Notes: Christian Mbilli took care of Mark Heffron without breaking a sweat, and now faces Sergiy Derevyanchenko in a much better matchup on Aug. 17, so at least he'll be taking a step forward on paper.

Upcoming Fights: (9) Kevin Lele Sadjo vs Durval Palacio, June 13 ... (3) Christian Mbilli vs (5) Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Aug. 17

Notes: Hamzah Sheeraz made a real statement in his win over Austin Williams, the latter falling out of the top 10 while Sheeraz rises into the top 10. Williams could have hung on at No. 10, I guess; he lost in an actual quality matchup, and he got stopped because he didn't stop trying to win. I think Williams would probably beat Nathan Heaney or Shane Mosley Jr, but now we'll see how he bounces back, because whatever flaws those two have, they're tough as hell and fight hungry.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Carlos Adames vs Terrell Gausha, June 15 ... (1) Janibek Alimkhanuly vs Andrei Mikhailovich, July 13

Upcoming Fights: (3) Israil Madrimov vs Terence "Bud" Crawford, Aug. 3

Upcoming Fights: (10) Lewis Crocker vs Conah Walker, June 22 ... (1) Jaron "Boots" Ennis vs (4) Cody Crowley, July 13

Notes: Well, there we go. Jack Catterall's still better than today's Josh Taylor and this time he got the official W to prove it without question. Catterall stays at No. 4 in what is currently a sort of weird top four due to various circumstances, while Taylor falls back out of the top 10 and is replaced by Dalton Smith.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Subriel Matias vs (8) Liam Paro, June 15 ... (7) Gary Antuanne Russell vs Alberto Puello, June 15 ... (3) Teofimo Lopez vs Steve Claggett, June 29 ... (6) Isaac "Pitbull" Cruz vs Jose Valenzuela, Aug. 3

Upcoming Fights: (2) Gervonta "Tank" Davis vs (5) Frank Martin, June 15 ... (3) Shakur Stevenson vs Artem Harutyunyan, July 6 ... (4) William Zepeda vs Giovanni Cabrera, July 6 ... (8) Keyshawn Davis vs Miguel Madueno, July 6 ... (6) Andy Cruz vs Antonio Moran, Aug. 3

Upcoming Fights: (10) Andres Cortes vs Abraham Nova, June 21

Notes: Nick Ball picked up his first world title in a really good fight against Raymond Ford, close but I think the right guy won for sure. I'd expect Ford might move up in weight; he talked about doing so after he won his belt, and stayed because the Ball fight was good money on a big show.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Rafael Espinoza vs Sergio Chirino, June 21 ... (1) Luis Alberto Lopez vs Angelo Leo, Aug. 10

Notes: Azat Hovhannisyan falls out due to inactivity.

Upcoming Fights: (7) Liam Davies vs Shabaz Masoud, July 20

Upcoming Fights: (1) Junto Nakatani vs (10) Vincent Astrolabio, July 20

Upcoming Fights: (1) Juan Francisco Estrada vs (3) Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez, June 29 ... (2) Kazuto Ioka vs (4) Fernando Martinez, July 7 ... (10) Suzumi Takayama vs Isao Aoyama, July 18 ... (5) Kosei Tanaka vs Jonathan Rodriguez, July 20

Notes: Julio Cesar Martinez has vacated the WBC title with plans to move up in weight full-time, so he's out.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Sunny Edwards vs Adrian Curiel, June 29

Upcoming Fights: (9) Shokichi Iwata vs Jahzeel Trinidad, July 6 ... (3) Carlos Canizales vs Ivan Garcia, July 19

Upcoming Fights: (1) Oscar Collazo vs Gerardo Zapata, June 7 ... (2) Ginjiro Shigeoka vs (9) Pedro Taduran, July 28

Upcoming Fights: (4) Chantelle Cameron vs Elhem Mekhaled, July 20