#1 Crawford, #2 Madrimov And #3 Bakhram: Ring Magazine’s 154-lb Ratings

Terence Crawford and Israil Madrimov surprisingly have been ranked in the top two spots in Ring Magazine’s updated rankings for the 154-lb division.

The new star, IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs(, is in the #3 spot, which doesn’t make sense given that he’s unbeaten and coming off a third-round TKO win over Tim Tszyu last Saturday night. That performance by Murtazaliev showed that he’s the best fighter in the 154-lb division.

Murtazaliev is fighting at a higher level than Crawford and Madrimov. He should be #1 rather than Crawford, and, weirdly, Murtazaliev isn’t even #2. Madrimov lost, so he should be rated below Murtazaliev.

Ring Magazine has Crawford(41-0, 31 KOs at the #1 spot due to his narrow 12-round unanimous decision victory over WBA champion Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) on August 3rd in a result that could have gone the other way. Neither fighter looked great.

Crawford looked tentative and stepped up in the championship rounds. Madrimov, throwing only right hands and looking one-dimensional, let Crawford take control of the fight in the final three rounds.

Updated Ring Magazine 154-lb Ratings

1. Terence Crawford
2. Israil Madrimov
3. Bakhram Murtazaliev
4. Sebastian Fundora
5. Vergil Ortiz
6. Serhii Bohachuk
7. Tim Tszyu
8. Jesus Ramos
9. Charles Conwell
10. Brian Mendoza

Crawford’s performance against Madrimov wasn’t good enough for him to be #1. That effort was more worthy of a lower rank, perhaps at #4 or #5. Several fighters on that list would have beaten Crawford if they’d been inside the ring with him on August 3rd.

Madrimov can improve a lot more than Crawford. If he fought Crawford again, he’d beat him, so I have him at #3 on my list. Crawford may never fight again at 154. He’s made no noise about wanting to fight anybody after his hard time against Madrimov last August. He seems like he only wants Canelo Alvarez, and if he doesn’t get that fight, he’ll likely retire.

My Rating:

1. Bakhram Murtazaliev
2. Serhii Bohachuk
3. Israil Madrimov
4. Sebastian Fundora
5. Vergil Ortiz Jr.
6. Terence Crawford
7. Charles Conwell
8. Tim Tszyu
9. Brian Mendoza
10. Jesus Ramos