Rankings: Calm before the storm ahead of big name returns

It was a pretty quiet April, but the big names are coming back to the ring starting in May and into the summer.

• Titles: WBC – Oleksandr Usyk, WBA – Oleksandr Usyk, IBF – Daniel Dubois, WBO – Oleksandr Usyk
• Upcoming Notable Fights: (9) Martin Bakole vs (10) Efe Ajagba, 5/3 … (7) Fabio Wardley vs TBA, 6/7 … Deontay Wilder vs Tyrrell Herndon, 6/27 … (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs (2) Daniel Dubois, 7/19

Notes: I just was not impressed with what we saw from Filip Hrgovic against Joe Joyce, and at this point he’s got a questionable win over Zhilei Zhang and not a lot else on his resume. He’s a decent, solid fighter. So I sort of took stock in that back half and I really think Chisora has the best recent form, other than maybe Wardley, but Chisora’s got more quality wins and performances.

Wardley vs Chisora would actually be an interesting fight, I think, but we’re not likely to see that. Derek’s at the end of the line and wants a big money bout, and Wardley is busy working the WBA path, which will see him go for an interim belt next month against someone or other, with “Big Baby” Miller now out of the fight.

Obviously the big news is we will be getting an Usyk vs Dubois rematch, which is the best and biggest fight to make right now for Usyk. Dubois raised his stock massively by knocking out Anthony Joshua in a really entertaining fight, and he’s also in top form, really fighting with a massive amount of confidence these days. As great as Usyk is, Dubois is very dangerous in that rematch.

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• Titles: WBC – Badou Jack, WBA – Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, IBF – Jai Opetaia, WBO – Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez
• Upcoming Notable Fights: Badou Jack vs Norair Mikaeljan, 5/3 … (1) Jai Opetaia vs Claudio Squeo, 6/8 … (2) Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez vs (4) Yuniel Dorticos, 6/28 … (5) Michal Cieslak vs Jean Pascal, 6/28

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• Titles: WBC – David Benavidez, WBA – Dmitry Bivol, IBF – Dmitry Bivol, WBO – Dmitry Bivol
• Upcoming Notable Fights: Najee Lopez vs Juan Gerardo Osuna, 5/10 … Conor Wallace vs Dylan Colin, 5/13 … Manuel Gallegos vs Khalil Coe, 5/30 … Imam Khataev vs TBA, 6/5

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• Titles: WBC – Canelo Alvarez, WBA – Canelo Alvarez, IBF – William Scull, WBO – Canelo Alvarez
• Upcoming Notable Fights: (1) Canelo Alvarez vs (6) William Scull, 5/3 … (7) Bruno Sarace vs (9) Jaime Munguia, 5/3 … Luka Plantic vs Bruno Acosta, 5/23 … Bektemir Melikuziev vs Darius Fulghum, 5/30 … (4) Caleb Plant vs Armando Resendiz, 5/31 … Callum Simpson vs Ivan Zuco, 6/7 … (2) Christian Mbilli vs Maciej Sulecki, 6/27 … Edgar Berlanga vs Hamzah Sheeraz, 7/12 … (5) Diego Pacheco vs Trevor McCumby, 7/19

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• Titles: WBC – Carlos Adames, WBA – Erislandy Lara, IBF – Janibek Alimkhanuly, WBO – Janibek Alimkhanuly
• Upcoming Notable Fights: Kieron Conway vs Gerome Warburton, 5/17 … Felix Cash vs TBA, 6/6 … Jahi Tucker vs Lorenzo Simpson, 6/21

Notes: Hamzah Sheeraz is moving up to 168 to fight Edgar Berlanga, so he’s out, replaced by Troy Isley. I’m keeping Ngamissengue in at No. 10 because, like, he did about as well against Janibek as anyone would have expected, and it’s not like there’s an army beating down the door to this division’s top 10.

Aaron McKenna gets a solid jump after a dominant win over Liam Smith. Sure, that’s an aged Smith, but that’s a better feather in the cap than the others he’s grouped with have. Chris Eubank Jr stays put at No. 4 though after watching both of them fight on the same bill, I would pick McKenna against Eubank Jr right now, but I also don’t think it’d be some guarantee.

Conor Benn isn’t ranked or anything. I mean, first of all, he lost, and he lost fair. And while competitive against Eubank Jr for sure, he’s not going to fight again at 160 unless it’s a rematch with Eubank Jr; if he doesn’t get that, he’ll go back to 147, he’s made that clear himself.

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• Titles: WBC – Sebastian Fundora, WBA – Terence “Bud” Crawford, IBF – Bakhram Murtazaliev, WBO – Vacant
• Upcoming Notable Fights: Andreas Katzourakis vs Roberto Cruz, 5/9 … (5) Serhii Bohachuk vs Mykal Fox, 5/17 … Josh Kelly vs Flavius Biea, 6/6

Notes: I had said for two or three years that with the way Charles Conwell was matched, you had to worry that promoters thought he’d lose to higher level fighters. And he lost to Jorge Perez on April 19. It’s not a bad loss, really, and Perez takes the No. 10 spot, he’s in good form, but it’s exactly what you would have worried about with Conwell if you were worried.

It looks like we’re headed toward a Fundora vs Tszyu rematch, with Fundora vacating the WBO belt in pursuit of that fight, and Xander Zayas will get a crack at the vacant strap.

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• Titles: WBC – Mario Barrios, WBA – Jaron “Boots” Ennis, IBF – Jaron “Boots” Ennis, WBO – Brian Norman Jr
• Upcoming Notable Fights: (8) Tulani Mbenge vs Emmanuel Mungandjela, 5/1 … Ryan Garcia vs Rolando Romero, 5/2 … Devin Haney vs Jose Ramirez, 5/2 … Karen Chukhadzhian vs Cristian Ayala, 5/10 … Nicklaus Flaz vs Alan Sanchez, 5/10 … Josh Taylor vs Ekow Essuman, 5/24 … Rashidi Ellis vs TBA, 6/7 … (2) Brian Norman Jr vs Jin Sasaki, 6/19 … Conah Walker vs Liam Taylor, 6/21

Notes: We’re obviously going to have a different top 10 next month. Two of Ryan Garcia, Rolly Romero, Devin Haney, and Jose Ramirez will be involved, almost certainly. (Maybe one of the fights is so bad the winner can’t be seen as better than … Lewis Crocker? No. That’s just not likely.)

Boots Ennis unified two belts with his win over Eimantas Stanionis, and it was impressive, but I think at this point we’re kind of all just waiting for Ennis to officially move up to 154. Sure, he could go after Barrios and Norman, and the Barrios fight would likely be easy to make with both under the tattered PBC banner. But we also have Barrios reportedly once again negotiating with Manny Pacquiao, and I think if you’re Barrios you’d much rather fight Pacquiao for the obvious reason that it’s a much bigger event, and also because Pacquiao is 46 and was already a very faded version of himself four years ago, when he last fought.

I would like to see Boots vs Norman, relatively speaking, but I also like Norman staying active after his March 29 win went as easily as it did, and heading overseas to face Jin Sasaki on Sasaki’s turf is nothing to sneeze at, either.

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• Titles: WBC – Alberto Puello, WBA – Gary Antuanne Russell, IBF – Richardson Hitchins, WBO – Teofimo Lopez
• Upcoming Notable Fights: (1) Arnold Barboza Jr vs (2) Teofimo Lopez, 5/2 … (4) Richardson Hitchins vs George Kambosos Jr, 6/14 … Brandun Lee vs TBA, 6/21

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• Titles: WBC – Shakur Stevenson, WBA – Gervonta “Tank” Davis, IBF – Vasiliy Lomachenko, WBO – Keyshawn Davis
• Upcoming Notable Fights: Shuma Nakazato vs Yudai Murakami, 5/3 … (9) Zaur Abdullaev vs (10) Raymond Muratalla, 5/10 … Sam Noakes vs Patrik Balaz, 5/10 … Maxi Hughes vs Archie Sharp, 5/23 … Shu Utsuki vs Aketelieti Yelejian, 5/27 … (2) Keyshawn Davis vs Edwin De Los Santos, 6/7 … Abdullah Mason vs Jeremia Nakathila, 6/7 … (3) Shakur Stevenson vs (8) William Zepeda, 7/12

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• Titles: WBC – O’Shaquie Foster, WBA – Lamont Roach, IBF – Vacant, WBO – Emanuel Navarrete
• Upcoming Notable Fights: (1) Emanuel Navarrete vs Charly Suarez, 5/10 … (5) Anthony Cacace vs Leigh Wood, 5/10 … Hayato Tsutsumi vs Jaime Arboleda, 5/11 … Nathaniel Collins vs Lee McGregor, 5/24 … (3) Eduardo Nunez vs Masanori Rikiishi, 5/28 … Zelfa Barrett vs TBA, 6/7

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• Titles: WBC – Stephen Fulton, WBA – Nick Ball, IBF – Angelo Leo, WBO – Rafael Espinoza
• Upcoming Notable Fights: (1) Rafael Espinoza vs Edward Vazquez, 5/4 … Kurt Walker vs Liam Davies, 5/10 … Omar Cande Trinidad vs Alexander Espinoza, 5/17 … (2) Angelo Leo vs Tomoki Kameda, 5/24 … Lee McGregor vs Nathaniel Collins, 5/24 … Reiya Abe vs Yuya Oku, 6/19

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• Titles: WBC – Naoya Inoue, WBA – Naoya Inoue, IBF – Naoya Inoue, WBO – Naoya Inoue
• Upcoming Notable Fights: (1) Naoya Inoue vs (7) Ramon Cardenas, 5/4 … (9) Sam Goodman vs Cesar Espinoza, 5/14 … Dylan Price vs TBA, 5/16 … Subaru Murata vs Yukinori Oguni, 5/20 … Kazuki Nakajima vs Kenshin Oshima, 6/15 … (10) Shabaz Masoud vs Peter McGrail, 6/21

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• Titles: WBC – Junto Nakatani, WBA – Seiya Tsutsumi, IBF – Ryosuke Nishida, WBO – Yoshiki Takei
• Upcoming Notable Fights: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Kaito Yamasaki, 4/13 … (2) Yoshiki Takei vs Yuttapong Tongdee, 5/28 … David Mwale vs Michael Decardi Nelson, 5/29 … (1) Junto Nakatani vs (4) Ryosuke Nishida, 6/8 … (5) Tenshin Nasukawa vs Victor Santillan, 6/8 … Riku Masuda vs Michell Banquez, 6/8

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• Titles: WBC – Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, WBA – Fernando Martinez, IBF – Vacant, WBO – Phumelela Cafu
• Upcoming Notable Fights: Jayr Raquinel vs Pradish Anbuchezhian, 5/10 … (2) Fernando Martinez vs (4) Kazuto Ioka, 5/11 … (1) Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs (3) Phumelela Cafu, 7/19

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• Titles: WBC – Kenshiro Teraji, WBA – Kenshiro Teraji, IBF – Masamichi Yabuki, WBO – Anthony Olascuaga
• Upcoming Notable Fights: Taku Kuwahara vs Yoshiki Minato, 6/15 … (2) Galal Yafai vs Francisco Rodriguez Jr, 6/21

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• Titles: WBC – Panya Pradabsri, WBA – Erick Rosa, IBF – Vacant, WBO – Rene Santiago
• Upcoming Notable Fights: Masataka Taniguchi vs Condor Inaba, 5/20 … Christian Araneta vs Thanongsak Simsri, 6/19

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• Titles: WBC – Melvin Jerusalem, WBA – Oscar Collazo, IBF – Pedro Taduran, WBO – Oscar Collazo
• Upcoming Notable Fights: (3) Pedro Taduran vs (5) Ginjiro Shigeoka, 5/24

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