RANKINGS: Daniel Dubois takes aim at the top, more

Daniel Dubois’ win over Anthony Joshua sees him rocket up the heavyweight rankings, plus more!

We’re back! Divisional rankings will now go up once per month, because the boxing schedule has become very different with the massive changes in promotional work in these modern times, so instead of trying to guess if it’ll be every two weeks or every three, once a month, 12 times a year, whatever happens.

Ranked fights this month:

• Cruiserweight: (1) Jai Opetaia vs (8) Jack Massey, Oct. 12
• Light Heavyweight: (1) Dmitry Bivol vs (2) Artur Beterbiev, Oct. 1
• Super Middleweight: (9) Vladimir Shishkin vs (10) William Scull, Oct. 19
• Middleweight: (1) Janibek Alimkhanuly vs (7) Andrei Mikhailovich, Oct. 4
• Super Welterweight: (3) Tim Tszyu vs (9) Bakhram Murtazaliev, Oct. 19
• Super Lightweight: (3) Jack Catterall vs Regis Prograis, Oct. 26
• Lightweight: (7) Zaur Abdullaev vs Juan Javier Carrasco, Oct. 19
• Featherweight: (4) Nick Ball vs Ronny Rios, Oct. 5
• Super Bantamweight: (8) John Riel Casimero vs Saul Sanchez, Oct. 13
• Bantamweight: (2) Takuma Inoue vs Seiya Tsutsumi, Oct. 13
• Bantamweight: (1) Junto Nakatani vs Tasana Salapat, Oct. 14
• Super Flyweight: (5) Kosei Tanaka vs Phumelele Cafu, Oct. 14
• Flyweight: (2) Seigo Yuri Akui vs Thananchai Charunphak, Oct. 13
• Flyweight: (9) Anthony Olsacuaga vs Jonathan Gonzalez, Oct. 14
• Junior Flyweight: (1) Sivenathi Nontshinga vs (8) Masamichi Yabuki, Oct. 12
• Junior Flyweight: (4) Shokichi Iwata vs (9) Jairo Noriega, Oct. 13
• Women’s P4P: (8) Dina Thorslund vs Terumi Nuki, Oct. 25

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Notes: Daniel Dubois has climbed the rankings up to the No. 3 slot, trailing only Usyk and Fury, and he’s earned it after demolishing Anthony Joshua, who tumbles down to No. 7 but will still look for probably two more big fights in 2025, and at the very least one more.

Dubois has a couple losses, but in tough tests for where he was in his career — including one to Usyk — and he has come back strong from both of them and become a better, tougher, more confident fighter. This is a guy that had a team stick by him and it has all come together.

Other than Dubois and Joshua basically trading places, the division holds steady since the last update. But this is as fun as the heavyweight division has been in a long time.

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

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Notes: Division holds from last update. We were supposed to see Mikaeljan vs Rozicki on Sept. 28, but that was postponed yet again.

Scheduled Fights: (1) Jai Opetaia vs (8) Jack Massey, Oct. 12 … (2) Chris Billam-Smith vs (3) Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, Nov. 16

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Notes: A little rearranging. Joshua Buatsi got the win over Willy Hutchinson, and he deserved it, but his performance has resulted in me moving him down a few spots. He won an interim belt so he’s fully in the mix, and I’d be totally happy to see him against anyone ranked from Nos. 3 to 6 ahead of him, or Ali Izmailov while we’re at it.

Obviously all eyes in boxing this month are on the Bivol vs Beterbiev fight. We will fully, finally settle who should be No. 1. Unless they fight to a draw. Then we’re up “S” creek, as it were.

Scheduled Fights: (1) Dmitry Bivol vs (2) Artur Beterbiev, Oct. 12

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Notes: Canelo is still the clear class of this division, with a relatively simple win over Edgar Berlanga coming in September. Berlanga drops out, as does Demetrius Andrade, who has shown no inclination to fight again after his loss to David Benavidez and has really proven nothing in this division anyway.

Jaime Munguia and Christian Mbilli sit tight at Nos. 2 and 3 after wins since last update, and Osleys Iglesias makes a big jump largely on the eye test; he’s destroying the same level of competition these other guys are fighting, winning in more impressive fashion.

Berlanga and Andrade are replaced by Vladimir Shishkin and William Scull, who fight for the vacant IBF title on Oct. 19 in Germany. So most likely one will stay — and climb! — and one will go in November.

Scheduled Fights: (9) Vladimir Shishkin vs (10) William Scull, Oct. 19

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Notes: Liam Smith is out because he’s inactive and had to pull out of a fight with Josh Kelly, who did not look impressive enough at 160 in the replacement bout to get the No. 10 slot for me. I’m going with Aaron McKenna, who is just itching for an opportunity. I don’t think McKenna is any A-plus prospect (I’d say about a B, if I were putting more thought into it), but this is not a strong division right now.

Scheduled Fights: (1) Janibek Alimkhanuly vs (7) Andrei Mikhailovich, Oct. 4

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Notes: Vergil Ortiz makes a big jump up after beating Serhii Bohachuk, who does not fall any from where he was before, as it was a really good fight featuring two serious contenders. But it was Ortiz proving it at 154. He’s definitely in the race now.

Scheduled Fights: (3) Tim Tszyu vs (9) Bakhram Murtazaliev, Oct. 19

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Scheduled Fights: (4) Brian Norman Jr vs Derrieck Cuevas, Nov. 8 … (1) Jaron “Boots” Ennis vs Karen Chukhadzhian, Nov. 9 … (3) Mario Barrios vs Abel Ramos, Nov. 15

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Notes: I suppose this could be a “hot take,” but I’m just not gonna rank Devin Haney right now. I know he just fought a little over five months ago, it wasn’t an official loss to Ryan Garcia thanks to Garcia failing a drug test, but Haney has said he doesn’t plan to fight for at least a year — which stunningly lines up with Garcia’s suspension, of course, and despite all the constant chatter from him and now the lawsuit, the infatuation with Garcia is pretty obvious.

So why figure out if he should be No. 1 or No. 3, No 2 or No. 7? He also might not even fight at 140 again. We’ll figure out Devin Haney’s standing in boxing when Devin Haney returns to boxing and figures it out himself.

Some rearranging otherwise:

• Jose Valenzuela drops a couple spots, and Pitbull Cruz is out. I like Cruz a lot, but I don’t think he’s really a 140 lb fighter. He got ranked because he beat Rolly Romero, who is not very good and was not even a consideration for me to come back into the top 10 after some changes and his recent win. Valenzuela has one win at 140, and it’s Cruz, and while it was a title win, titles just can’t be taken that seriously in this context, and while people in the sport complain when we say that, it’s not my doing. I didn’t create a bunch of props for promotional purposes that represent yet another layer of taking money out of fighters’ pockets for the sake of “recognition.”
• Coming in are Dalton Smith and Adam Azim. I also considered Richardson Hitchins and Arnold Barboza Jr, both of whom struggled in their most recent wins. Barboza has a shot to make it stick next month and Hitchins will probably get a fight scheduled soon enough.

Scheduled Fights: (10) Adam Azim vs Ohara Davies, Oct. 19 … (3) Jack Catterall vs Regis Prograis, Oct. 26 … (4) Jose Ramirez vs Arnold Barboza Jr, Nov. 16

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Scheduled Fights: (7) Zaur Abdullaev vs Juan Javier Carrasco, Oct. 19 … (9) Raymond Muratalla vs Jesus Perez, Nov. 2 … (8) Keyshawn Davis vs Gustavo Lemos, Nov. 8 … (4) William Zepeda vs Tevin Farmer, Nov. 16 … (1) Gervonta “Tank” Davis vs Lamont Roach, Dec. 14

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Notes: Worth a quick note that both Anthony Cacace and Joe Cordina seem intent on moving up as soon as they can, and that Lamont Roach appears to be doing so for a December fight against Tank Davis.

Scheduled Fights: (3) Robson Conceicao vs (4) O’Shaquie Foster, Nov. 2 … (1) Emanuel Navarrete vs (2) Oscar Valdez, TBA

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Notes: Angelo Leo shoots up to the No. 2 slot after his win over Luis Alberto Lopez, who tumbles out of the top five for the time being. Former 122 lb titleholder Stephen Fulton is in at No. 10 after his debut in the division, a solid win over Carlos Castro. Rafael Espinoza is the new No. 1 as he awaits a date for his rematch with Robeisy Ramirez.

The sort of wild card in that top seven is Brandon Figueroa, who by virtue of being a PBC fighter in the last two years, doesn’t fight very often.

Scheduled Fights: (4) Nick Ball vs Ronny Rios, Oct. 5 … (1) Rafael Espinoza vs (7) Robeisy Ramirez, TBA

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Notes: We saw Naoya Inoue kinda “stay busy” in early September with a win over TJ Doheny. We hope we’ll see him again in December.

Scheduled Fights: (8) John Riel Casimero vs Saul Sanchez, Oct. 13 … (6) Liam Davies vs Shabaz Masoud, Nov. 2

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Scheduled Fights: (2) Takuma Inoue vs Seiya Tsutsumi, Oct. 13 … (1) Junto Nakatani vs Tasana Salapat, Oct. 14

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Scheduled Fights: (5) Kosei Tanaka vs Phumelele Cafu, Oct. 14 … (1) Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs (8) Pedro Guevara, Nov. 9 … (10) Suzumi Takayama vs Isao Aoyama, Nov. 12

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Scheduled Fights: (2) Seigo Yuri Akui vs Thananchai Charunphak, Oct. 13 … (9) Anthony Olsacuaga vs Jonathan Gonzalez, Oct. 14 … (1) Sunny Edwards vs (6) Galal Yafai, Nov. 30

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Notes: Some changes here, as both Kenshiro Teraji and Jonathan “Bomba” Gonzalez are out, as they are moving up for world title fights and have vacated their belts at 108, and also some general house-cleaning around that.

Nontshinga has a good fight with Yabuki on the 12th to try and cement himself as the new No. 1, while Iwata and Noriega meet a day later and basically try to make their own claim. That top spot is somewhat open at the moment, there’s no really clear choice.

Scheduled Fights: (1) Sivenathi Nontshinga vs (8) Masamichi Yabuki, Oct. 12 … (4) Shokichi Iwata vs (9) Jairo Noriega, Oct. 13

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Notes: Ol’ Thammanoon, aka Knockout CP Freshmart, came back on Sept. 7 with a majority decision win over Alex Winwood in Australia, which was Thammanoon’s first fight since 2022. He’s now lined up to take a crack at Oscar Collazo, who has become a top dog during the Thai veteran’s absence.

This division is never easy to rank and fortunes can change fast at 105, which is part of what makes it fun to follow.

Scheduled Fights: (1) Oscar Collazo vs (4) Thammanoon Niyomtrong, Nov. 16

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Notes: Only change is that Savannah Marshall is out. She hasn’t fought in over a year and seems focused on the move to MMA, which is fair enough, she already fought Shields, she already fought Crews-Dezurn, there’s not much else worth doing at her weight.

Scheduled Fights: (8) Dina Thorslund vs Terumi Nuki, Oct. 25 … (2) Katie Taylor vs (5) Amanda Serrano, Nov. 15

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