Dubois speaks out, Wilder hits wall: Boxing Rankings

The next update will be on Monday, June 17th.

This season's ranked battles:

• Cruiserweight: (2) Chris Biram-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 Aziz vs Hrvoje Sep, June 15
• Super Middleweight: (9) Kevin “Lele” Sajo vs. Durval Palacios, June 13
• Middleweight: (2) Carlos Adames vs. Terrell Gausha, June 15
• Ultralight: (1) Subriel Matias vs (8) Liam Paro, June 15
• Ultralight: (7) Gary “Antuan” Russell vs. Alberto Puelo, June 15
• lightweight: (2) Gervonta Tank Davis vs. (5) Frank Martin, June 15
• Minimum Weight: (1) Oscar Collazo vs. Gerardo Zapata, June 7

Note: Now the division is waiting for Turki Alarcik to pay the price for his next move, with Usyk vs Fury 2 already scheduled for December and Anthony Joshua and others likely to make their next moves soon, and the dominoes will continue to fall after that.

Obviously there are some big things going on here. Daniel Dubois beat Filip Hrgovic to move up to No. 6, who drops to No. 9, and Zhang Zilei beat Deontay Wilder to stay at No. 7. Wilder has fallen out of the top 10 heavyweights for the first time in years, he looks like a tired fighter, he's not throwing punches anymore, he's not as dangerous, and when he does, he's obviously not the same. It's hard to put into words, but his punches just don't have the same intent or confidence that they used to have.

Zhang could be placed one position higher, or either Zhang or Dubois could be placed above Kabael.

Upcoming battles: (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs. (2) Tyson Fury, December 21

Upcoming battles: (2) Chris Biram-Smith vs (3) Richard Liakporhe, June 15… (6) Michal Cieslak vs (7) Isaac Chamberlain, June 15

Note: Michael Eifert should have been officially inactive in the next rankings, but why not now? Oh well. He was sitting here out of laziness, which I talked about before, just keeping a player there because he did one thing once and nothing else, but when you think about it, it wasn't that great, or whatever.

Labidoje “Hot Rod” Karadzic sits at No. 10, at least for now. He faces David Morel in August, but both Morel and David Benavidez (who faces Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15) will soon be joining the division and should make waves.

Upcoming battles: (7) Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs. David Benavidez, June 15… (9) Dan Aziz vs. Hrvoje Sep, June 15… (10) Radivoje Karadzic vs. David Morel, August 3

Note: Christian Mbili handily defeated Mark Heffron and now faces a better matchup, Sergey Derevyanchenko, on August 17. On paper, at least, he's moving forward.

Upcoming battles: (9) Kevin “Lele” Sajo vs. Durval Palacios, June 13… (3) Cristian Mbili vs. (5) Sergey Derevyanchenko, August 17

Note: Hamza Shiraz showed what he really means by beating Austin Williams. Williams dropped out of the top 10 and Shiraz shot up into the top 10. I think Williams could have stayed in the top 10. He actually lost some quality matches and got stopped for not stopping to win. Williams probably It will be interesting to see how he bounces back from wins over Nathan Heaney and Shane Mosley Jr. because whatever flaws those two guys may have, they are very tough and very willing to fight.

Upcoming battles: (2) Carlos Adames vs. Terrell Gausha, June 15… (1) Yanibek Alimcanuri vs. Andrei Mihajlovic, July 13

Upcoming battles: (3) Israil Madrimov vs. Terence “Bud” Crawford, August 3

Upcoming battles: (10) Lewis Crocker vs. Kona Walker, June 22… (1) Jaron “Boots” Ennis vs. (4) Cody Crowley, July 13

Note: Well, sure. Jack Catterall was still better than Josh Taylor today and this time he proved it beyond doubt with an official win. Catterall remains in 4th place out of a now odd top 4 due to a variety of circumstances, while Taylor has dropped out of the top 10 and been replaced by Dalton Smith.

Upcoming battles: (1) Subriel Matias vs. (8) Liam Paro, June 15… (7) Gary Antuan Russell vs. Alberto Puello, June 15… (3) Teofimo Lopez vs. Steve Claggett, June 29… (6) Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz vs. Jose Valenzuela, August 3

Upcoming battles: (2) Gervonta “Tank” Davis vs. (5) Frank Martin, June 15… (3) Shakur Stevenson vs. Artem Harutyunyan, July 6… (4) William Cepeda vs. Giovanni Cabrera, July 6… (8) Keyshawn Davis vs. Miguel Madueno, July 6… (6) Andy Cruz vs. Antonio Moran, August 3

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

Note: Nick Ball won his first world title in a really great fight against Raymond Ford. It was a close call, but I think the right guy won. I expect Ford may move up a weight class. He had talked about moving up a weight class after winning the belt, but the fight with Ball was a big show with good money, so he stayed.

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

Note: Azat Hovhannisyan was dropped due to lack of activity.

Upcoming battles: (7) Liam Davis vs. Shahbaz Massoud, July 20

Upcoming battles: (1) Junichi Nakatani vs (10) Vincent Astrolabio, July 20

Upcoming battles: (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) Kohei Tanaka vs Jonathan Rodriguez, July 20

Note: Julio Cesar Martinez is unavailable, having vacated his WBC title as he plans to move up a weight class full-time.

Upcoming battles: (1) Sonny Edwards vs. Adrian Curiel, June 29

Upcoming battles: (9) Shokichi Iwata vs. Jazeel Trinidad, July 6… (3) Carlos Cañizares vs. Ivan Garcia, July 19

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

Upcoming battles: (4) Chantelle Cameron vs. Erhem Mechaled, July 20