Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez is the top guy at super flyweight, while Teofimo Lopez is more of a mystery at super lightweight.
Next update will come on Monday, July 22. It’ll be a bulky update then, with a lot of ranked fights taking place in the three weeks, but — well, you can see the list of what the fights are below.
Ranked fights this period:
Upcoming Fights: (8) Jared Anderson vs (10) Martin Bakole, Aug. 3 ... (3) Anthony Joshua vs (6) Daniel Dubois, Sept. 21 ... (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs (2) Tyson Fury, Dec. 21
Upcoming Fights: TBA
Upcoming Fights: (10) Radivoje Kalajdzic vs David Morrell, Aug. 3 ... (4) Joshua Buatsi vs Willy Hutchinson, Sept. 21
Notes: Caleb Plant falls out due to inactivity, so Oselys Iglesias is in.
Upcoming Fights: (3) Christian Mbilli vs (4) Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Aug. 17 ... (10) Oselys Iglesias vs TBA, Aug. 17 ... (5) Diego Pacheco vs (8) Kevin Lele Sadjo, TBA
Upcoming Fights: (1) Janibek Alimkhanuly vs (9) Andrei Mikhailovich, July 13 ... (7) Liam Smith vs Josh Kelly, Sept. 21
Notes: Josh Kelly is moving up to 160 for his September fight with Liam Smith. Bakhram Murtazaliev, who won the vacant IBF belt in April, comes in at the No. 8 spot as this was a bit of housecleaning, but just a small amount. The division is in a weird but not boring spot at the moment.
Upcoming Fights: (3) Israil Madrimov vs Terence “Bud” Crawford, Aug. 3 ... (6) Serhii Bohachuk vs (7) Vergil Ortiz Jr, Aug. 10
Notes: A switch at the back because Crocker didn’t exactly blow doors off against Conah Walker, but it was a win, and the division is iffy at the moment.
Upcoming Fights: (1) Jaron “Boots” Ennis vs (9) David Avanesyan, July 13
Notes: I don’t think I’d pick Teofimo Lopez to beat Jack Catterall, Jose Ramirez, or Alberto Puello right now, but he might. I don’t know that he’d do well against Subriel Matias, either. In fact there’s a lot of people he’s closer to 50/50 against, on paper, when you eliminate ESPN hype and evaluate actual performances.
But he beat Steve Claggett, beat him convincingly, basically did what he was meant to do other than be a “showman,” which is a funny bit of marketing because the man is not a particularly fun fighter to watch.
Teofimo’s weird, but he’s winning fights, and nobody has done anything so much better recently, either. He’s got an argument for the No. 1 slot, at least you can form one, but you can also easily argue him outside of the top five.
Upcoming Fights: (7) Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz vs Jose Valenzuela, Aug. 3
Upcoming Fights: (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
Notes: Putting Emanuel Navarrete back where he was, as he does intend to return to 130. That knocks Andres Cortes out, which is OK enough because Cortes didn’t light the world on fire in his fight with Abraham Nova on June 21.
Upcoming Fights: (1) O’Shaquie Foster vs (6) Robson Conceicao, July 6 ... (5) Anthony Cacace vs Josh Warrington, Sept. 21 ... (3) Emanuel Navarrete vs (4) Oscar Valdez, TBA
Notes: Rafael Espinoza and Robeisy Ramirez both won since the last update, and they appear headed for a rematch. Maybe. Josh Warrington is out as he’s moving to 130 for a fight with Anthony Cacace in September.
Upcoming Fights: (8) Ruben Villa vs Sulaiman Segawa, July 13 ... (1) Luis Alberto Lopez vs (10) Angelo Leo, Aug. 10
Upcoming Fights: (6) Sam Goodman vs Thachtana Luangphon, July 10 ... (7) Liam Davies vs Shabaz Masoud, July 20
Upcoming Fights: (1) Junto Nakatani vs (10) Vincent Astrolabio, July 20
Notes: Bam Rodriguez takes over the No. 1 spot with a stoppage win over Juan Francisco Estrada, pretty much bossing that fight. Estrada drops to No. 4, with no guarantee that he’ll fight again, or that he’ll fight in this division again. But he’s not retired or anything. Bam’s a fantastic young fighter, a legit rising star in the P4P discussion who just keeps proving it over and over.
Upcoming Fights: (2) Kazuto Ioka vs (3) Fernando Martinez, July 7 ... (10) Suzumi Takayama vs Isao Aoyama, July 18 ... (5) Kosei Tanaka vs Jonathan Rodriguez, July 20
Upcoming Fights: (4) Angel Ayala vs (8) Dave Apolinario, TBA
Notes: Jonathan “Bomba” Gonzalez has vacated his belt to move up, so he’s out, and Adrian Curiel moved up to 112, so he’s out. Kenshiro Teraji seems to be planning his move up to 112, too, so he likely will be out soon.
Upcoming Fights: (9) Shokichi Iwata vs Jahzeel Trinidad, July 6 ... (3) Carlos Canizales vs Ivan Garcia, July 19
Upcoming Fights: (2) Ginjiro Shigeoka vs (9) Pedro Taduran, July 28
Upcoming Fights: (4) Chantelle Cameron vs Elhem Mekhaled, July 20 ... (5) Amanda Serrano vs Stevie Morgan, July 20 ... (1) Claressa Shields vs Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse, July 27 ... (2) Katie Taylor vs (5) Amanda Serrano, Nov. 15
