A few solid fights during the past month have taken place in the women’s boxing realm, but only a few were worthy of consideration when it comes to making changes to The Ring’s trailblazing divisional ratings.
In what ended up being an entertaining bout, Mexico’s Yamileth Mercado defeated Ramla Ali in a junior featherweight bout that featured Mercado’s brawling tactics pitted against Ali’s technical approach. While Mercado showed up for a good ol’ fight, Ali tried to put on a highly speculative tactical chess match that never really took off. The result was a wide decision in favor of Mercado, who was then found by our Women’s Ratings Panel to deserve a better placement than her No. 2 position. She was brought up a notch to become our leading threat to the throne held by Ellie Scotney.
“I had Mercado 97-93. Ali didn’t do near enough to lift the titles, she’s inexperienced and very basic,” said columnist Mark Jones in justifying his vote, with Argentine writer and TV producer Yesica Palmetta saying that “I think (Mercado) has evolved. Despite not having had a strong resistance in front of her, we cannot dismiss the courage of Ali who, despite her lack of tools, tried to stay in the fight.”
“I thought the scorecards were a tad too wide but the right lady won,” said journalist and radio host Cynthia Conte. “Ali fights gun-shy but I understand since she’s been KO’d before. Ali didn’t use her distance and abandoned her jab especially against a girl who likes to fight on the inside.”
Always the voice of reasonable doubt, and speaking as a former resident of Mexico who followed the sport extensively in that area, Argentine author Irene Deserti said that “although I still don’t like Mercado’s boxing and I don’t see much evolution in her technique (only strength and courage), I agree that she should rise to number one (a victory is a victory). Mercado has extensive experience, in quantity of fights and quality of rivals, and that was also evident in this fight.”
In closing, boxing historian Malissa Smith said that “(Mercado) has clearly earned the No. 1 spot and I look forward to seeing her in action soon.”
In other developments:
Erika Cruz-Hernandez, currently at No. 3 at junior featherweight, was stripped of her titles due to a positive doping test. A vote on her situation will take place next week.
Beke Bas was promoted to No. 5 in the lightweight ratings after her win against Bonita Van Jaarsveld, replacing Estelle Mossely, who has been inactive at the weight and is gearing up to participate in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.
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