BOXING ROUNDUP

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Boxing today is very strong.  We have twelve top dogs in eleven weight classes.  These twelve are the best there are today.  Each of them has shown in the ring that they're at the peak in their respective divisions.  They are not unopposed, though, and each has a logical opponent waiting for promoters to raise the funding needed to stage what in many cases would be mega-fights.

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We also have thirteen great fighters, twelve undefeated and one with one loss six years ago, waiting for a chance to knock off the top dogs.

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There are also eight fighters, though not undefeated, who are still at or very near the top of their divisions and still could threaten the top dogs.  These eight are either legends or likely hall of fame fighters.

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Lists of fighters may not be particularly interesting.  We really care about making great fights.

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We can take one off the table because Juan Francisco Estrada is scheduled to face off with Roman Gonzalez on March 13th in Dallas in a rematch of their 2012 Light Flyweight title fight, won by Chocolatito by decision.  After that win, Gonzalez went 46-0 and was considered pound-for pound number one before losing twice to Srisiket Sor Rungvasai, first by majority decision and then by knockout.  Meanwhile, Estrada lost a majority decision to the same Sor Rungvasai but took a unanimous decision from him in the rematch.  These two are evenly matched with Estrada maybe having the edge based on most recent fights.  The winner will be a clear top dog among Super Flyweights.

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As for future fights, there is one mega-fight that we need to have and have soon.  Terence Crawford needs to meet Errol Spence Jr  for all the marbles at Welterweight.  Crawford has long been considered at the top of pound for pound lists.  Spence started out as a prospect and has looked better and better as the level of his competition increased.  They are both hall of fame level fighters, and we need this fight not only for a big gate but for the boxing history.

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Everybody’s favorite division is Heavyweight, and boxing needs to have an undisputed Heavyweight king once again.  It’s been a long time shaking out the various pretenders and slimming down from the big three to the big two, but it’s now clear.  Boxing needs Tyson Fury in the ring with Anthony Joshua.  Scuttlebutt in late January seems to be that the fight is close or at least possible in 2021. What a gate that fight will bring; 90000 seats in Wembley Stadium and worldwide TV.  This fight would draw a vast audience beyond just boxing fans and insiders.

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Fury-Joshua and Crawford-Spence are the biggest fights to be made at this instant in the boxing timeline.  But even if they overshadow other fights, there are still great fights to be made, and if we’re lucky, some of them might be made soon.

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Undefeated Artur Beterbiev looks like a beast at Light Heavy.  He destroyed and retired Oleksandr Gvozdyk who in turn had destroyed and retired “Superman” Adonis Stevenson who had 

been knocking out the world.  Dmitry Bivol is also undefeated and getting him in the ring with Beterbiev would settle the issue for 175 pounds.

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Saul Alvarez is probably the best fighter today.  There are three prospective opponents for him, but the most likely seems to be master boxer Caleb Plant.  The other two, David Benevidez and Billie Joe Saunders, could fight with the winner facing the winner of Alvarez-Plant.  In fact, any of the three could face Canelo with the other two making a tournament type deal.  We’re looking at three terrific fights, even if Canelo might be the favorite to go all the way.  We look for terrific fights, and we don’t know the winner until the final bell.

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With Canelo seemingly migrated to Super Middle, Jermall Charlo has risen to the top at Middle.  But most top Middles have avoided Demetrius Andrade who doesn’t do much except keep on winning. So, he doesn't agree that Canelo’s the boss.  Good, let’s get these two together and settle the issue.

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Jermell Charlo is a heck of a lot more than the “other brother”.  He has cleaned up the Light Middleweight divison and is the true boss.  Likely the best opponent for Jermell is undefeated, once drawn, Brian Carlos Castano.  The one draw was against the American Dream, Erislandy Lara, so you can be sure Castano has real ability.

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The Lightweight division is loaded with talent.  Teofimo Lopez established his position at the top with his victory over Vasyli Lomachenko to collect all the belts...maybe.  Through the Machiavellian machinations of the multitude of boxing organizations, commissions, and fiefdoms, Lomachenko was “elevated” to “franchise” champion which left Devin Haney with the WBC Lightweight championship belt.  So, let’s get Lopez and Haney together and settle it.

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Is Gervonta Davis a Super Feather or a Lightweight?  It’s hard to tell.  All his fights have been at Super Feather, but boxrec.com lists him as a Lightweight, and all the media puts him in the Lightweight picture.  His biggest win was his recent knockout-of-the-year over the great Leo Santa Cruz.  The best opponent to see who advances in the Lightweight world is Ryan Garcia.  Garcia has run over every opponent until he passed a real test when he stopped Luke Campbell to prove that he’s for real.  Davis-Garcia should prove which guy is ready to scale the top at Lightweight. Between Lopez-Haney and Davis-Garcia, we could have another tournament-like trio of terrific competitive fights.  This is what boxing fans live for.

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As it looks like Davis is really a Lightweight, Miguel Berchelt remains as the rule at Super Featherweight.  With unbeaten Shakur Stevenson abandoning Featherweight, it’s a natural to get Stevenson and Berchelt together.  Stevenson may not have a star-studded resume, but his boxing prowess is unquestioned.  His great defense makes him hard to hit.  Berchelt has a February 20th bout scheduled with Oscar Valdez. When he gets by that (should be “if”, but Berchelt will be heavily favored) a match between Berchelt and Stevenson will be a very attractive main event.

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Emanuel Navarrete is a fighter who likes to fight and likes to fight frequently.  This keeps him extremely sharp and in fighting shape. He cleaned out the Super Bantamweight class and moved up to Feather.  Undefeated Josh Warrington lives at Feather.  What are we waiting for?  Let’s get Navarrete-Warrington on.

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Naoya Inoue started out with a bang, knocking out sixteen of his first eighteen opponents and garnering the alias of Monster.   In fight number nineteen he survived a fracture orbital bone against the great Nonito Donaire and still took a convincing decision.   Inoue is maybe third or fourth best fighter today and rules the Bantamweight division. France’s undefeated Nordine Oubaali is a natural to challenge him.  Oubaali showed that he can be a tough guy in a decision win over former Olympian Rau’shee Warren.  In his last fight he took a decision from Naoya’s brother Takuma. That could be a great angle to sell the fight, particularly in Japan.

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Last year Teofimo Lopez made his place near the top by his win over Vasyli Lomachencko, while Tank Davis took a big step forward with his win over Leo Santa Cruz.  That elevates the two winners and lowers the two losers.  But Leo and Loma are hardly “losers”. They drop in the rankings for sure, but we can wait to see what they have left before writing them off.  They are both 32, which was old in the old days but not so much today.  The best way to see what they’ve got left is to match them against each other.  It’s been said that Lomachenko is a natural Featherweight, and Santa Cruz only recently moved up from Featherweight.  If they should both bring their best, a Leo-Loma bout could be a mega-fight, at least to people who know boxing.

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One other Heavyweight needs further mention.  Oleksandr Usyk cleaned up at Cruiserweight before campaigning at Heavyweight. Usyk is massively talented like his pal Lomachenko, but his ability at Heavy is not fully tested yet.  A win over Derek Chisora is great but not enough to draw a lot of money on Usyk.  Noises are being mad about Usyk versus Joe Joyce, and that may tell us a lot.

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Finally, there are four bona fide legends that are still fighting even though their stars may be al little bit closer to the horizon. Gennady Golovkin is not as fearsome as he was five years ago when he knocked out Kell Brook in five and David Lemieux in eight, but he’s still a great fighter and a sure bet hall of famer.  Manny Pacquiao is still a force at Welterweight even if he would be a clear underdog against either Crawford or Spence.  Like GGG he’s headed for hall of fame.  Nonito Donaire has to accept second fiddle status to Inoue, but he is still a force at Bantamweight.  He was scheduled to fight Oubaali before the pandemic put a stop to the bout.  You might think Donnie Nietes is already retired as he hasn’t fought since December 2018 but guess what.  Boxrec.com lists an April 30th bout against an as yet undetermined opponent. Wikipedia cites Nietes as being the longest reigning Filipino champion surpassing hall of famer Flash Elorde, as well as being one of only three Filipinos to win titles in four classes, with Pacquiao and Donaire.  Elorde only had titles in two classes although he fought in four classes while compiling his 89-27-2 record.  Pacquiao and Nietes are the best Filipino fighters of the last sixty years.

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Although Boxingroundup.com focuses on the top boxers and their likely opponents, there are always dozens and dozens of promising fighters on deck and more coming up.  We never know who is going to be the next Roberto Duran until he makes his big splash. We just saw that twice.  Lomachenko was a pretty big favorite over Lopez before the fight, mostly due to Lopez’ kind of thin resume. Hindsight makes it easy to say that Lopez was grade A all along. Tank Davis also had a thin-ish resume, but when he starched a guy with the status of Leo Santa Cruz, then we knew Tank is for real. The top dogs is where the interest is.  But no summary of today’s boxing world would be complete without acknowledging at least one up and comer, and that guy is Super Middleweight Edgar Berlanga.  You have to take notice of a guy at age 23 with 16 wins all by first round knockout.  We can’t know what 2021 will bring for Berlanga, but keep your eye on him.

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Here are the upcoming big fights we can hope for.  No doubt they won’t all happen in 2021.  Let’s see how good the promoters can do.