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RING Ratings update: Strawweight spotlight

Fighters Network
06
Jul

The little guys were busy in an otherwise slow week.

The biggest fight took place at strawweight, where Knockout CP Freshmart (No. 4 last week) defeated Byron Rojas (No. 2 last week) by a very close decision Wednesday in Freshmart’s home country of Thailand.

Thus, the unbeaten Freshmart jumped to No. 2. Rojas, who suffered his first loss since 2012, dropped to No. 3 after a solid performance in defeat.

Also at 105 pounds, Jose Argumedo (No. 5 last week) held his position after easily outpointing Julio Mendoza (unrated last week) on Friday in Mexico.



Two rated junior flyweight fighters also were in action. Pedro Guevara (No. 3 last week) stayed put after outpointing Ruben Montoya (unrated last week) in a cut-shorted flyweight fight Saturday in Mexico.

And Ganigan Lopez (No. 8 last week) remains where he is after outpointing Jonathan Taconing (unrated last week) on the Guevara-Montoya card.

In other divisions:

MIDDLEWEIGHT

Daniel Geale (No. 9 last week) is dropped from the ratings because he hasn’t fought at all for more than a year – which is grounds for removal under RING policy – and has stated his intentions to fight at 168 pounds.

Geale is replaced by unbeaten Pole Maciej Sulecki, who enters at No. 10. Sulecki is coming off a 10th-round TKO of Hugo Centeno on June 18.

LIGHTWEIGHT

Denis Shafikov (No. 8 last week) holds his position after stopping unbeaten Jamel Herring (unrated last week) in the 10th and final round Saturday in Reading, Pennsylvania.

The Editorial Board considered bumping Shafikov up one or two slots but decided against it because Herring was unrated and relatively inexperienced and Shafikov’s previous fight was a one-sided loss to Rances Barthelemy in December.

ALSO

A number of rated fighters have not fought in their weight class or in any weight class for more than a year, which subjects them to removal.

The RING Editors and members of the Advisory Panel are trying to determine the intentions of these fighters or their circumstances before dropping them.

Among the fighters in question: No. 7 strawweight Denver Cuello, No. 1 cruiserweight Grigory Drozd, Guevara, No. 9 junior featherweight Jessie Magdaleno, No. 6 junior flyweight Milan Melindo, No. 7 junior flyweight Alberto Rossel and No. 6 junior bantamweight Oleydong Sithsamerchai.

That list also includes No. 3 light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins, who hasn’t fought since he lost to Sergey Kovalev in November 2014. Hopkins has been given leeway because of his status as a future Hall of Famer and the fact he plans to fight one more time. However, we can’t wait forever.

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