It was another slow week on the ratings front. And that includes the unusual Monday fight between light heavyweights Sergey Kovalev and Issac Chilemba in Russia.

Kovalev (No. 1 last week) and Chilemba (No. 7 last week) were among only three rated fighters who were in action, the third being junior featherweight Albert Pagara (No. 7 last week).

Kovalev defeated Chilemba by a unanimous decision (116-111, 117-110 and 118-109) in a relatively uneventful fight, although Chilemba went down in the seventh round. Thus, Kovalev retains his position. Chilemba was reasonably competitive but has now lost two consecutive fights. As a result, he swaps places with No. 8 Artur Beterbiev.

Pagara was upset by unrated Cesar Juarez, who scored an eighth-round knockout Saturday in San Mateo, California. Pagara drops out of the ratings.

The Editorial Board considered a number of fighters to replace Pagara – including Moises Flores, Jonathan Guzman, Juarez and Gavin McDonnell – but settled on Flores because he has the strongest resume. He enters at No. 10.

Also, three fighters who have not fought at all or at the weight at which they’re rated for a year or more were dropped. They are:

┬À Junior bantamweight Oleydong Sithsamerchai, who has fought only journeyman the past two years. He is replaced by Rex Tso of China, who enters at No. 10.

┬À Junior flyweight Alberto Rossel, who hasn’t fought at 108 pounds since December 2014. Japanese prodigy Ken Shiro comes in at No. 10.

┬À Strawweight Denver Cuello, who hasn’t fought at all since June of last year or in his division since June 2013. Saul Juarez of Mexico enters at No. 10.

The Editorial Board is still sorting out other fighters whose inactivity threatens their place in the ratings.

Finally, a number of members of the Ratings Panel suggested we drop from the ratings those professional fighters who are taking part in Olympic qualifying. That includes contenders Hassan N’Dam and Amnat Ruenroeng, who lost to amateurs in qualifying before ultimately securing berths in the Rio Games.

The panel members suggested any pro who loses to an amateur deserves to be dropped. Plus, they argued, pros shouldn’t be allowed to take part in the Olympics in the first place.

In the end, the Editorial Board decided to leave these fighters in the ratings. One, we believe the losses aren’t relevant because amateur boxing is, as one panel member put it, “a different game.”

And, we ask, why should a professional boxer be punished because he or she wants to compete for his or her country, as pros in other sports do?

The RING editors have openly opposed the participation of pros in the Olympics because of what we perceived to be unreasonable advantages – which evidently aren’t as meaningful as we thought – but we don’t feel it should impact the ratings.