The winner of the Robert Guerrero-Andre Berto fight was bound to break into the top five of THE RING’s welterweight rankings. Guerrero, a former featherweight and 130-pound titleholder, had earned a lower-top 10 ranking after outpointing undefeated Selcuk Aydin in his welterweight debut in July.

In Berto, Guerrero faced a former two-time welterweight beltholder who was rated in the top five of THE RING’s 147-pound rankings before being dropped for testing positive for a banned substance prior to his summer rematch with Victor Ortiz.

Guerrero, who fought at lightweight last April, proved to be the real deal at welterweight by dropping Berto in the first and second rounds and outworking the faster and naturally bigger man over 12 brutal, grueling rounds. The 29-year-old veteran showed a great chin and the will to battle through rough stretches with Berto.

Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 knockouts), who won by unanimous scores of 116-110, advanced to No. 3 in THE RING’s welterweight rankings. Each of the other fighters under Guerrero moved down one spot, while Josesito Lopez was bumped from the No. 10 spot and replaced with Vyacheslav Senchenko, the once-beaten former WBA titleholder who stopped come-backing Ricky Hatton on Saturday.

Berto (28-1, 22 KOs) was valiant battling it out with Guerrero while both of his eyes were severely swollen and is worth watching to break into the top 10.

The only other changes in THE RING’s divisional ratings occurred at junior featherweight. Undefeated British 122-pound standout stopped experienced former title challenger Rendall Munroe in six rounds on the undercard of Hatton-Senchenko. Quigg’s body shot destruction of Munroe was enough for him to replace Victor Terrazas as THE RING’s No. 10-rated junior featherweight.  

Martin Murray, THE RING’s No. 8-rated middleweight, scored a sixth-round TKO of Jorge Navarro on the Hatton-Senchenko undercard. It was a nice stay busy win against an unbeaten but inexperienced opponent, but not enough to merit advancement in the 160-pound rankings.

Junior middleweight prospect Sergey Rabchenko also fought on the stacked Hatton-Senchenko undercard, earning a split decision over once-beaten French veteran Cedric Vitu. The undefeated native of Belarus is doing well and is edging his way to top 10 consideration; winning solidly but not spectacularly. Keith Thurman, and undefeated power-punching prospect who fights at welterweight and junior middleweight, scored a fourth-round TKO of Carlos Quintana on the Guerrero-Berto undercard but the KO artist’s victory was not enough to earn a ranking due to Puerto Rican veteran’s age (36) and inactivity with one fight a year for the past three years. We’re definitely watching Thurman, though.

Last week’s major ratings changes:

At lightweight, undefeated former 130-pound beltholder Adrien Broner moved into the rankings in a big way, seizing the No. 1 spot from Antonio DeMarco, by dominating the WBC titleholder to an eighth-round TKO. DeMarco dropped to No. 3. Each of the other lightweight contenders dropped one spot and Nihito Arakawa, who previously at No. 10, was dropped from the rankings.

At flyweight, Brian Viloria swapped spots with Hernan Marquez by stopping his fellow titleholder in the 10^th round of a Fight-of-the-Year candidate. Viloria is now the No. 1-rated flyweight and Marquez is No. 2.

Photo / Naoki Fukuda