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Women’s Ratings Update: Green jumps to No. 1, Estrada-Rupprecht for vacant belt

February 04, 2023; New York, NY, USA; Shadasia Green and Elin Cederroos during their WBC Silver and WBA Continental Super-Middleweight titles fight at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.
Fighters Network
10
Feb

After all the lack of action during the first few weeks of the year, the level of activity has finally picked up in the realm of women’s boxing. And if 2022 was a banner year, 2023 promises to give its predecessor a run for its money.

First of all, a unanimous vote by the Women’s Ratings panel resulted in the decision to put the inaugural Ring strawweight belt on the line in the upcoming Seniesa Estrada-Tina Rupprecht unification bout.

Estrada (23-0, 9 knockouts) holds the WBA female world 105-pound title, and Rupprecht is the WBC titleholder in that same division.

Estrada and Rupprecht are ranked No. 1 and No. 3 by The Ring, respectively. Therefore, a special vote was needed in order to approve the bout as a championship fight, as per our rules.



“Seniesa is unstoppable and unbeatable at the moment,” argued Lupi Gutierrez-Beagle, of Beautiful Brawlers. “Tina has the win over (current two-belt champ) Yoka (Valle). Let’s do this. Throw the Ring belt in.”

“It’s a great opportunity to put The Ring’s belt into play,” said Argentine author Yesica Palmetta, who was recently hired as producer and on-air talent for Fox Sports in her native Buenos Aires. “Seniesa is a spectacular boxer, and Tina is undefeated, they deserve it.”

Starting with the action in the super middleweight division, Shadasia Green took the No. 1 position by storm with a superb display of skills and power against former titlist Elin Cederroos.

“Shadasia Green put on a wonderful performance, certainly her best to date against her best competition in Elin Cederroos–who had come to fight and win,” said historian Malissa Smith, in a sentiment echoed by columnist Mark Jones who said that “although she was outgunned, Cederroos won the first two rounds and landed well throughout the contest.”

Even after being dropped in the fight and losing convincingly, the scrappy Cederroos convinced the panel to keep her rated at No. 2, losing only one spot from her previous position.

In the junior welterweight division, Belgium’s, Oshin Derieuw stayed unbeaten with a win over Francia Bravo, and the win was enough for the Panel to give her the nod over previous No. 4 Mary McGee, who now slips to No. 4 to allow Derieuw to take her place. Palmetta was the only negative vote in this division, indicating that “I like Derieuw although she has an awkward boxing style, but I wouldn’t move her right now.” She was, however, overruled by the majority of the panel.

Two divisions below, current junior lightweight champ Alycia Baumgardner scored a demolishing win over a feisty but outmuscled Elhem Mekhaled, holding on to her belt in the process. A proposal to elevate Mekhaled to No. 5 based on her solid performance failed to gain the necessary traction.

Another extraordinary bout that failed to result in any changes in our ratings was the early Fight of the Year candidate between featherweight Ring champion Amanda Serrano and WBA beltholder and Erika Cruz-Hernandez. Both fighters held on to their positions after a bloody battle that will be hard to topple in the year-end awards vote.

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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