A pregnancy hiatus is not something we’re used to hear about in boxing, but with the current explosion in women’s boxing it will eventually become more and more frequent.

Such was the case of former pound-for-pound entrant and multi-weight champion Daniela Bermudez, who took an almost two-year layoff to give birth to her first child and has now returned to action raking up two stoppage victories in a row against solid opposition.

These performances, along with Bermudez´s stellar past, were considered in the panel’s analysis this week, and thus the 34-year-old Argentine fighter has now climbed from the very bottom of our featherweight Top 5 to her current No. 3, ahead of Nina Meinke and Raven Chapman.

“Bermudez (…) has looked very good in her return,” said writer Christopher Benedict. “Although I think that Raven Chapman is without a doubt the one to watch as Serrano’s ultimate successor at 126.”

The entire panel agreed on the new position, with Japan’s Yuriko Miyata adding that “(Bermudez) may need some more time to get back her previous position in P4P list.”

The remaining relevant fight of the weekend produced an even more intense debate that will be carried out until next week, when a full review of the pound-for-pound list will be conducted in light of Jessica McCaskill sub-par performance against Sandy Ryan and other fights (or lack thereof) that may affect the entire list as we move forward towards the end of the boxing year and beyond.

Diego M. Morilla writes 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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