Ring Ratings Update: Artur Beterbiev crashes P4P rankings, re-takes No. 1 at light heavyweight
Unified lightweight heavyweight beltholder Artur Beterbiev bombed his way to the middle of The Ring’s pound-for-pound top 10 the way he’s broken down several brave-but-outgunned titleholders and contenders en route to 20 consecutive stoppages in as many pro bouts.
The heavy-handed pressure-fighting technician had been in and out the lower part of The Ring’s pound-for-pound rankings for years, debuting after his IBF-WBC title-unifying 10th-round stoppage of Oleksandr Gvozdyk in 2019. Inactivity and new pound-for-pound players entering the top 10 would push the 38-year-old former Russian amateur star out of the top 10, but he would pop back in following impressive showings, such as his two-round demolition of Joe Smith Jr. in 2022.
However, he did more than crack the mythical rankings with his most recent performance, a systematic seventh-round dismantling of former Ring super middleweight champion (and No. 3-rated light heavyweight) Callum Smith on January 13.
After a brief discussion, the majority of the Ring Ratings Panel voted to have Beterbiev re-enter at No. 7 (displacing Errol Spence Jr.) in the pound-for-pound top 10 and advance to No. 1 in light heavyweight rankings (switching places with Dmitry Bivol).
Adam Abramowitz and Abraham Gonzalez were the only panelists who backed Bivol as the No. 1 light heavyweight.
“I prefer the depth of Bivol’s resume, but it’s basically a toss-up,” noted Abramowitz. For Gonzalez, it comes down to Bivol’s victory over Canelo Alvarez.
Your favorite Editor-In-Chief was very much alone in thinking that neither 175-pound champ should be in the pound-for-pound rankings.
“Unpopular opinion: I wouldn’t have Beterbiev or Bivol in the P4P top 10 (but I’d welcome the winner of their overdue clash into the top five).”
Anson Wainwright was curious about my reasoning, so I shared it.
“With their amateur backgrounds and talent, I think Bivol and Beterbiev are doing what they’re supposed to be doing at 175 pounds, which is beating back the challenges of solid-but-unspectacular guys like Joe Smith Jr., Marcus Browne, Anthony Yarde, Lyndon Arthur, Zurdo Ramirez and Callum Smith,” I explained.
“This includes even a P4P Player like Canelo, who was the odds favorite. Canelo was the one doing the P4P s__t by fighting one of the two best light heavyweights in his fourth weight class. Bivol just reminded Canelo that he’s not an elite light heavyweight.
“Bivol and Beterbiev are elite light heavyweights. The winner of their fight will be the undisputed champion at the weight, and that guy will be a legit P4Per in my view.
“It’s no different from when Josh Taylor had beaten the likes of Viktor Postol, Ivan Baranchyk and Regis Prograis in succession (along with a few lesser, but still solid fringe dudes). Taylor had proven to be an elite junior welterweight (along with Jose Ramirez), but not a P4P player in the view of the majority of the Panel, which wanted him to face Ramirez. The winner would be the undisputed junior welterweight champ and deemed worthy of the P4P rankings. And that’s how it played out.
“But, again, I fully admit that this is an unpopular opinion as it pertains to Bivol and Beterbiev.”
The majority ruled and the ratings update email was sent to senior editor Brian Harty, who maintains the rankings on RingTV.com and pens the Ratings Analysis department for the digital magazine.
However, later in the day, Harty brought up that Bivol (who was at No. 5) being ranked ahead of Beterbiev (slated for No. 7) in the pound-for-pound would cause confusion and frustration in fans given that Beterbiev would be ahead of Bivol in the 175-pound rankings.
“I have an issue to put forward,” Harty addressed the Panel. “This morning Doug sent me the ratings changes (he crunches the panel input and decides the changes, and then I just make them on the website) and they included Beterbiev going to No. 1 above Bivol at light heavyweight and Beterbiev reentering P4P at No. 7 while Bivol sits at No. 5. I think this creates a problem for us.
“We used to get a ton of mail from people foaming about why Crawford was above Spence in the P4P but below him at welterweight, and this was an easy (albeit long) explanation about their different paths, multiple divisions, how Crawford had been climbing the P4P list long before he even became a welterweight, blah, blah. Most of the time, people would write back and say ‘oh, now I get it.’ But I don’t see what the defense is here. Both of these guys are – or at least have been – career light heavyweights, so there’s no multiple-division conquests – no “P4P s__t,” as Doug said. How are we going to justify having Bivol so high above Beterbiev in P4P but have him below at 175? (And when I say ‘we’ I really mean you all, because I’m not on social media dealing with the angry mob.) Should beating an overreaching Canelo really carry that much significance?
“Also, about what Doug mentioned about one-weight fighters in P4P – I definitely have leaned toward that in the past, but weirdly this just occurred to me yesterday: What about Golovkin? He’s one of the most extreme examples of a one-division fighter with an amazing amateur record, and he was No. 1 P4P before even stepping into a ring with Canelo. And I think the whole boxing world pretty much agreed with that. A major part was attrition, with the final step being Ward’s retirement, but how did he even get on the list in the first place if there’s a bias against one-weight fighters? It’s not fair to say that a fighter should clear out multiple divisions to be on the P4P list. Part of it has to be the eye test and imagination; P4P is a thought experiment. Anyway… I still don’t see how the Bivol/Beterbiev situation could be explained.
“In our recent discussion about whether Rodriguez-Edwards should be a Ring championship fight, I argued for sticking to the rules but also tried to float the idea of a system-wide ‘audit’ of the ratings to see if situations that don’t make sense have built up over time. Is that something that should happen?”
Wainwright offered a new rankings order: “Excellent point, Brian.
“How about we either move Beterbiev to No. 5 and then have No. 6 Bivol or go No. 5 [Devin] Haney, No. 6 Beterbiev, No. 7 Bivol.
“The problem with the latter is it gives more separation between Canelo and Bivol.”
Abramowitz was fine with the original ranking order: “I thought we had Beterbiev coming in at No. 7 which makes sense to me.
“I also favored Bivol staying above Beterbiev at 175, which I think is most defensible.”
Harty agreed that keeping Bivol at No. 1 at 175 pounds “would make more sense. One of them has to be above the other on both lists.”
Tom Gray led the charge for Beterbiev to take the top spot at light heavyweight and acknowledged that more movement is needed within the top 10, P4P or divisional, following winning performances.
“I think Doug could foresee this problem coming as far back as when Bivol beat Canelo. I remember him being reluctant to reward Bivol on the pound-for-pound list because while Canelo was elite, he was far smaller.
“I went the other way because that approach felt like Captain Hindsight for many of us who had picked Canelo to win.
“I will say this: The mistake we might need to be cognizant of is leaving a fighter where they are following a below par performance in victory. It says in our own rules that you can drop in the ratings with a poor performance. And Bivol has been woefully inactive.
“I was in Riyadh for Bivol vs. [Lyndon] Arthur and the champ definitely underperformed. Arthur was brought over there to be a knockout victim and it all went wrong. I was actually told that Team Bivol selected Arthur because they were so sure they’d take him out.
“Being honest, as dominant as he was, Bivol didn’t look like the best light heavyweight in the world that night or a top-5 pound-for-pound entrant. However, he retained both positions on the respective lists. If he’d dropped on the pound-for-pound list, then Beterbiev taking over as No. 1 at 175 and jumping him on the P4P list wouldn’t be as much of an issue right now.
“In fact, given that the Bivol fight was less than a month ago, we could still adjust the P4P ratings upon reflection. There’s NOTHING wrong with acknowledging an error and explaining things. We’re a bit too hard on ourselves sometimes. Nobody is perfect.
“Bottom line: In their most recent fights, Bivol went 12 with Arthur, who is British/Commonwealth class. Beterbiev smashed a former WBA and Ring Magazine champion who had never been down, far less knocked out. He’s 20-0 with 20 f—king knockouts. I can also make a compelling case that Beterbiev has a better resume at 175 than does Bivol right now. And if they made that fight today, Beterbiev opens as favourite.
“Who’s No.1 at 175?”
Harty: “That’s a really good point, Tom. The ratings should be more of a two-way street. A fighter drops when they lose, but if they turn in a sub-par performance we say they had a bad night or whatever. We can’t do it like that when the next night to prove yourself might not be for eight months or more.
New Panel member Wasim Mather seconded Gray’s and Wainwright’s opinions:
“175: I have to agree with Tom on this one. Beterbiev is at No. 1; his win was dominant over a solid former world champion [and he’s got the record of] 20 fights and 20 KOs. I think he deserves the No. 1 spot.
“P4P: having Haney at No. 5, Beterbiev at No. 6, and Bivol at No. 7, as Anson suggested. I would hate seeing [No. 10] Jesse Rodriguez drop out of the P4P list.”
Your EIC: “I hate seeing Bam bumped out of the P4P top 10 (for now – I have no doubt that he’ll kick the door down with next fight), but I’d favor Beterbiev at No. 5 and Bivol at No. 6, if the majority of the Panel insists that Beterbiev is the No. 1 light heavyweight. Personally, I think it’s too high of a rating for either light heavyweight, but that’s just me. I also would not be in favor of bumping Devin Haney up to No. 5 just because we’ve got this silly 175-pound snafu. Let the young man earn his advances with ring performances.
“Regarding Brian’s note about Golovkin once being at the top of the P4P rankings despite only dominating one weight class, keep in mind that he was a very active unified champion who was getting close to Bernard Hopkins’ middleweight title defense record and most viewed his first performance against Canelo as a clear victory (in a competitive fight). If beating Canelo at light heavyweight in 2022 was enough to get Bivol into the P4P top five (as well as front-runner for Fighter of the Year), think of the value of outperforming a prime Canelo at middleweight in 2017 (despite the official draw verdict). By the way, I’m not saying I agreed with GGG being No. 1 (Chocolatito was the P4P King in mind, going back to late 2014). But his dominance + activity (15 title defenses from his September 2012 HBO debut to the first Canelo bout) + the controversial draw vs. Canelo = a lot of P4P momentum.
“I wish Beterbiev, Bivol and most of the current P4P top 10 had half of GGG’s activity and momentum.”
Wainwright: “No. 1 Crawford, No. 2 Inoue, No. 3 Usyk, No. 4 Canelo, No. 5 Beterbiev, No. 6 Bivol, No. 7 Haney, No. 8 Spence, No. 9 Davis, No. 10 Teofimo.”
Gray: “I hate to make the situation more complex, but I’m not entirely sure I buy Haney dropping beneath Bivol and Beterbiev.
“I know Haney is below Bivol right now, but Beterbiev jumping ahead of him seems harsh on ‘The Dream.’ He just turned Prograis inside out to become a two-weight world champion.
“Ugghhhh. I’d be cool with it, I guess, but just saying.”
Wainwright: “I think this is one of those situations where nobody is going to be happy.”
Daisuke Sugiura: “Sorry for the late reply (on my way to Japan now). I’m OK with No. 5 Beterbiev, No. 6 Bivol, No. 7 Haney, too.
“I actually think we can still make a very good case for Bivol staying above Beterbiev. Bivol was our Fighter of the Year only a year ago. If we considered him that highly last year and he just had one OK title defense. Beterbiev is not that active either and I personally thought Calum Smith was tailor-made for him. So, Bivol, Beterbiev and Haney is good too.
“That said, I don’t have a strong argument for putting Beterbiev over Bivol (and Haney) either. The fact is Artur was more impressive in his latest fight than Bivol. Harsh for Haney considering his last fight, yes, but I’m OK with that. I still think Haney lost to Loma.”
So, that’s that, for now, although the pound-for-pound debates will continue on social media.
***
Before we get to the first Ring Ratings Update of 2024, I want to give a shoutout to all of the journalists, columnists, commentators, announcers and content creators who mention and use The Ring’s rankings and recognize Ring Magazine world championship titles.
We know that some of you do so against the wishes of networks, promoters, producers and editors. It means a lot to us, and for what it’s worth, it does make a difference. We appreciate you.
And, of course, I want to give a massive THANK YOU to the members of the Ring Ratings Panel. This is an unpaid gig that requires a lot of time and analysis, as well as very thick skin thanks to social media and some of the extremely passionate (sometimes very rude) fans it connects us with. You guys are the best!
We’ll be adding to the esteemed Ratings Panel throughout 2024, extending its expertise, reach and diversity. Our newcomers this month include Wasim Mather, a frequent Ring contributor based in Thailand, and the Adams twins, Wayne and Jermayne, whose YouTube channel and ‘X’ account are a must-watch/subscribe/follow for hardcore fans.
RING RATINGS UPDATE (as of January 13):
POUND-FOR-POUND – Beterbiev re-enters at No. 5.
“Beterbiev was sensational,” noted Wainwright. “We HAVE to have him back in the top 10 and I wouldn’t just place him at No. 10. I think we take out Spence. I fought for him to stay after the Crawford loss but now after the cataract surgery, he’s not fighting any time soon. Might be drinking the Kool-Aid having been at the fight live but when you look at [Beterbiev’s performance vs. Smith] and factor in what he’s done and other performances, I’d slot him right in where Spence is at No. 7.”
Retorted Abramowitz: “We can’t just remove guys from the rankings arbitrarily. The panel all agreed to have Spence at No. 7 pound for pound [following his lost to Crawford]. He has fought well within the last year. He hasn’t announced his retirement or failed a PED test, so there isn’t a legit reason to remove him.
“But as for pound for pound, I think No. 7 would be an appropriate slot for Beterbiev and everyone behind that can slide down one.”
Replied Wainwright: “It’s not without reasoning, Spence had eye surgery, so he’s not fighting anytime soon. I’d prefer to have a current top 10 and keep [No. 10] Bam Rodriguez, who is coming off a terrific win, than keep Spence who isn’t doing anything anytime soon.”
Abramowitz: “So when he meets his inactivity window that the panel has agreed to, then we can remove him, just like we would anyone else.”
Added Gray: “I need to go with Adam on Spence here. We frequently grant fighters extensions due to injuries or mental health. To remove Spence completely because he’s had cataract surgery would be pretty ruthless. He was demoted several spots following his first loss, which is in line with other decisions we’ve made with other top-5 P4P entrants. I feel for Bam, but it’s a tight list. Speaking freely, Bam probably deserves to be above Tank, but the current order was agreed by vote. If that stays the same, then Bam is the one to drop.”
Wainwright: “I’m fine with that if that’s what the panel agrees with.
“As long as Beterbiev is in and in relatively high, I’m good.”
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT – Beterbiev moves to No. 1. Callum Smith drops to No. 4.
“That was ice cold savagery,” noted Wainwright. “Beterbiev to No. 1. Smith has to drop behind [Anthony] Yarde, who did better against Beterbiev, so Smith at No. 4. A decisive win by [Joshua] Buatsi or [Dan] Azeez might well see them jump him too.”
SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT – Christian Mbilli remains at No. 2 after halting tough Rohan Murdock after six rounds.
WELTERWEIGHT – Vergil Ortiz exits after moving up in weight. Egidijus Kavaliauskas re-enters at No. 10.
JUNIOR WELTERWEIGHT – Arnold Barboza Jr. remains at No. 8 following a rust-shaking stoppage of Xolisani Ndongeni after the eighth round.
BANTAMWEIGHT – Jason Moloney remains at No. 1 after battling his way to a hotly contested majority decision over Saul Sanchez. Daigo Higa advances to No. 9 following a fourth-round KO of Thai veteran Navapon Khaikanha.
Jason Moloney and Saul Sanchez battled tooth and nail for 12 thrilling rounds. Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank
“Jason Moloney won a 12-round majority decision over Saul Sanchez to retain his WBO title,” noted Wainwright. “God love ’em that was a terrific fight. No movement [for Moloney]. Sanchez showed a ton of fighting heart. Would not be against a rematch down the road.”
Asked the EIC: “Did Saul Sanchez not perform well enough in a close loss to our No. 1-rated 118 pounder to merit a ranking at No. 9 or 10?
Wainwright: “I think [No. 10-rated David] Cuellar has more upside then Sanchez but I can see your point.”
EIC: “I’d take Sanchez over Cuellar.”
Noted Diego Morilla: “I loved the Moloney-Sanchez fight, but Sanchez is a dirty vato, guey. That headbutt was as intentional as anything I’ve witnessed in a boxing ring. I say we let him wait.”
JUNIOR BANTAMWEIGHT – Kazuto Ioka remains at No. 1 after scoring a seventh-round KO of Josber Perez.
STRAWWEIGHT – Pedro Taduran enters at No. 10 following a unanimous decision over countryman Jake Amparo, exits the rankings.
Email Fischer at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter and IG at @dougiefischer, and join him, Tom Loeffler, Coach Schwartz and friends via Tom’s or Doug’s IG Live most Sundays.
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