Paul Williams and Chris Arreola’s big victories on Saturday in Las Vegas have paid dividends in THE RING Ratings.

Williams, who nearly shut out a still-formidable Winky Wright in a middleweight fight, becomes the only fighter in the world to be rated in two weight classes. He enters the 160-pound ratings at No. 5, pushing Nos. 5 through 9 last week down one notch each and eliminating No. 10 John Duddy. Williams remains No. 2 among junior middleweights.

The editors of the magazine didn’t think enough of Wright to include Williams in the pound-for-pound Top 10.

“Beating Wright, who was coming off a 21-month layoff and appeared to have timing problems and ring rust, was impressive enough to deserve inclusion in the middleweight division, but not enough to merit being considered among the current pound-for-pound best,” said Joseph Santoliquito, managing editor of the magazine.

“Some may have been fooled into thinking the version of Winky Wright that Williams beat was the vintage Winky Wright of 2004 or ’05, when Wright was beating Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad. It wasn’t.”

Arreola knocked out one-time contender Jameel McCline in the fourth round on the Williams-Wright undercard. Thus, Arreola (No. 8 last week) takes over the No. 7 spot from Alexander Dimitrenko, who drops to No. 8.

“The move was based on Arreola’s stronger overall body of work, which now includes stopping the still-somewhat formidable McCline,” Santoliquito said.

There were no other changes in THE RING Ratings.