Boxing Breakdown: Super Six Round One

The much anticipated Super Middleweight ‘Super Six’ series starts this weekend with two of the three first round matches taking place. For those of you not in the know, pictured above are the six competitors (from L-R Arthur Abraham, Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch, some promoter, Andre Ward, Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell). I’m not sure how the entire format will work, but these men will fight off over the next year to see who is the best. The only top 168lbers not in this tournament are Lucian Bute and Librado Andrade who will fight their rematch later this year. Fighting this weekend are Arthur Abraham and Jermain Taylor as well as Carl Froch vs Andre Dirrell with Kessler-Ward taking place next month.

 This is the first time in a while I’ve gone back and forth so much on not one fight in a weekend, but two big fights. Both of these matchups are even and there’s a lot of variables to take into place such as the fight locations, the fighters weights and their recent results. It’s hard to make any sort of confident prediction with these two fights.

Arthur Abraham vs Jermain Taylor
When these two held their respective belts at 160lbs I always thought Taylor would beat Abraham should they meet. My tune has changed over time and now, especially at 168lbs, I think Abraham is the strong favourite but I’m not at all confident in that prediction for a number of reasons. Abraham is still yet to face someone in the league of a Jermain Taylor. Most of his wins have been over 2nd rate Middleweights with the odd exception (mainly being Edison Miranda who was a dangerous contender when he fought Abraham the first time). However, Abraham has to be the more confident of the two going in with Taylor losing his last fight by knockout to Carl Froch and losing two fights not long before that to Kelly Pavlik. Taylor’s been saying that he has fixed his conditioning problem but if this fight gets to the 6th and 7th rounds again I’m sure we’ll see Taylor revert back to fighting only 30 seconds of each round as he’ll start to question his conditioning again. Abraham has said for a while that he’s been struggling to make 160lbs and this can be backed up by the performance in his one fight north of middleweight in the rematch with Edison Miranda. Another factor to take into account is that this fight is in Germany and will be the first time that Taylor has fought outside of the USA. Taylor should dominate early with his jab and Abraham is a slow starter who likes to get his defence set before launching his offence, but I think come the 4th and 5th round Abraham will take over and his punching power should be too much for a fatigued Taylor around the 10-11 round mark. Arthur Abraham by 11th round knockout.

Andre Dirrell vs Carl Froch
I’ve been scratching my head about this fight for the last few weeks. Froch is such an ugly fighter to watch with his hands down, chin in the air lunging style of his but he’s so effective at it. His defence is horrendous early in a fight but he seems to figure out his opponents angles and adjusts his defence as the rounds go on as he did against Jean Pascal and Jermain Taylor. Dirrell is your typical ex-amateur star who has excellent footwork, handspeed and combinations without the devastating one punch power. There’s no doubt who the more experienced of the two is and it’ll be interesting to see how Dirrell makes the adjustment from fighting guys like Anthony Hanshaw and Victor Oganov to fighting one of the big names in the division. The other big factor here is that Dirrell is fighting in Froch’s backyard which is good to see from a young prospect, especially an American one as the US fighters tend to like to fight in their country. I think two big questions that could decide this fight are how Froch deals with Dirrell from the southpaw stance as his awkward defensive approach could spell trouble against a straight left hand from a southpaw and how Dirrell’s conditioning will be in the second half of a tough fight against a world class fighter like Froch. I’ve been leaning towards Dirrell to pull off the upset and I’m going to stick with it. I think his handspeed and footwork combined with the youth and hunger that Jermain Taylor didn’t have against Froch will see Dirrell be able to repeatedly hurt Froch throughout the fight and score a stoppage in the mid-late rounds. Andre Dirrell by 8th round knockout.`

(Jun 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

The longest reign as #1 in boxing was ended in just two rounds by Manny Pacquiao this month as he destroyed the four year champion Ricky Hatton at the start of the month to solidify his number one pound for pound status. The win drops Ricky Hatton from my pound for pound top ten for the first time since the win over Tszyu in 2005, marking the entrance of Chad Dawson into the top 10. Dawson enters over the likes of Celestino Caballero, Miguel Cotto (who’s current spot in most peoples top tens still baffles me), Tomasz Adamek (who Dawson beat), Chris John and Ivan Calderon based on an ever increasing impressive resume. A win over someone like Bernard Hopkins will propel Dawson into the top five. In what was otherwise a pretty quiet month for the sport, the bantamweights got some new blood into the top five with Yohnny Perez’s knockout win over longtime top contender Silce Mabuza last weekend. Perez is a young, exciting fighter who will likely give the winner of this months Darchinyan-Agebeko fight a good scrap.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before May 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(4) 4- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(5) 5- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(6) 6- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(7) 7- Rafael Marquez (38-5-0)
(9) 8- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 9- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(NA) 10- Chad Dawson (28-0-0)

Active- Manny Pacquiao, Rafael Marquez, Chad Dawson
Out- Ricky Hatton (loss)

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (17-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(8) 8- Cristobal Arreola (27-0-0)
(9) 9- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(10) 10- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)

Active- None

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (25-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(7) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(8) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(9) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-1)
(10) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-1)

Active- Marco Huck, Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (draw), Giacobbe Fragomeni (draw)

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (28-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(5) 4- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(4) 5-  Antonio Tarver (27-6-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (26-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Chad Dawson, Antonio Tarver (loss)

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(3) 3- Carl Froch (25-0-0)
(4) 4- Librado Andrade (28-2-0)
(5) 5- Karoly Balszay (21-0-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(7) 7- Jermain Taylor (28-3-1)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (25-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- None

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(3) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(4) 4- Felix Sturm (32-2-1)
(5) 5- Winky Wright (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Anthony Mundine (36-3-0)
(7) 7- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(8) 8- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(9) 9- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Anthony Mundine

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(1) 1- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(2) 2- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(3) 3- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(7) 4- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(4) 5- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(5) 6- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(6) 7- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 8- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(9) 9- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(10) 10- Jamie Moore (31-3-0)

Active- Kermit Cintron

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (25-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- Andre Berto

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(NA) 1- Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2)
(1) 2- Ricky Hatton (45-2-0)
(2) 3- Timothey Bradley (24-0-0)
(3) 4- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(4) 5- Kendall Holt (25-3-0)
(5) 6- Paulie Malignaggi (26-2-0)
(6) 7- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(10) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton (loss)
Out- Juan Urango (moved up)

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 2- Edwin Valero (25-0-0)
(4) 3- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(5) 4- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 5- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(7) 6- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(8) 7- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(9) 8- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)
(10) 9- Breidis Prescott (21-0-0)
(NA) 10- Amir Khan (20-1-0)

Active- None
Out- Manny Pacquiao (moved up)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(1) 1- Humberto Soto (48-7-2)
(2) 2- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(3) 3- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(4) 4- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(5) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(6) 6- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(7) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(8) 8- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(9) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(10) 10- Sergey Gulyakevich (26-1-0)

Active- Humberto Soto

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(6) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(7) 7- Yuriorkis Gamboa (15-0-0)
(8) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (45-7-0)
(9) 9- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(10) 10- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)

Active- None

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (32-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (38-1-0)
(6) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (36-2-0)
(10) 7- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)
(7) 8- Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2)
(9) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(NA) 10- Bernard Dunne (28-1-0)

Active- Rafael Marquez, Toshiaki Nishioka
Out- Jhonny Gonzalez (loss)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(2) 2- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(3) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(8) 4- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(6) 5- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(4) 6- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(7) 7- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(5) 8- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(9) 9- Nehomar Cermeno (17-0-0)
(10) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- Anselmo Moreno, Yohnny Perez, Abner Mares, Silence Mabuza (loss), Wladimir Siderenko (loss)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(2) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(3) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (13-1-0)
(4) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(5) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(7) 7- Hugo Cazares (29-6-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Kohei Kono (23-4-0)

Active- Kohei Kono

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (21-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (72-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(9) 9- Moruti Mthalane (23-2-0)
(10) 10- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-4-1)

Active- Denkoasan Kaovichit, Daisuke Naito

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (35-5-0)
(3) 3- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)
(4) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(5) 5- Ulises Solis (28-2-2)
(6) 6- Brahim Asloum (24-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(8) 8- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(9) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(10) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- Brahim Asloum

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (31-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (26-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(10) 9- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)
(NA) 10- Katsunari Takayama (23-3-0)

Active- Oleydong Sithsamerchai
Out- Muhammad Rachman (loss)

(May 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

Most of the action this month coming at 122 and 168lbs, the big win of the month was Paull Williams domination over Winky Wright. Due to the one sidedness of this fight, I’ve moved Williams into the top three pound for pound behind Marquez and Pacquiao. Both Hopkins and Vazquez have been sort of inactive and a win by either of them will likely be enough to move Williams down the list, but on current form Williams’ wins over Wright (who had not been dominated like that ever even by Hopkins) and Margarito puts him right up there in my opinion.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before May 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(7) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(3) 4- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(4) 5- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(5) 6- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(6) 7- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(8) 8- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(9) 9- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 10- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)

Active- Paul Williams

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (17-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(8) 89- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(9) 910- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)
(NA) 8- Cristobal Arreola (27-0-0)

Active- Alexander Povetkin, Cristobal Arreola
Out- Samuel Peter (10)

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (24-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(7) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(8) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(9) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-0)
(10) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-0)

Active- None

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (27-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(4) 4-  Antonio Tarver (27-5-0)
(5) 5- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (26-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Adrian Diaconu

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(4) 3- Carl Froch (25-0-0)
(5) 4- Librado Andrade (28-2-0)
(7) 5- Karoly Balszay (21-0-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(3) 7- Jermain Taylor (28-3-1)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (25-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- Carl Froch, Librado Andrade, Karoly Balzsay, Jermain Taylor (loss), Jeff Lacy

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(NA) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(3) 4- Felix Sturm (32-2-1)
(4) 5- Winky Wright (51-5-1)
(5) 6- Anthony Mundine (35-3-0)
(6) 7- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(7) 8- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(8) 9- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Paul Williams, Felix Sturm, Winky Wright (loss)
Out- Javier Castillejo (draw)

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(2) 1- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(3) 2- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(4) 3- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(5) 4- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(6) 5- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(7) 6- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 7- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(9) 8- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(10) 9- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(NA) 10- Jamie Moore (31-3-0)

Active- Cory Spinks
Out- Paul Williams (moved up)

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (24-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- None

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(1) 1- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(3) 2- Timothey Bradley (24-0-0)
(2) 3- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(4) 4- Kendall Holt (25-3-0)
(6) 5- Paulie Malignaggi (26-2-0)
(5) 6- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Urango (20-1-1)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(10) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Timothey Bradley, Kendall Holt (loss), Paulie Malignaggi

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(2) 2- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(NA) 3- Edwin Valero (25-0-0)
(3) 4- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(4) 5- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 6- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(8) 7- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(9) 8- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(10) 9- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)
(NA) 10- Breidis Prescott (21-0-0)

Active- Edwin Valero
Out- Antonio Pitalua (loss), Julio Diaz (loss)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(3) 1- Humberto Soto (47-7-2)
(4) 2- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(5) 3- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(8) 4- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(6) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(2) 6- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(7) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(9) 8- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(10) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(NA) 10- Sergey Gulyakevich (26-1-0)

Active- Malcolm Klassen, Cassius Baloyi (loss)
Out- Edwin Valero (moved up)

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(6) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(10) 7- Yuriorkis Gamboa (15-0-0)
(8) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (45-7-0)
(7) 9- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(9) 10- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)

Active- Yuriorkia Gamboa, Guty Espadas Jnr

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (32-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (38-1-0)
(6) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (36-2-0)
(NA) 7- Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2)
(7) 8- Jhonny Gonzalez (40-6-0)
(8) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(9) 10- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)

Active- Celestino Caballero, Juan Manuel Lopez, Poonsawat Krattindaenggym, Gerry Penalosa (loss)
Out- Bernard Dunne (10)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(3) 2- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(4) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(5) 4- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(6) 5- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(7) 6- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(8) 7- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(9) 8- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(10) 9- Nehomar Cermeno (19-0-0)
(NA) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- None
Out- Gerry Penalosa (moved up)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(2) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(3) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (13-1-0)
(4) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(5) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(7) 7- Hugo Cazares (28-5-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Kohei Kono (22-4-0)

Active- Nobuo Nashiro

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (21-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (72-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(NA) 9- Moruti Mthalane (23-2-0)
(9) 10- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-4-1)

Active- Nonito Donaire, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Jose Cesar Miranda (loss)
Out- Brian Viloria (moved down)

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (35-5-0)
(NA) 3- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)
(4) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(3) 5- Ulises Solis (28-2-2)
(5) 6- Brahim Asloum (23-2-0)
(6) 7- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(7) 8- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(8) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(9) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- Edgar Soto, Brian Viloria, Ulises Solis (loss)
Out- Nelson Dieppa (10)

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (30-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (26-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(9) 9- Muhammad Rachman (62-7-5)
(10) 10- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)

Active- Raul Garcia

Froch KOs Taylor, Juanma KOs Penalosa

Apologies for the lateness of these reports, been real busy lately, gonna try and put a few things up tonight. One thing, the rankings will probably be a day or two late. They should be up Saturday.

Carl Froch KO12 Jermain Taylor
What a fight! Not fight of the year so far (Dunne-Cordoba and Marquez-Diaz sit ahead of it for me so far) but definately right up there. Jermain Taylor decked Froch early and seemed in control and was on his way to winning on points until Carl Froch exploded on him in the 12th and stopped him in the final seconds of the bout. Two things I noticed from this fight. First, Froch needs to keep his left up if he’s going to hang with the likes of Bute or Kessler or even Abraham or Pavlik. Second, Jermain Taylor needs to completely change whatever conditioning program he is on because it clearly isn’t working. This is the 2nd time he’s looked the better fighter and lost by KO because of his conditioning.

Juan Manuel Lopez TKO9 Gerry Penalosa
Lopez seems the real deal. The fight was completely one sided even though Penalosa was game. Lopez is ready for the likes of Vazquez or Caballero, and thats all I have to say about that.

Felix Sturm KO7 Koji Sato
Sturm really looked the goods in this fight. He made Sato look like an amateur for most of the fight and punished him whenever he got the chance to. I’m really interested to see how Sturm goes against Mundine and whether he can do most Australian boxing fans a favour and put Mundine to sleep.

Boxing Breakdown: Froch-Taylor, Lopez-Penalosa

With all the K-1 and UFC going on, I didn’t even realise these two fights were on this weekend. Two very good fights between young undefeated fighters taking on former champions. These two fights should be good to get us in the mood for the big Hatton-Pacquiao bout next week (well me anyway, most of you guys either follow MMA, or boxing or K-1 and when you follow all three it can be strange watching a whole heap of K-1 then an MMA match or whichever combo you use). There’s also a couple of other decent fights on this weekend, with Felix Sturm putting his WBA Middleweight crown on the line against undefeated OPBF champion Koji Sato and a not so big fight in the return of Danny Green.

Carl Froch vs Jermain Taylor
(WBC Super Middleweight title)
Interesting fight this one. I’m picking Taylor, but I haven’t seen Froch’s last fight and all my English friends assure me he looked the goods so I’m not picking with any real confidence. Taylor should win this fight though, he’s had plenty of time to get over the Pavlik losses and scored an impressive win on his comeback. His experience of being in there with Hopkins, Wright and Pavlik alone should seperate him from Froch who is still very green on the big stage. None of those three were able to dominate him, even Pavlik when he scored that memorable stoppage was on the canvas and losing on points before he found the shots to put Taylor away. Another factor in this fight is Froch has rarely fought outside of the UK so travelling into Taylor’s backyard so to speak and fighting a fight on this level may mean he doesn’t perform to his full abilities. I think the fight will be close, but Taylor should prevail. Jermain Taylor on points.

Juan Manuel Lopez vs Gerry Penalosa
(WBO Junior Featherweight title)
This fight has the potential to be a war, or a quick knockout. We don’t know a whole lot about Lopez other then that he can punch and punch very hard. Penalosa is a durable fighter so I’ll be extremely impressed if Lopez blows him away, but I won’t be that surprised because Lopez is that good. Penalosa has never been stopped and is coming off some impressive victories including a 7th round KO over Jhonny Gonzalez. The two things that factor heavily in Lopez’s favour are that he is left handed and that he has youth on his side. Out of Penalosa’s losses, three of them (at least) have come against southpaws (the two losses to Takayama and the loss to Ponce de Leon) and that’s enough for me to give Juanma the edge although I think he’ll be extended 12. Juan Manuel Lopez on points.

Felix Sturm vs Koji Sato
(WBA Middleweight title)
I smell an upset here although I’m going to pick Sturm. Sato is a dangerous fighter with a 14-0 record and 13 knockouts, he’s only been extended past the 6th round once. His biggest win comes over Australian contender Adam Vella, who took Sato to the 9th round but was broken down by Koji. Sturm is very hot and cold and if he isn’t on form in this fight I think he loses by knockout. My balls aren’t big enough today to back him though. Felix Sturm on points.

Danny Green show
With all the good fights on this weekend, why am I forced to either pay $50 to watch boxing or stay up past midnight going to a pub surrounded by morons in order to watch anything? Former WBA Light Heavyweight champion Danny Green returns from his retirement and takes on some South African no one has heard of and this is PPV worthy? I must sound like a broken record, but why? Couldn’t Green have headlined a Friday Night Fights card on Fox Sports instead of charging people $50 to watch him? As much as I like Green, I bag on Mundine for charging $50 for his joke fights so Green gets nothing different. The fact that we’re getting Hatton-Pacquiao on PPV next week for $40 shows how much of a rip-off this is. There you have two of the best pound for pound fighters on the planet squaring off, but for $10 more you could get Danny Green knock out some chump in two rounds?