Fightful Boxing Newsletter (10/5): WBC Convention Notes, Deontay Wilder And Jeff Horn Have Fights

The Fightful boxing newsletter returns after a nearly month-long absence. If I may be selfish for a second, the tragedies and disasters that have left my home island of Puerto Rico in utter ruin and have not been to be as up to date and find the time to continue the newsletter. I was in Europe during the week Hurricane Maria devastated the island and I appreciate all the kind words and support from fans, readers, fellow Fightful co-workers and everybody in between. For that, I am truly grateful.

But even in these dark times of terrorism-level shootings and entire nations being wiped out by mother nature, we turn to sports for a much needed escape as millions of people are right now trying to rebuild their lives from the ground up. Some people have lost loved ones and have faced unimaginable horrors. The boxing community is deeply saddened by the many recent tragedies and I hope that this newsletter would provide you, the reader, an informative and entertaining read on the latest in the world of boxing.

Here on this edition, the World Boxing Council is currently having its 55th annual convention, where many important decisions were made regarding some big name fighters. The governing body ordered a rematch for Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin and has made a decision regarding Deontay Wilder and who he will fight on November 4 after Luis Ortiz failed a drug test a couple of weeks ago.

Below is the table of contents for the October 5 Fightful boxing Newsletter:

1. WBC Convention Notes (Pages 2-3)
2. Jeff Horn Gets An Opponent For First Title Defense (Page 4)
3. Daniel Jacobs Signs With Matchroom Boxing (Page 5)
4. Results from the world of boxing (Page 6)
5. Fightful boxing rankings (Page 7-8)
6. Other news and notes in boxing (Page 9)
7. Carl Frampton’s Return To The Ring (Page 10)

WBC Convention Notes

The World Boxing Council is currently of its 55th annual convention, taking place at the Fairmont Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan, from October 1-6.

Perhaps the biggest piece of news from the convention was WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman announcing that the organization has ordered a rematch between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin. The two have already engaged in talks to have a rematch talks and while some details on a potential rematch do seem to become more and more plausible, such as a possible date for a second fight (May 5, 2018), both sides are still somewhat far apart in getting a deal done. At this point, they have progressed far better than in the opening weeks and months of negotiations for the first fight.

The rematch order isn’t actually that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Sulaiman, who loves having the WBC be a part of such big boxing events, was more than happy to give Canelo the rematch order. With such an announcement, one of the first things to watch out for is Jermall Charlo’s status as the WBC’s mandatory challenger to Golovkin’s title. He earned the right to be the mandatory challenger with an impressive performance at the Barclays Center on July 29 when he beat Jorge Sebastian Heiland.

Because Golovkin already had his fight with Canelo announced by the time Charlo won the title eliminator, a mandatory challenge order was never issued. Given the nature of how the fight ended, it wouldn’t be a surprise that one of the three governing bodies Golovkin is the champion of would order a rematch regardless of not having any mandatory challengers. If there was a bet, the WBC would have been the odds on favorite to be the one organization to issue a rematch.

As far as all things are considered, Charlo is still and will remain the WBC mandatory challenger. He just now has to fight an interim title fight, but the opponent has yet to be named. In regards to who could step up to fight Charlo in a second title eliminator, a number of names come to mind, although it is merely speculation at this point. WBC champions such as Roberto Garcia (WBC Silver champion) Jason Quigley (NABF champion) could be given an opportunity since they have a smaller WBC title, which sometimes does lead to an eventual world title match. Looking down the WBC rankings, guys such Andy Lee (No. 10) and Matt Korobov (No. 6) are some of the top-ranked WBC boxers who do not have a fight currently lined up for him.

The second biggest piece of news came from the WBC’s decision regarding its heavyweight title scene. The long-awaited result of the WBC’s investigation into Luis Ortiz’s failed drug test has come to a conclusion and the ruling is final: Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz is called off.

Instead, the WBC will now move forward with Wilder making his original mandatory defense against Bermane Stiverne on November 4 at the Barclays Center. The announcement came during the fourth day of the 55th annual WBC Convention alongside a number of announcements regarding the mandatory challenges for many of their champions.

Wilder and Stiverne were already fighting on that card, but Stiverne was supposed to fight Dominic Breazeale in a title eliminator. Breazeale is, for all intents and purposes, out of the November 4 card and promoter Eddie Hearn is now trying to book a fight between Stiverne and Dillian Whyte to be done on the Anthony Joshua vs. Kubrat Pulev undercard on October 28.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman announced on social media that Ortiz failed a VADA urine drug test conducted on September 22 at his training camp in Miami. The results came back late September 28, and Ortiz’s “A” sample tested positive for the banned diuretics chlorothiazide and hydrochlorothiazide, which are used to treat high blood pressure but also can be used as masking agents for performance-enhancing drug use.

Ortiz can still have his “B” sample tested, but it is not often that the “B” sample provides a different result from the “A” sample. This is Ortiz’s second failed drug test after he tested positive for steroids in 2014 after he defeated Lateef Kayode to win the then-vacant WBA interim heavyweight championship.

Promoter Lou DiBella confirmed the news to ESPN and said he is very disappointed for Wilder.

“I can verify the information Mauricio put out,” DiBella said. “I’m flabbergasted and particularly crestfallen for my fighter. Deontay Wilder is a great champion and a clean champion and probably has been victimized more than any other fighter in the history of the sport.”

Wilder was actually supposed to face mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne, but Wilder wanted to fight either unified WBA and IBF champion Anthony Joshua or Ortiz first.

Wilder and Stiverne’s respective camps managed to come to a resolution several weeks back, with Stiverne receiving step-aside money to allow Wilder to go ahead with the Ortiz bout. The agreement called for Stiverne to fight on the televised undercard against Dominic Breazeale in a title eliminator.

Had Stiverne won his fight on November 4, he would have faced the WBC champion next whether it would have been Wilder or Ortiz, likely in early 2018. Now that the Wilder fight is canceled, there is no telling if Stiverne would be upgraded to the main event or if the impromptu title eliminator will go on and be the headlining fight. There is still a chance for Wilder to fight in the main event, albeit would have to come against someone else.

Stiverne had been named the WBC’s No. 1 contender in January after his WBC interim title fight against Alexander Povetkin was scrapped when Povetkin tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Wilder has had an extremely unlucky 2017 when it comes to his opponents. His lone fight in 2017, against Gerald Washington, had a different opponent, Andrzej Wawrzyk. As it was the case with Ortiz, Wawrzyk also failed a drug test several weeks before the fight takes place and was taken off the February 25 card.

Ortiz’s status as the WBA’s mandatory challenger to Joshua’s heavyweight title is up in the air, but it is not hard to believe that the WBA may decide to replicate the WBC’s ruling and not sanction a title fight between Joshua and Ortiz.

Wilder and Stiverne have fought each other once, when Wilder defeated Stiverne to win the WBC title in 2015. Wilder has defended his title five times. Stiverne was named the mandatory challenger to Wilder’s title several months ago, but negotiations took a long time to finalize before Wilder negotiated a step-aside deal that allowed Wilder to make the voluntary defense against Ortiz.

WBC Convention Notes

As for other future WBC world title matches, the governing body has also updated the status of several championships and upcoming title fights.

In what is most definitely the most stable of the world titles at 175 pounds, WBC champion Adonis Stevenson is close to securing a fight date with mandatory challenger Eleider Alvarez. Alvarez had been Stevenson’s mandatory throughout most of the year, but a fight never materialized. Both sides are close to securing a deal and it does look like the plan is to have the title match take place on December 16 in Canada.

Now that Andre Ward has retired, any chance of a unification fight at light heavyweight will take a good while to happen because all three of his titles would be vacated. That doesn’t really bode well for Stevenson getting big fights in what is left in his career. Stevenson is 40 years old, hasn’t really lit up the division and top fighters are straying away from fighting Stevenson now because he is not a draw. With Ward out and promoter Kathy Duva, on behalf of Sergey Kovalev, already going on record in saying that Kovalev does not want to fight Stevenson anymore, there really aren’t big fights on the horizon coming soon for Stevenson.

Moving to the super middleweight title, promoter Sampson Lewkowicz said at the convention that champion David Benavidez and Ronald Gavril are in talks of having a rematch. Benavidez beat Gavril via decision several weeks ago, but Gavril believed that he was the winner of the fight. It wasn’t a robbery and most in the boxing community would likely tell you that Benavidez won the fight, but the fight was close enough that a rematch wouldn’t really be a bad thing. At this point, there aren’t many other challengers stepping up to the plate now that most of the contenders and other champions are busy competing in the World Boxing Super Series.

The one WBC title that has been up in the air in the past few months has been the organization’s welterweight title. It’s not that there is no championm, there is (Keith Thurman), but Thurman has been out of action for several months while recovering from elbow surgery. Thurman will keep the title and is being earmarked for a January 2018 return. Against who is a different story.

In the past few months, the organization has tried to make an interim title fight between Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia. Porter had been the mandatory challenger since beating Andre Berto in March, but with Thurman’s injury, the WBC sought to make Porter vs. Garcia for the interim title possible. For one reason or another, Porter now instead will fight Adrian Granados on the November 4 Barclays Center card, whose main event (originally Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz) is now up in the air. What isn’t up in the air is the Porter vs. Granados fight essentially being another title eliminator.

As for Garcia, he and Brandon Rios are getting close to finalizing a deal for a December somewhere in New York. Rios came back from a lengthy absence from the sport to beat Aaron Herrera in July and now sits at No. 15 in the WBC rankings. The winner would likely set himself up for a potential title fight against the winner of Keith Thurman’s next fight, likely against the winner of the Porter vs. Granados fight.

Miguel Berchelt, the WBC super featherweight champion, last defended his title back in July when he beat Takashi Miura via unanimous decision. Before the convention, there wasn’t anybody that would be fighting Berchelt. At the convention, the WBC made two announcements regarding Berchelt. Firstly, Berchelt is going to be entering a voluntary defense period, of which he’ll likely spend fighting former world champion Orlando Salido. Salido was very close to securing a fight with WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko before the fight deal fell through. While Berchelt will be spending the next few months working on a voluntary defense, the WBC will hold a title eliminator between Francisco Vargas and Jhonny Gonzalez.

In the light flyweight division, champion Ken Shiro will be awaiting the winner of the title eliminator between Pedro Guevara and Hekkie Budler, who recently had a great showing in a narrow split decision loss to Milan Melindo on September 16. Guevara vs. Budler will also be for the WBC Silver title.

At featherweight, champion Gary Russell Jr. will fight Joseph Diaz Jr., and that fight is being looked at around May 2018.

The ongoing saga of Terence Crawford’s upcoming move to welterweight reaches another chapter as the WBC already has a plan in motion for if and when Crawford vacates his junior welterweight titles. There will be a mini-tournament of sorts with No. 1 ranked Amir Imam and No. 3 ranked Jose Carlos Ramirez fighting for the vacant title and No. 2 ranked Regis Prograis fighting No. 4 ranked Viktor Postol for the interim title. That plan has the winner of both of those fights meeting each other sometime in 2018 for the undisputed WBC junior welterweight title.

Although Jermell Charlo is defending his WBC junior middleweight title against Erickson Lubin on October 14, the WBC has a bit of a tournament going on right now to decide Charlo’s next mandatory challenger. No. 4 ranked Maaclej Sulecki and No. 5 Jack Culcay will fight each other at an undetermined point in the future. The winner of the Sulecki vs. Culcay fight will then box No. 3 Vanes Martirosyn. The winner of that fight will then become Jermell Charlo’s mandatory challenger.

Minimumweight champion Wanheng Menayothin has no mandatory defenses but will make a voluntary defense in November. Flyweight champion Daigo Higa will fight Thomas Masson in a voluntary defense on October 22.

As far as WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai is concerned he has a mandatory challenger in Juan Francisco Estrada, but Sor Rungvisai has asked the WBC for a voluntary defense first. I can’t imagine his reasoning being anything other wanting to unify titles. Sor Rungvisai said he would like a third fight against Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, but I think that was more out of respect because Sor Rungvisai has now proven who is the better boxer after knocking out Chocolatito in September. If the issue is fight quality, then fighting Estrada shouldn’t be an issue because Estrada is a formidable fighter and he further proved that when he beat Carlos Cuadras in a fight of the year candidate on the same HBO card Sor Rungvisai knocked out Chocolatito.

Another thing to note from the WBC convention is the latest change to the WBC’s official rankings. There were numerous changes in many of the rankings, except for eight divisions (minimumweight, junior flyweight, flyweight, super flyweight, bantamweight, junior welterweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight).

Super Bantamweight:

• Abigal Medina is now ranked No. 4

Featherweight:

• Satoshi Shimuzu is now ranked No. 14

Super Featherweight:

• Jon Fernandez is now ranked No. 16

Lightweight. The WBC said it took some time to ponder this and has come up with the top six boxers after Mikey Garcia, who is the champion:

1. Ray Beltran
2. Javier Fortuna
3. Yvan Mendy
4. Luke Campbell
5. Gervonta Davis
6. Richard Commey

Welterweight:

• Charles Manyuchi is now ranked No. 15

Junior Middleweight:

• Jack Culcay is now ranked No. 5
• Sergey Rabchenco is now ranked No. 9

Middleweight:

• Curtis Stevens is now ranked No. 14 (dropped from being ranked No. 10)
• Emmanuele Balndamura is now ranked No. 10

Cruiserweight:

• Olanrewaja is now ranked No. 6
• Mike Perez is now ranked No. 8
• Dmitry Kudryashov is now ranked No. 11 (dropped from being ranked No. 8)

Heavyweight:

• Oscar Rivas is now ranked No. 10

Jeff Horn Gets An Opponent For First Title Defense:

WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn was oh-so-close to a rematch with Manny Pacquiao, but now that Pacquiao withdrew from the fight several weeks ago, Horn now turns to Gary Corcoran for his first title defense.

According to promoter Frank Warren, Horn and Corcoran have agreed to terms to fight in November for Horn’s WBO title in Australia, Horn’s native country and where he scored the biggest win of his career, and perhaps boxing’s upset of the year, when he beat Manny Pacquiao on ESPN.

“It’s all agreed, we’re just waiting for the official confirmation. Terms are agreed and it’s all ready to go,” Warren told Boxingscene.com.

Corcoran is 17-1 as a pro boxer and is ranked No. 10 in the WBO’s official rankings. Corcoran also won the WBO Intercontinental title in his last fight when he defeated Larry Ekundayo via split decision back in July. His lone loss came against Liam Williams in a BBBofC British super welterweight title fight last year.

After Horn defeated Pacquiao in a highly controversial fight that many initially saw Pacquiao win the fight, but the three judges scored the fight in favor of Horn, both boxers were adamant about their intent in having a rematch. The two kept saying that for weeks and Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who pushed heavily for the first Pacquiao-Arum fight to happen, was trying to secure the fight from behind the scenes.

Pacquiao announced that he wouldn’t be fighting Horn as he had to fulfill his duties as a senator in the Philippines, preventing him from dedicating any time to prepare for any kind of fight. In the immediate aftermath, several names were mentioned as potential candidates to be Horn’s opponent, including Jessie Vargas, Bradley Skeete and Terence Crawford. Corcoran started to become the likeliest candidate in the past couple of weeks.

Top Rank, who promotes Horn, wanted the Horn-Pacquiao rematch to be broadcast on ESPN, like the first fight, which did record viewership numbers. But with November 11 already being reserved for another Top Rank boxing on ESPN card headlined by Jessie Magdaleno vs. Cesar Juarez for the WBO junior featherweight title, the television future of Horn vs. Corcoran is in doubt.

Corcoran is an interesting name and is very low on many casual fans list in terms of name recognition when talking about potential opponents for Horn, but the fight makes sense.

The dilemma that Arum is facing in this fight is to either give Horn the best boxers available or to keep giving him less than stellar title defenses. As far as the fans are concerned, Arum missed the mark by not putting Crawford in Pacquiao’s spot. There wouldn’t be many issues in making the fight happen. Both Horn and Crawford are represented by Top Rank and figure to be among the top boxing stars for ESPN for the next couple of years. Plus, as holder of the WBO junior welterweight title, he can vacate and pretty much secure an automatic shot at Horn’s title.

For Arum, he saw the value in keeping Horn as the champion in the absence of Pacquiao. While Crawford vs. Horn would have been a very interesting fight to watch, the fight would actually be hurting Top Rank in the long run.

Ponder what I just wrote: both men are fighting for Top Rank. While that fact is a big help in making fights official, the problem is in the scenarios presented if such a fight happen. Even though Horn won the title, barely anybody truly believes he is the real deal and was gifted the title due to another Pacquiao robbery. If he had fought another top fighter such as Crawford, and the general school of thought is that Crawford would easily dispatch Horn, then whatever credibility Horn ad by fighting Pacquiao would instantly be gone, erasing about a year’s worth of talk and bravado from Arum over how Horn is the next big star in boxing.

On the other hand, if Horn pulls off the upset, you create a new, legitimate star in Horn, but then the attention now turns to Crawford and whether or not he should ever have moved up in weight. The thinking will now turn to, if Crawford couldn’t beat Horn, then what chance does he stand against the likes of Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter, etc… Crawford would still land big fights, but he would no longer be looked at as the top pound-for-pound boxer as many, including myself, currently think he is.

It’s a lose-lose situation for Arum by making Horn vs. Crawford happen. There is far better money in further building up Horn as the world champion and eventually set up his next big fight, perhaps against Pacquiao next summer, and maximize the profitability that Horn can bring. Horn is a superstar in Australia and it would do he and Arum good by giving him winnable fights and improving his resume. If and when Horn beats Corcoran, and if he doesn’t get Pacquiao as his next opponent, then the next logical choice would be someone like Vargas.

Daniel Jacobs Signs With Matchroom Boxing

Former middleweight world champion Daniel Jacobs has a new promoter and new television network home.

Jacobs signed with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing to become the first American boxer to sign with the British promoter. The move was announced as part of Matchroom’s expansion into the U.S. with the creation of Matchroom Boxing USA.

As part of the agreement, Jacobs also signed a multi-fight deal with HBO and is set to fight Luis Arias on November 11 at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York. Jacobs, who regularly fought on Showtime, last fought on an HBO broadcast when he lost to Gennady Golovkin on an HBO pay-per-view on March 18.

The announcement is welcome news to HBO, who is still reeling from the departure of Bob Arum’s Top Rank roster for the past year. That includes Manny Pacquiao, Terence Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenko, as Top Rank signed a broadcasting deal with ESPN.

Jacobs has wanted a rematch with Golovkin since the two had a very competitive match back in March. Jacobs lost to Golovkin via unanimous decision, but with all three cards going 114-113 in favor of Golovkin. Golovkin recently fought Canelo Alvarez and it looks like the two will likely have a rematch, possibly next year, meaning Jacobs may not get his rematch with GGG for quite some time.

The former WBA middleweight champion said he was going to be a part of the October 14 Barclays Center card, but never got an opponent and so had to change plans.

Hearn has been extremely busy as of late, including making a stacked boxing card in Cardiff, Wales on October 28, headlined by Anthony Joshua vs. Kubrat Pulev, and signing former world heavyweight title challenger Dereck Chisora to the company.

Hearn’s objective is to make Jacobs into a major star and make him the face of Matchroom Boxing’s USA branch. That’s not exactly an easy task, given how he hasn’t been a major star. That’s perplexing because Jacobs does have the makings of a big star: he’s extremely talented, has fantastic knockout power and even has an amazing story that makes him insanely likeable to everyone (the fact that he is a cancer survivor and bounced back to win a world title). For some reason, it hasn’t translated well. He and Golovkin didn’t even crack 200,000 buys on pay-per-view back in March, a clear sign that neither boxers could really do that well as pay-per-view headliners.

In this day and age, the value of stars is measured greatly in how well you can draw on pay-per-view. You can attract a big television audience to watch your fights, but it doesn’t mean you’re a big star. Take Terence Crawford for example. He’s a boxer that regularly draws over a million television viewers on both HBO and ESPN, but when it came to being the main event of a pay-per-view, Crawford flopped heavily. We’re seeing a similar case with Jacobs.

At this point, the only saving grace for Jacobs is to fight Canelo Alvarez, who at this point and time is pretty much the only real pay-per-view draw. Jacobs certainly is capable of beating Canelo and doing so would elevate the former world champion to new heights of stardom.

Fighting Arias is not a bad first step and should give HBO an idea of where he stands in the middleweight division. If Jacobs wins, then he essentially sets himself up for a middleweight title match. Whether it would be against the winner of a Canelo vs. Golovkin rematch or against Billy Joe Saunders remains to be seen.

Regardless, this experiment with Jacobs is not a 6-month plan. Jacobs getting the big fights will take some time and probably won’t be something he’ll sniff at until next summer. Jacobs’ job right now is to look highly impressive in this first fight against Arias.

Results from the world of boxing:

October 3: Gym of Datong University, Datong, China

• Chao Zhong Xiong defeated Panya Pradabsri to win the vacant WBA International Minimumweight Title via MD
• Can Xu defeated Nehomar Cermeno to win the vacant WBA International Featherweight Title: RTD, Round 7

October 3: Zirkus Busch, Blankenfelde-Mahlow, Brandenburg, Germany

• Angelo Frank defeated Mikheil Mosulishvili to win the vacant Global Boxing Council Intercontinental Welterweight Title: TKO, Round 4
• Bjoern Schicke defeated Omar Jatta to win the vacant Global Boxing Council Intercontinental Super Middleweight Title via UD
• Thomas Piccirillo defeated Ali Hussein via SD
• Lukas Paszkowsky defeated Tibor Varga: TKO, Round 1
• Robert Larsen defeated Talip Yilmaz via PTS

October 2: Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

• Sa Myung Noh defeated Satoshi Shimizu to win the OPBF Featherweight Title: TKO, Round 5
• Reiya Abe defeated Satoshi Hosono: TD, Round 9

October 1: Gentlemen Fight Club Boxing House, Budapest, Hungary

• Edina Kiss defeated Beata Bodo:TKO, Round 1
• Richard Baranyi defeated Viktor Szalai: KO, Round 2
• Zoltan Horvath defeated Geza Olah: TKO, Rund 1
• Istvan Szucs defeated Adrian Kovacs: TKO, Round 3

Ocober 1: Chiringuito, Carugate, Lombardia, Italy

• Ilaria Scopece defeated Viktorija Mihailova: KO, Round 1
• Alain Kourouma defeated Liam Dede’ via PTS

October 1: Sorbolo, Emilia Romagna, Italy

• Alessio Lorusso defeated Vladislavs Davidaitis: TKO, Round 2

September 30: Polideportivo Municipal, Loma Verde, Buenos Aires, Argentina

• Nicolas Demario defeated Cristian Lautaro Calullerovich via UD
• Agustin Ezequias Gerbald Kucharski defeated Jorge Enrique Arce via UD

September 30: Gimnasio Municipal Néstor Carlos Kirchner, Sarmiento, Chubut, Argentina

• Lucas Matias Montesino defeated Jonathan Pinto Montiel: KO, Round 3

September 30: Sportcomplex Schotte, Kapellekensbaan 8, Aalst, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

• Howard Cospolite defeated Sasha Yengoyan to win the vacant IBF Inter-Continental Super Welterweight Title via SD
• Bilal Laggoune defeated Maurizio Lovaglio to win the vacant IBF Inter-Continental Cruiserweight Title: TKO, Round 6
• Femke Hermans defeated Ester Konecna via UD
• Timur Nikarkhoev defeated Bassam Belkhir via UD
• Meriton Karaxha defeated Brice Bula Galo: DQ, Round 5
• Kevin Vanderheyden defeated Jamal Eddine Mahouti via MD
• Kevin Ongenae defeated Joffrey Audenaert via UD

September 30: Ronse, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

• Joel Tambwe Djeko defeated Tamas Kozma: TKO, Round 3
• Ilias Achergui defeated David Kis: KO, Round 5

September 30: Sâo Pedro da Aldeia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Brayann Ribeiro defeated Luiz Carlos de Almeida Castro to win the vacant Brazilian Super Middleweight Title via UD
• Leonardo Rufino Luiz defeated Alex Sandro Rosario: TKO, Round 4
• Claudio Souza defeated Patrique Tavares De Oliveira via PTS
• Davidson Tedim defeated Rubens Henrique Dos Santos: DQ, Round 3
• Rafael de Souza defeated Lucas Veloso Araujo via SD
• Rafael Porfiro Braganca defeated Douglas Natan Guedes Menezes via UD

September 30: Arena Riga, Riga, Latvia

• Mairis Briedis defeated Mike Perez to retain the WBC World Cruiserweight Title via UD
• Krzysztof Glowacki defeated Leonardo Damian Bruzzese: TKO, Round 5
• Sergey Gorokhov defeated Tim Robin Lihaug via UD
• Nikolajs Grisunins and Alexander Kubich fight to a draw on PTS
• Filip Hrgovic defeated Raphael Zumbano Love: TKO, Round 1
• Andrejs Podusovs defeated Alika Vakhtangashvili: TKO, Round 3
• Reinis Porozovs defeatedTomi Honka via UD
• Artjoms Ramlavs defeated Artem Ayvazidi via UD

September 30: Corradino Sports Pavilion, Paola, Malta

• Steve Martin defeated Antonio Santoro: KO, Round 1
• Haithem Laamouz defeated Mohamed Khalladi via UD
• Christian Schembri defeated Alessandro Ruggiero via UD
• Kerstin Brown defeated Yuri Sampirisi via MD

September 30: Centro Regional de Deporte de Las Américas, Ecatepec, México, Mexico

• Jessica Chavez defeated Esmeralda Moreno o retain the WBC World Female Flyweight Title via UD
• Felipe Orucuta defeated Edgar Jimenez: TKO, Round 5
• Juan Pablo Romero defeated Agustin Lugo via PTS
• Isaac Cruz Gonzalez and Jose Calyecac fight to a draw on PTS
• Nayeli Verde defeated Angelica Monserrat Vazquez via PTS
• Jose de Jesus Mateos defeated Rafael Cruz via PTS
• Iran Urban Silva defeated Valentin Martinez via PTS

Official Fightful Rankings:

Pound-for-pound

1. Terence Crawford
2. Gennady Golovkin
3. Canelo Alvarez
4. Vasyl Lomachenko
5. Mikey Garcia
6. Keith Thurman
7. Guillermo Rigondeaux
8. Anthony Joshua
9. Naoya Inoue
10. Oleksandr Usyk

Heavyweight

1. Anthony Joshua
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Joseph Parker
4. Luis Ortiz
5. Kubrat Pulev
6. Dillian White
7. Andy Ruiz Jr.
8. Dominic Breazeale
9. Charles Martin
10. Hughie Fury

Cruiserweight

1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Denis Lebediev
3. Murat Gassiev
4. Krzysztof Glowacki
5. Mairis Briedis
6. Krzysztof Wlodarczyk
7. Marco Huck
8. Firat Arslan
9. Tony Bellew
10. Yunier Dorticos

Light heavyweight

1. Sergey Kovalev
2. Badou Jack
3. Adonis Stevenson
4. Oleksandr Gvozdyk
5. Sullivan Barrera
6. Artur Beterbiev
7. Eleider Alvarez
8. Juergen Braehmer
9. Joe Smith Jr.

Super middleweight

1. James DeGale
2. Gilberto Ramirez
3. George Groves
4. Anthony Dirrell
5. Andre Dirrell
6. David Benavidez
7. Jose Uzcategui
8. Chris Eubank Jr.
9. Tyron Zeuge
10. Callum Smith

Middleweight

1. Gennady Golovkin
2. Canelo Alvarez
3. Daniel Jacobs
4. Jermall Charlo
5. David Lemieux
6. Billy Joe Saunders
7. Andy Lee
8. Hassan N’Dam
9. Ryota Murata
10. Sergiy Derevyanchenko

Light middleweight

1. Erislandy Lara
2. Miguel Cotto
3. Jermell Charlo
4. Demetrius Andrade
5. Jarrett Hurd
6. Julian Williams
7. Austin Trout
8. Erickson Lubin
9. Liam Smith
10. Jack Culcay

Welterweight

1. Keith Thurman
2. Errol Spence Jr.
3. Danny Garcia
4. Shawn Porter
5. Manny Pacquiao
6. Jeff Horn
7. Kell Brook
8. Jessie Vargas
9. Lamont Peterson
10. Lucas Matthysse

The rest of the rankings are in the next page.

Light welterweight

1. Terence Crawford
2. Julius Indongo
3. Viktor Postol
4. Antonio Orozco
5. Eduard Troyanovski
6. Rances Barthelemy
7. Adrian Granados
8. Ricky Burns
9. Sergey Lipinets

Lightweight

1. Jorge Linares
2. Mikey Garcia
3. Terry Flanagan
4. Robert Easter Jr.
5. Anthony Crolla
6. Luke Campbell
7. Dejan Zlaticanin
8. Raymundo Beltran
9. Denis Shafikov
10. Felix Verdejo

Junior lightweight

1. Vasyl Lomachenko
2. Miguel Berchelt
3. Gervonta Davis
4. Jezreel Corrales
5. Francisco Vargas
6. Orlando Salido
7. Robinson Castellanos
8. Jason Sosa
9. Jhonny Gonzalez
10. Masayuki Ito

Featherweight

1. Leo Santa Cruz
2. Carl Frampton
3. Gary Russell Jr.
4. Lee Selby
5. Abner Mares
6. Oscar Valdez
7. Scott Quigg
8. Jesus Cuellar
9. Joseph Diaz
10. Claudio Marrero

Light featherweight

1. Guillermo Rigondeaux
2. Jessie Magdaleno
3. Nonito Donaire
4. Moises Flores
5. Daniel Roman
6. Hugo Ruiz
7. Rey Vargas
8. Marlon Tapales
9. Julio Ceja
10. Yukinori Oguni

Bantamweight

1. Jamie McDonnell
2. Luis Nery
3. Zhanat Zhakiyanov
4. Ryan Burnett
5. Juan Carlos Payano
6. Shinsuke Yamanaka
7. Zolani Tete
8. Lee Haskins
9. Takoma Inoue
10. Liborio Solis

Light bantamweight

1. Naoya Inoue
2. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai
3. Jerwin Ancajas
4. Khalid Yafai
5. Juan Francisco Estrada
6. Carlos Cuadras
7. Roman Gonzalez
8. John Riel Casimero
9. Rau’shee Warren
10. Luis Concepcion

Flyweight

1. Kazuto Ioka
2. Donnie Nietes
3. Daigo Higa
4. Juan Carlos Reveco
5. Sho Kimura
6. Moruti Mthalane
7. McWilliams Arroyo
8. Francisco Rodriguez Jr.
9. Zou Shiming
10. Komgrich Nantapech

Light flyweight/Strawweight

1. Milan Melindo
2. Kosei Tanaka
3. Knockout CP Freshmart
4. Jose Argumedo
5. Ken Shiro
6. Ryoichi Taguchi
7. Tatsuya Fukuhara
8. Hekkie Budler
9. Pedro Guevara
10. Wanheng Menayothin

Other news and notes in the world of boxing:

World Boxing Super Series

The WBSS is fully underway with half of the first round matches being done

The fights themselves have ranged from decent to above average and has been a hit with the European boxing audience, which is the perceived intention.

The one issue that has plagued and hurt the American audience is the fact that the American streams have been received very poorly by fans and media alike. This has been prevalent since the first fight of the tournament. The quality of the streams and the poor management of the sign-in system from the start of the tournament has been nothing short of a botched effort.

It was obvious from the beginning that expanding the tournament’s reach to the United States was a secondary objective. There are only two tournament cards in the United States and there were no major American networks that would offer to broadcast the first round so far.

By this point, the fights have been good and the semifinals do look to have the top 4 fighters from each bracket meet. It’s likely that the promotion will be even more rampant come early 2018 when the semifinals are expected to start. I expect HBO and Showtime and perhaps a network such as NBC to be in the running to broadcast the semifinals. This type of tournament can’t be done without broadcasting it in the United States.

Here are the results of the first round for both tournaments:

• Cruiserweight first round: Oleksandr Usyk defeated Marco Huck, retains WBO cruiserweight title
• Cruiserweight first round: Mairis Briedis defeated Mike Perez, retains WBC cruiserweight title
• Cruiserweight first round: Yunier Dorticos defeated Dmitry Kudryashov, retains WBA “regular” cruiserweight title
• Super Middleweight first round: Callum Smith defeated Erik Skoglund, wins WBC Diamond super middleweight title

Here are the remaining first round tournament matches:

• Super Middleweight first round: Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Avni Yildrim: October 7 in Stuttgart, Germany
• Super Middleweight first round: George Groves vs. Jamie Cox: October 14 in London, England
• Cruiserweight first round: Murat Gassiev vs. Krzysztof Wlodraczyk: October 21 in Newark, NJ
• Super Middleweight first round: Juergen Braehmer vs. Rob Brant: October 27 in Latvia

2. Two former world champions Anthony Crolla and Ricky Burns will be squaring off this Saturday in a lightweight battle at the Manchester, Arena in Manchester, England. Both fighters are coming off of defeats, and neither of them can afford a loss right now at this point in their careers with the possibility of retirement looming large for the loser of this fight. In the United States, this fight may not be that huge of a deal, but it really is a major non-title lightweight

Fightful will have live coverage of the full fight card, with the televised fight card starting at 2 p.m. ET. Other notable fights on the card include Sam Eggington vs. Mohamed Mimoune for the European welterweight title and Robbie Barrett vs. Lewis Ritton for the British lightweight title.

3. Former super middleweight world champion Anthony Dirrell will meet Denis Douglin in a 10-round bout that headlines a Premier Boxing Champions special edition of the Toe-to-Toe Tuesdays on FS1 and Boxeo de Campeones on FOX Deportes on November 17 from the Dort Federal Credit Union Center in Flint, Michigan.

The 10-round bout is a homecoming for Dirrell, who was born and raised in Flint along with his brother and top contender, Andre. It will be the third time that he has fought in his hometown with the 32-year-old’s last outing in Flint ending with a knockout of Dante Craig at Atwood Stadium on July 2, 2011. Since losing his title via majority decision to Badou Jack in 2015, Dirrell has won three straight bouts including his most recent fight, a fifth-round stoppage of Norbert Nemesapati in January.

4. Zolani Tete will defend his bantamweight world title for the first time when he faces South African countryman Siboniso Gonya on November 18 at the SSE Arena Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland, promoter Frank Warren announced earlier this week.

The fight will take place on the undercard of the return of former featherweight and junior featherweight world titleholder Carl Frampton, who will take on Horacio Garcia in his first fight since signing with Warren and his first fight since losing his featherweight belt by majority decision to Leo Santa Cruz in their rematch in January.

Tete won the interim title by near-shutout decision, 120-107, 119-108 and 119-108, against Arthur Villanueva on April 22 but was then elevated to a full titleholder when Marlon Tapales was stripped of the belt for failing to make weight for a title defense scheduled for April 23.

Carl Frampton’s Return To The Ring:

Carl Frampton will be taking it easy in his next fight in facing 2nd tier non-contender Horacio Garcia on November 19 at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This will be the first fight for the 30-year-old Frampton with his new promoter Frank Warren. The Frampton vs. Garcia fight will be televised on BT Sport and BoxNation on November 18.

Frampton, ranked No. 1 in the WBC, No. 3 in the IBF, No. 3 in the WBA and No. 7 in the WBO, is trying to get back to winning again after he was beaten by Leo Santa Cruz by a 12-round majority decision earlier this year on January 28 in Las Vegas, Nevada. That was Frampton’s second fight with Santa Cruz.

Frampton will be fighting in his home city of Belfast against the 27-year-old Garcia, who was recently beaten by journeyman Diuhl Olguin by an 8 round unanimous decision on July 15. Garcia came back to stop Olguin by a 4th round knockout in the rematch last month on September 15. Nevertheless, it was not a good sign that Garcia was beaten by such a mediocre fighter. Garcia also has suffered losses in the last 2 years to featherweight contender Joseph Diaz Jr. and Hozumi Hasegawa. Garcia also fought to a 10-round draw against Erik Ruiz on May 6 in a failed effort to win the vacant NABF super bantamweight title.

“Once he has got a good fight under his belt we will push on to one of the big boys in the new year and then Windsor Park next summer, which is where we want to be with him, in a massive fight,” Frampton’s new promoter Frank Warren said in the press conference earlier this week.

For Frampton’s sake, he needs to go after one of the more fragile champions at featherweight like Lee Selby or Oscar Valdez when he fights for a world title in 2018. I wouldn’t put Frampton in with WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. or in a third match against WBA champion Santa Cruz. WBA ‘regular’ champion Abner Mares would be a possibility, but he’s expected to face Santa Cruz in a rematch next year.

They’re building up to make that fight happen as evidenced by the FOX doubleheader on October 14 in California. I see Mares losing the rematch against Santa Cruz. Once Mares gets beaten again by Santa Cruz, then there will be no point in Frampton fighting Mares. That leaves just Valdez or Selby for Frampton to fight. Believe me; if Frampton faces Santa Cruz or Russell Jr., he’ll be sorry he did so, being that those guys are so talented right now, and Frampton is starting to show his age.

A rematch between Frampton and Scott Quigg needs to happen sooner or later. I think they should make that fight before Frampton slips a little more. Once he takes another loss, I don’t see the British boxing public wanting to still see a fight between Frampton and Quigg. They need to fight each other round now if possible.

Frampton has changed trainers in letting go Shane McGuigan and signing Jamie Moore as his new coach. I don’t think it matters at this point. Moore could have trained Frampton for Santa Cruz and the results would have been the same in my opinion. Frampton lost to Santa Cruz because he’s the better fighter than him. It’s not about the trainer. It’s about Frampton. There’s some guys he can beat, but other guys he’ll never beat unless it’s one of those controversial jobs like we saw in his first fight with Santa Cruz last year.