Rankings: Munguia solidifies contender status, Teraji, more

Next update will come on Monday, February 12.

Here are the ranked fights we’ll see between now and then:

Not a lot going on, but two really important fights.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Oleksandry Usyk vs (2) Tyson Fury, Feb. 17 … (3) Zhilei Zhang vs (5) Joseph Parker, Mar. 8 … (4) Anthony Joshua vs Francis Ngannou, Mar. 8

Upcoming Fights: (1) Jai Opetaia vs Mairis Briedis, Feb. 17

Upcoming Fights: (4) Joshua Buatsi vs (5) Dan Azeez, Feb. 3

Notes: A little shuffling, as Jaime Munguia jumps up to No. 4, trading places with Caleb Plant. I didn’t want to move Mbilli, really, but Munguia has shown more than Mbilli, and Plant frankly hasn’t done anything more than either of them other than have a competitive spirit in clear losses to Canelo and Benavidez in the last three years. I think Plant is good, and honestly he might be the third-best super middleweight, but Morrell, Munguia, and Mbilli have a momentum he does not. And I’d be thrilled to see any of them fight Plant, by the way.

Munguia has really impressed me in the last two fights. He got the better opponents and showed a lot of grit, power, and toughness. He has shown he can deal with adversity against good opponents. And there’s really only the top level left for him. Do I think Canelo handles him? Yeah. Same for Benavidez and Morrell, I think both guys would beat Jaime up pretty bad. But Munguia is a real fighter and real contender with a true warrior heart.

John Ryder drops out and Kevin Lele Sadjo gets the No. 10 spot for me. You could also argue the likes of Vladimir Shishkin, Edgar Berlanga, Bek Melikuziev, and a few others for those last two slots.

Upcoming Fights: (6) Jaime Munguia vs (7) John Ryder, Jan. 27

Upcoming Fights: (8) Austin Williams vs Connor Coyle, Feb. 3 … (6) Hamzah Sheeraz vs (10) Liam Williams, Feb. 10

Upcoming Fights: (2) Tim Tszyu vs Keith Thurman, Mar. 30

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Upcoming Fights: (2) Teofimo Lopez vs Jamaine Ortiz, Feb. 8

Notes: Isaac Cruz is out with his impending move to 140 for the fight with Rolly Romero. Raymond Muratalla comes in at No. 10. Going to keep a sharp eye on the Feb. 8 fight between Keyshawn Davis and Jose Pedraza, too.

Upcoming Fights: (8) Zaur Abdullaev vs Roger Gutierrez, Feb. 10 … (6) Andy Cruz vs Brayan Zamarripa, Feb. 24 … (4) William Zepeda vs (7) Maxi Hughes, Mar. 16 … (1) Vasiliy Lomachenko vs (9) George Kambosos Jr, May 11

Upcoming Fights: (2) O’Shaquie Foster vs Abraham Nova, Feb. 16 … (1) Joe Cordina vs Anthony Cacace, Feb. 17 … (5) Oscar Valdez vs (10) Liam Wilson, Mar. 29

Upcoming Fights: (1) Luis Alberto Lopez vs Reiya Abe, Mar. 2 … (10) Otabek Kholmatov vs Raymond Ford, Mar. 2 … (4) Rey Vargas vs (8) Nick Ball, Mar. 8

Upcoming Fights: (1) Naoya Inoue vs (2) Luis Nery, May 6

Upcoming Fights: (1) Alexandro Santiago vs Junto Nakatani, Feb. 24

Upcoming Fights: (5) Kosei Tanaka vs Christian Bacasegua, Feb. 24

Notes: Big jump up for Seigo Yuri Aku, who took the WBA belt from Artem Dalakian, who only drops a spot for now.

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Notes: Teraji is clearly The Man in this division, to the point that he could really move up to chase some glory. The potential further unification options are decent, though. He’d be heavily favored to beat either and go undisputed, but he also does good business in Japan fighting basically anyone, and he is 32 years old, which is getting up there for the lower weights, so maybe he doesn’t see moving up as a great idea at this point. But we’ll see — he’s must-watch TV no matter who he fights.

His recently-beaten opponent, Carlos Canizales, hangs at No. 3 for me right now. He fought a hell of a fight and showed why I was so excited about that matchup, and why I thought Canizales might be the biggest threat to Kenshiro style-wise.

Upcoming Fights: (4) Adrian Curiel vs (8) Sivenathi Nontshinga, Feb. 16 … (2) Jonathan Gonzalez vs Rene Santiago, Mar. 2

Notes: Oscar Collazo charges on with another title defense this past weekend. I’m really high on the Shigeoka brothers, and Collazo is right there with them as the young standouts of this division right now.

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Notes: Mikaela Mayer drops out after her controversial loss to Natasha Jonas. Though I thought Mayer did enough to win that fight, and I hope we see a rematch, I didn’t see someone with a clear top 10 case P4P anymore. So there’s some adjustment here.

Mayer is out, as is Delfine Persoon, who is 39 years old and in this conversation, living in 2024 off of fights from 2019 and 2020. Dina Thorslund and Yesica Nery are in.

Upcoming Fights: (4) Amanda Serrano vs Nina Meinke, Mar. 2 … (6) Seniesa Estrada vs (7) Yokasta Valle, Mar. 29