The final weeks of the year did bring some action on the women’s boxing front, although not as much as one would expect given the surge in activity that this year in general has seen.

In one of the most intriguing fights in the heaviest division in women’s boxing (The Ring does not rate fighters above 168 pounds due to the lack of regular activity and the low amount of fighters in those divisions fighting with any kind of continuity), former Ring champ Franchon Crews-Dezurn returned to victory with a dominant win over previously unbeaten Shadasia Green to lift a super middleweight belt and reclaim the lofty position she once occupied before being defeated by Savannah Marshall back in July.

The result was a mild upset only to a few, and our panelist Lupi Gutierrez-Beagle was not one of them.

“If you know or follow the amateur background between Franchon and Shadasia, adding what you know at the pro level, your money would’ve been on Franchón all day long,” said the co-owner of Beautiful Brawlers. “The champ is back at No. 1.”

The naysayers didn’t mind admitting their mistake.

“I must confess that I did not believe that she would be the one who would take the victory,” said author Irene Deserti on Crews-Dezurn’s chances. “I was betting on Green really being superior, but Franchon shut me up, because she really was the fair winner dominating most of the rounds with authority.”

Historian Malissa Smith retorted that “(Franchon’s) poise, discipline, and staggering jab left no doubt that she is a champion, and then writer Christopher Benedict finished the debate by saying “Crews-Dezurn made her critics eat crow and Shadasia Green eat leather in a rebound win not many saw coming.”

In the lightweight division, Uruguayan brawler Maira Moneo battled Bolivia’s Lizbeth Crespo in Argentina to make her case for a higher rating, and the panel listened.

Moneo’s awkward brawling style does little to earn her any new fans, but the results are there and that calls for respect.

“Say what you want about Moneo, she keeps winning and that’s the name of the game, “said Gutierrez-Beagle, while Deserti added that “I am not a fan of her either and I am far from it, but I must admit that I also observed certain improvements in her boxing skills. Her attacks are still too passionate and unbridled and she loses her line and defense. But I think she has improved and based on her results she deserves to move up a notch.”

A notch above she was moved, then, and she is now the new No. 2 in The Ring’s trailblazing women’s ratings.

Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.

Follow @MorillaBoxing