Above: Jaron Ennis reached the welterweight pinnacle with his victory over David Avanesyan. (Photo by Melina Pizano/Matchroom)

Through fight results of July 20, 2024

POUND FOR POUND: For at least one member of the ratings panel, beating Frank Martin, however impressively, was not an achievement that warranted a pound-for-pound promotion for Gervonta Davis, who went into the fight rated at No. 8. For another, it was an eye-opener: “I used to think Tank lucked out in these late-round stoppages, but there’s no luck involved,” the panelist said. “Over time, he’s able to tap into a fighter’s flaws and then exploit them ruthlessly. In the lead-up to doing this, he’s draining opponents of energy by applying pressure with his feet (similar to Usyk and Loma), and that’s pound-for-pound quality.”

A more interesting twist to the Tank question came out when one panelist admitted that he only wanted to promote Davis so that it would push Errol Spence down a notch. Surprisingly, that drew a couple nods of agreement (the anti-Spence mob described in Doug’s “Ringside” column has infiltrated the panel!). However, after a moment of reflection in which everybody checked their motives, Davis still had the votes on the merit of his victory alone, so he got the promotion to No. 7.

The Fighter of the Month in this issue, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, got a much more dramatic elevation – from No. 9 to No. 5 – after setting the pace against Juan Francisco Estrada and then knocking out the former pound-for-pound resident with a liver shot in the seventh round. To the joy of some, that pushed Spence down another notch.

But it didn’t stop there, because then Junto Nakatani (No. 10) decked two-time title challenger Vincent Astrolabio with a single left cross to the gut and was elevated to No. 9. A great win for Nakatani that also removed any barrier between Spence and a freefall into the abyss – which will happen anyway, regardless of where he is on the list, unless he schedules a fight within a week of this writing.

So, who will inherit the “10”?

CRUISERWEIGHT: No. 1-rated Chris-Billam Smith defended his WBO title by outpointing Richard Riakporhe, but the panel decided that even with the piss-poor effort resulting in the first loss of his career, Riakporhe is still better than the bottom of the list, so he only dropped one spot to No. 6.

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT: David Benavidez looked comfortable in his first fight at 175 pounds, consistently outworking former titleholder Oleksandr Gvozdyk (rated No. 7) over the 12-round distance to win by unanimous decision. Benavidez entered the list at No. 3 while the vanquished Ukrainian slipped to No. 8 – it would’ve been No. 9, except Dan Azeez also dropped from No. 6 to No. 10 after an unimpressive showing in a draw with Hrvoje Sep (unrated). Ali Izmailov, the previous No. 10, was pushed off the list.

SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT: Osleys Iglesias scored the kind of one-punch knockout that you hate to love – a perfect right hook that put Evgeny Shvedenko on the canvas thrashing around in an unconscious fit of muscle memory – but the result was impressive enough to boost the undefeated Cuban from No. 8 to No. 5 on the list.

Undefeated Guatemalan Lester Martinez won a near-shutout against Carlos Gongora and replaced Bektemir Melikuziev at No. 10.

MIDDLEWEIGHT: Elijah Garcia (No. 7) took his first loss in a split decision against former Benavidez victim Kyrone Davis. Even with a result that could’ve gone either way, the panel wasn’t keen on keeping Garcia on the list after missing weight by more than three pounds, so he was dumped and Davis was installed at No. 10.

Felix Cash (No. 7) vs. Tyler Denny (unrated) was halted in the fifth round due to an eyelid-splitting head clash, at which point Denny got the win on points. He came in at No. 10 while Cash dropped out.

JUNIOR MIDDLEWEIGHT: After 557 weeks on the list, Jermell Charlo was removed for inactivity, thus vacating the division championship. As the champ, Charlo was given extra leeway to schedule a fight at 154 pounds, but his last matchup at the weight was his 10th-round knockout of Brian Castano in May 2022. Since then, he has had one other fight, a loss to Canelo Alvarez two divisions up.

WELTERWEIGHT: Despite looking a little disinterested and absorbing a good deal of punches from David Avanesyan through carelessness, but in notching the 29th stoppage of his 32-0 record, Jaron “Boots” Ennis showed flashes of the brilliance that has created talk of him being a future pound-for-pound king (including by this magazine). With the victory, Ennis jumped over Errol Spence (again with the Spence demotions!) into the No. 1 spot, right on the doorstep of division champ Terence Crawford. We do hope that Bud answers the knock someday.

Cody Crowley, who was Ennis’ original opponent before pulling out five weeks before the fight because of a post-surgical retina issue, was dropped from the list for inactivity and Jin Sasaki came in at No. 10.

JUNIOR WELTERWEIGHT: Knockout artist Gary Antuanne Russell lost his perfect win/KO record and slipped from No. 8 to No. 10 after losing a split-decision upset to Alberto Puello, who popped onto the list at No. 5. Russell’s older brother, Gary Russell Jr., was something of a pioneer in the “one fight per year” career model, and G.A.R.’s decision to follow a similar path in recent years may have been what cost him – it had been 10 months since his last fight, and before that he’d gone 13 months on the sideline.

Liam Paro has never been beaten, so there’s little to back up what “should’ve happened,” but he was definitely the underdog leading up to his challenge of IBF titleholder Subriel Matias in Puerto Rico, and the upset alerts were blazing after the Australian outpointed the heavy-handed Matias on his home soil. Paro stormed into the ratings at No. 3 while Matias slipped from No. 2 to No. 6.

The simultaneous arrivals of Puello and Paro bumped Sandor Martin (No. 9) and Lindolfo Delgado (No. 10) off the list.

LIGHTWEIGHT: Gervonta Davis (No. 2 at the time) steadily ramped up the pressure and finished Frank Martin with a chopping left in the eighth round. The victory was Tank’s ticket to the No. 1 position previously held by Vasiliy Lomachenko. As for what’s next… well, read the cover story. The previously undefeated Martin dropped to No. 7.

And then there was the boxing match with bodyslams, lots of elbow-y grappling and the ref getting punched: Keyshawn Davis vs. Miguel Madueno. For some, it was a display of ugly tactics, mainly from Davis, who won by a wide decision, but for others it was a demonstration of a crafty and mindful boxer dealing very capably with a difficult and tough opponent. The panel leaned more in the latter direction and moved Davis up to No. 7 from No. 8.

JUNIOR LIGHTWEIGHT: 26-year-old Russian Albert Batyrgaziev (9-0 going in) knocked out previously unbeaten Venezuelan Ender Luces (20-0 going in) in the fifth round to secure a No. 9 slot on the list, which pushed out No. 10-rated Albert Bell.

FEATHERWEIGHT: Lanky uppercut specialist Rafael Espinoza got a one-spot bump to No. 5 after a fourth-round stoppage of Sergio Chirino. It was Espinoza’s first defense of the WBO title he took from Robeisy Ramirez last December in a late candidate for upset of the year.

Ruben Villa lost a close but unanimous decision to unheralded Ugandan Sulaiman Segawa and was replaced at No. 10 by Angelo Leo.

JUNIOR FEATHERWEIGHT: Ra’eese Aleem’s last fight was a split decision loss to Sam Goodman in June 2023, so the No. 5-rated Michigander-turned-Las Vegan was removed for inactivity and unbeaten Mexican Alan Picasso was installed at No. 10.

BANTAMWEIGHT: Junto Nakatani held strong at No. 1, WBC strap still in place, after the win over Vincent Astrolabio (No. 7 at the time). Astrolabio, whose stomach probably still bears the indentation of Nakatani’s glove, was removed from the list and Seiya Tsutsumi entered at No. 10.

JUNIOR BANTAMWEIGHT: With his triumph over division champ Juan Francisco Estrada, Bam Rodriguez usurped the throne and pushed “El Gallo” down to No. 1 contender status, which in turn pushed No. 10-rated David Jimenez off the list.

Jonathan Rodriguez (No. 9) was supposed to face WBO titleholder Kosei Tanaka (No. 4), but Rodriguez missed weight by a staggering 6¼ pounds and the fight was called off. This plus a year of inactivity meant that Rodriguez was kicked out, which made room for KJ Kataraja at No. 10.

Argentine road warrior Fernando Martinez (rated No. 3) took his IBF belt to Tokyo, faced four-division titleholder Kazuto Ioka (No. 2) and went home with the Japanese record-setter’s WBA strap in his luggage after going 12 rousing rounds in which aggression carried the day. Martinez jumped from No. 3 to No. 1 with the UD victory while Ioka, who did a lot of good work in the fight, got pushed to No. 3.

We last saw Israel Gonzalez (No. 8) in early July 2023, so he was scrubbed from the list and Costa Rica’s David Jimenez got the No. 10 spot.

FLYWEIGHT: Bam had previously been rated No. 1 at 112 pounds, so he was removed. No. 3-rated Julio Cesar Martinez was also removed after being suspended for a PED violation. These changes left Sunny Edwards at No. 1 and allowed for the arrivals of Galal Yafai (No. 9) and Dave Apolinario (No. 10).

Anthony Olascuaga, who had failed in his first title shot against Kenshiro Teraji last year, succeeded in his second try – and just his eighth pro fight – with a third-round knockout Riku Kano to grab the vacant WBO belt. Olascuaga pulled it off with an interesting combo in which he completely batted away Kano’s arm with a right hook to clear the way for a devastating left hook-uppercut hybrid that instantly put the Japanese fighter down. The Los Angeles native was installed at No. 8, which ousted Apolinario.

JUNIOR FLYWEIGHT: Daniel Matellon (No. 7), who hasn’t fought since a technical decision loss to Carlos Canizales in June 2023, was dropped for inactivity and Regie Suganob of the Philippines entered at No. 10.