Rankings (April 26, 2021): Navarrete makes case at 126, more

Emanuel Navarrete has his argument for the top spot in a weird featherweight division, plus more updates.

Rankings go up on Mondays at Noon ET.

Ranked fights this week:

• Heavyweight: (4) Andy Ruiz Jr vs Chris Arreola, May 1
• Heavyweight: (8) Joseph Parker vs Derek Chisora, May 1
• Light Heavyweight: (2) Dmitry Bivol vs Craig Richards, May 1
• Middleweight: (7) Chris Eubank Jr vs Marcus Morrison, May 1
• Junior Middleweight: (3) Erislandy Lara vs Thomas Lamanna [middleweight], May 1
• Junior Middleweight: (9) Sebastian Fundora vs Jorge Cota, May 1
• Flyweight: (2) Moruti Mthalane vs Sunny Edwards, Apr. 30
• Women’s P4P: (2) Katie Taylor vs Natasha Jonas, May 1

---

Upcoming Fights: (4) Andy Ruiz Jr vs Chris Arreola, May 1 ... (8) Joseph Parker vs Derek Chisora, May 1 ... (1) Tyson Fury vs (2) Anthony Joshua, TBA ... (9) Michael Hunter vs Filip Hrgovic, TBA

---

Upcoming Fights: TBA

---

Notes: Marcus Browne did wind up fighting Denis Grachev last Tuesday, and PBC did have the good taste to simply not put it on television. Grachev reportedly offered no resistance, Browne shook some rust, now we’ll see if PBC can put together a Pascal-Browne rematch, maybe. Or a Browne-Jack rematch. Something.

Callum Johnson also got back after two years off, stopping Emil Markic in a two-round firefight. I love watching Callum Johnson, he’s gonna take shots, he’s gonna give shots, and someone’s gonna crumble first. That’s his approach broken down to the bare bones of it all. I’m glad he’s back and active. I’d watch him fight anyone.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Dmitry Bivol vs Craig Richards, May 1

---

Upcoming Fights: (1) Canelo Alvarez vs (4) Billy Joe Saunders, May 8 ... (3) David Benavidez vs Jose Uzcategui, Aug. 28

---

Notes: Felix Cash probably has as good a claim as anyone to the No. 10 spot after his win over Denzel Bentley, but I’m going to wait one or two more fights, depending on opposition. It’s not like Kanat Islam has done anything incredible, really, but Cash has dominated at domestic level, too. You could have Cash or Islam or one of a handful of others, I think. Most likely Erislandy Lara is coming in, though; he’s fighting at middleweight for the secondary WBA belt this weekend, and if he wins as everyone expects, he’s in this mix even though Thomas Lamanna is not exactly a contender.

Upcoming Fights: (7) Chris Eubank Jr vs Marcus Morrison, May 1 ... (2) Jermall Charlo vs Juan Macias Montiel, June 19 ... (8) Jaime Munguia vs TBA, June 19

---

Upcoming Fights: (3) Erislandy Lara vs Thomas Lamanna [middleweight], May 1 ... (9) Sebastian Fundora vs Jorge Cota, May 1 ... (4) Jeison Rosario vs (8) Erickson Lubin, June 26 ... (1) Jermell Charlo vs (2) Brian Castano, July 17

---

Upcoming Fights: TBA

---

Upcoming Fights: (1) Josh Taylor vs (2) Jose Ramirez, May 22 ... (4) Jose Zepeda vs TBA, May 22 ... (7) Mario Barrios vs Gervonta Davis, June 26

---

Upcoming Fights: (4) Devin Haney vs (7) Jorge Linares, May 29 ... (1) Teofimo Lopez vs (10) George Kambosos Jr, June 5 ... (2) Vasiliy Lomachenko vs Masayoshi Nakatani, June 26 ... (5) Gervonta Davis vs Mario Barrios [junior welterweight], June 26

---

Upcoming Fights: (6) Shakur Stevenson vs Jeremiah Nakathila, June 12 ... (2) Gervonta Davis vs Mario Barrios [junior welterweight], June 26 ... (3) Chris Colbert vs Yuriorkis Gamboa, July 3 ... (8) Shavkat Rakhimov vs Kenichi Ogawa, TBA

---

Notes: We talked about how weird this division is to rank in the comments for last week’s rankings. It really is bizarre; Warrington losing to Lara took away the guy most agreed had earned the No. 1 spot. Now Gary Russell Jr is there, but he doesn’t fight often. That said, he fought a top five guy (at the time) last time out, and has terms agreed to fight a former No. 1 guy from the division below next.

Then there’s Galahad, who arguably beat Warrington, but in an awful fight where he didn’t get a lot of credit. He’s a guy nobody is dying to fight. But he’s a really good fighter. And then there’s Emanuel Navarrete, who won a terrific fight Saturday against Christopher Diaz, mostly dominating. I’ve bumped Navarrete up to No. 2 after another solid win. I think you could put him No. 1. I think you could have kept him No. 3. It is a strange, strange division to rank unless you just want to put Mauricio Lara in the top spot because he beat Warrington, who had been No. 1. And with the way the rest of this shakes out, there’s an arguable logic to that, I suppose. Not for me, I won’t agree, but it’s not insane or anything.

There is talent here. But everyone has some kind of asterisk or other. And Navarrete might move up if he can’t get anyone to fight him in a “big fight,” which is what he wants; he named Russell and Leo Santa Cruz specifically. Personally I’d love to see Navarrete against Xu Can, but the WBA are fiddling around with Xu and their belt situation here, so I don’t expect that unless Xu were to just say “F them” and vacate.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Gary Russell Jr vs Rey Vargas, TBA ... (2) Kid Galahad vs Jazza Dickens, TBA ... (5) Mauricio Lara vs (6) Josh Warrington, TBA

---

Upcoming Fights: (3) Danny Roman vs Ricardo Espinoza, May 15 .... (4) Brandon Figueroa vs (5) Luis Nery, May 15 ... (2) Stephen Fulton Jr vs Nery-Figueroa winner, Sept. 11 ... (1) Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs (8) Ronny Rios, TBA

---

Upcoming Fights: (2) Nordine Oubaali vs (3) Nonito Donaire, May 29 ... (1) Naoya Inoue vs Michael Dasmarinas, June 19 ... (4) John Riel Casimero vs (5) Guillermo Rigondeaux, Aug. 14

---

Upcoming Fights: (1) Juan Francisco Estrada vs (4) Chocolatito Gonzalez, TBA ... (3) Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Carlos Cuadras, TBA

---

Upcoming Fights: (2) Moruti Mthalane vs Sunny Edwards, Apr. 30 ... (6) Jay Harris vs Ricardo Sandoval, May 14

---

Notes: Kenshiro Teraji returned with a solid points win over Tetsuya Hisada on Saturday in Japan, about as most probably expected. Hisada is still a tough, durable fighter, but he’s obviously not top top tier; he’s tried his luck against the top two guys in his last two fights and come up well short. But he’s probably a handful for basically anyone else in the division still. I think Teraji and Kyoguchi are on their own tier here.

Sivenathi Nontshinga also fought Saturday, winning a tight decision over Christian Araneta at home in South Africa. Araneta dropped Nontshinga in the 12th round. I don’t think the scoring was unfair, it really could have gone either way. But I had it 114-113 for Nontshinga watching on YouTube after the fact on Sunday. It was a close fight. If Nontshinga had dominated, he probably jumps to No. 6 or No. 7, but he did not. He edged it, and now he’s got an IBF title shot waiting against Felix Alvarado.

Upcoming Fights: (5) Elwin Soto vs Katsunari Takayama, May 8

---

Upcoming Fights: (9) Ginjiro Shigeoka vs Toshiki Kawamitsu, May 23 ... (1) Knockout CP Freshmart vs Pongsaklek Sithdabnij, May 29

---

Upcoming Fights: (1) Canelo Alvarez vs Billy Joe Saunders, May 8 ... (5) Teofimo Lopez vs George Kambosos Jr, June 5 ... (2) Naoya Inoue vs Michael Dasmarinas, June 19 ... (7) Vasiliy Lomachenko vs Masayoshi Nakatani, June 26 ... (10) Jermell Charlo vs Brian Castano, July 17 ... (8) Juan Francisco Estrada vs Chocolatito Gonzalez, TBA ... (9) Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua, TBA

---

Upcoming Fights: (2) Katie Taylor vs Natasha Jonas, May 1 ... (8) Terri Harper vs Hyun Mi Choi, May 15 ... (7) Mikaela Mayer vs TBA, June 19