Rankings (Oct. 31): Lomachenko and lightweight, Taylor, more

Vasiliy Lomachenko returned with a win, plus more from this past week in boxing.

Rankings go up on Mondays.

Ranked fights this week:

• Light Heavyweight: (1) Dmitry Bivol vs (3) Zurdo Ramirez, Nov. 5
• Super Middleweight: (4) David Morrell Jr vs Aidos Yerbossynuly, Nov. 5
• Junior Lightweight: (3) Shavkat Rakhimov vs (7) Zelfa Barrett, Nov. 5
• Junior Bantamweight: (7) Francisco Rodriguez Jr vs Junto Nakatani, Nov. 1
• Junior Flyweight: (1) Hiroto Kyoguchi vs (2) Kenshiro Teraji, Nov. 1
• Junior Flyweight: (3) Jonathan Gonzalez vs Shokichi Iwata, Nov. 1
• Minimumweight: (6) Wilfredo Mendez vs Moises Caro, Nov. 4
• Women’s P4P: (8) Jessica McCaskill vs (9) Chantelle Cameron, Nov. 5

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Notes: Tyson Fury is back. He was never really gone, of course, but he wanted to be called retired, so we played along. Now he’s got a fight scheduled, and we said when he did, he’d be back on the list. He is back on the list.

Upcoming Fights: (7) Dillian Whyte vs Jermaine Franklin, Nov. 26 ... (1) Tyson Fury vs Derek Chisora, Dec. 3

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Notes: Papin won on Saturday in Moscow, stopping Damir Beljo in the second round. Pretty questionable call by the referee. Papin is 35 and has shown about what he is, but he can crack, and this is a division where little separates just about anyone in the top, I don’t know, 20 or so. That sounds good, and it can be, if those people are fighting each other.

Upcoming Fights: TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Dmitry Bivol vs (3) Zurdo Ramirez, Nov. 5 ... (8) Anthony Yarde vs Stefani Koykov, Nov. 19 ... (9) Craig Richards vs Ricards Bolotniks, Nov. 26

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Upcoming Fights: (4) David Morrell Jr vs Aidos Yerbossynuly, Nov. 5 ... (6) John Ryder vs (8) Zach Parker, Nov. 26 ... (5) Lerrone Richards vs Zak Chelli, Nov. 27

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Upcoming Fights: (3) Janibek Alimkhanuly vs Denzel Bentley, Nov. 12 ... (5) Jaime Munguia vs Gonzalo Coria, Nov. 19

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Jermell Charlo vs (4) Tim Tszyu, TBA

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Notes: Conor Benn is out after relinquishing his BBBofC license following his drug test issues. Don’t have to do that, but he’d be holding a spot with who knows how long until he fights again? So Radzhab Butaev is in at the No. 10 spot.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Terence Crawford vs (9) David Avanesyan, Dec. 10

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Upcoming Fights: (3) Regis Prograis vs (5) Jose Zepeda, Nov. 26 ... (8) Teofimo Lopez vs (10) Jose Pedraza, Dec. 10 ... (1) Josh Taylor vs (2) Jack Catterall, Feb. 4

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Upcoming Fights: Some shuffling here, a pretty eventful week, and two new in, two out.

Vasiliy Lomachenko stays at No. 2 after a win over Jamaine Ortiz, but I could see that fight moving Tank Davis ahead of Loma for some people. Lomachenko probably fights Devin Haney in the first third or so of 2023.

Ortiz is also getting a spot, coming in at No. 8; his performance in defeat was impressive, and actually taking challenges and performing well in defeat can tell you a lot more than a bunch of relatively easy wins ever will. Yes, he had a size advantage, so will most lightweights against Lomachenko, because Lomachenko is a small lightweight. I thought Ortiz looked like a real contender at 135, similar to Isaac Cruz giving Tank a good fight. PBC have turned that into a push for Cruz. We’ll see what Top Rank do with Ortiz, but it’s possible they’ll feed him straight to Shakur Stevenson, which would be the opposite of PBC’s feeding remaining scraps of name value to Cruz. Neither is exactly the ideal scenario for fight fans, but boxing promotion is a grift.

Also in, at No. 7, is William Zepeda, who dominated JoJo Diaz, who is out of the top 10. Zepeda doesn’t have the monster power Golden Boy hoped to sell when he beat down Hector Tanajara Jr and burned through a couple more over-matched opponents, but he’s got good wins over Rene Alvarado and Diaz now, and he really looked good against JoJo. Diaz probably also doesn’t “truly belong,” at 135, but honestly, Diaz did better against Haney than he did Zepeda. It’s not a weight where he’s incompetent. Zepeda just whooped him, flat-out.

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Upcoming Fights: (3) Shavkat Rakhimov vs (7) Zelfa Barrett, Nov. 5

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Notes: Mauricio Lara trounced Jose Sanmartin on Oct. 22, a predictable outcome. He wants Leigh Wood. So does Kiko Martinez, who beat Jordan Gill on Oct. 29. But Wood has an order to fight Leo Santa Cruz. Eddie Hearn also mentioned Lara vs Martinez possibly happening, and that might be the best fight Eddie can do for either in the near future. Martinez, it should be noted, did not mention Lara himself. There are fights to make, but also complications.

I went back-and-forth on doing some shuffling. Robeisy Ramirez is starting to bang on this door. I think he’s got the ability to beat anyone here, and realistically, I could put him in, and take Leo Santa Cruz out. Santa Cruz holds the WBA belt, but by nothing more than political favors; he hasn’t fought at this weight in nearly four years. The WBA have the Santa Cruz vs Wood order in. I’m going to see how that plays out. If it’s another stalling — like we got when everyone agreed to do Santa Cruz vs Vargas and Wood vs Lara, with the winners fighting, but that fell apart — and he doesn’t fight at this weight, then he’s back out, regardless of what the WBA say about their aluminum foil belt.

Emanuel Navarrete is also likely headed up to 130 next, but we’ll also wait for that to get made official.

Upcoming Fights: (7) Josh Warrington vs Luis Alberto Lopez, Dec. 10

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Upcoming Fights: (10) Liam Davies vs Ionut Baluta, Nov. 19 ... (7) Takuma Inoue vs Jake Bornea, Dec. 13

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Notes: Alexandro Santiago won a rematch with Antonio Nieves on the Paul vs Silva undercard. It was competitive for seven rounds, then Nieves’ corner stopped the fight.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Naoya Inoue vs (8) Paul Butler, Dec. 13

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Notes: Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez is out, following his decision to vacate his belt and move back down to flyweight.

Upcoming Fights: (7) Francisco Rodriguez Jr vs Junto Nakatani, Nov. 1 ... (1) Juan Francisco Estrada vs (3) Chocolatito Gonzalez, Dec. 3

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Notes: Some changes here. Taku Kuwahara beat Giemel Magramo, ranked No. 9 last week, on Oct. 25. We’re also taking out Junto Nakatani, as he has vacated his flyweight title as he moves up to 115 this week, that’s now much more than just a toe in the water, it’s a move up.

In at No. 9 is Seigo Yuri Akui, and Kuwahara comes in at No. 10.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Sunny Edwards vs Felix Alvarado, Nov. 11 ... (2) Julio Cesar Martinez vs (4) McWilliams Arroyo, Dec. 3

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Hiroto Kyoguchi vs (2) Kenshiro Teraji, Nov. 1 ... (3) Jonathan Gonzalez vs Shokichi Iwata, Nov. 1

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Upcoming Fights: (6) Wilfredo Mendez vs Moises Caro, Nov. 4

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Notes: Katie Taylor did what she does, beating Karen Elizabeth Carabajal in London. The plan is now for a big fight at Dublin’s Croke Park in 2023 — they want the Amanda Serrano rematch, but there are other good fights possible, including Alycia Baumgardner or Chantelle Cameron, who fights this weekend against Jessica McCaskill, which is no gimme.

Upcoming Fights: (8) Jessica McCaskill vs (9) Chantelle Cameron, Nov. 5 ... (5) Seniesa Estrada vs Jazmin Gala Villarino, Nov. 12