Rankings (August 23, 2021): Ugas, Pacquiao, more

Rankings go up on Mondays. There will be no update on August 30.

Ranked fights for the next two weeks:

• Junior Welterweight: (7) Ivan Baranchyk vs Montana Love [welterweight], Aug. 29
• Featherweight: (4) Mauricio Lara vs (6) Josh Warrington, Sept. 4
• Junior Bantamweight: (2) Kazuto Ioka vs (10) Francisco Rodriguez Jr, Sept. 1
• Women’s P4P: (1) Katie Taylor vs Jennifer Han, Sept. 4
• Women’s P4P: (3) Amanda Serrano vs Yamileth Mercado, Aug. 29

Upcoming Fights: (2) Anthony Joshua vs (6) Oleksandr Usyk, Sept. 25 … (1) Tyson Fury vs (3) Deontay Wilder, Oct. 9

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Upcoming Fights: (1) Artur Beterbiev vs (5) Marcus Browne, TBA … (4) Joe Smith Jr vs Umar Salamov, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (1) Canelo Alvarez vs (2) Caleb Plant, Nov. 6

Upcoming Fights: (1) Gennadiy Golovkin vs (5) Ryota Murata, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (7) Sebastian Fundora vs (10) Sergio Garcia, TBA

Notes: Yordenis Ugas made the biggest statement of his career, defeating and possibly retiring 42-year-old Manny Pacquiao on Saturday.

While Pacquiao is indeed old, he was also still competitive, though the loss was clear. I have dropped Manny down to No. 5 for now, but I do expect him to announce his retirement at some point in the relatively near future. It could take a few months for him to sort it all out, and it should, he’s earned that right, and those are where the retirements that stick usually come from, too, not the “heat of the moment” retirements after a loss.

In that sense, would I pick Pacquiao to beat Danny Garcia right now? Maybe, but that’d be a tough fight for both. I don’t think I’d pick him to beat Vergil Ortiz or Jaron Ennis, because I think they’re both too explosive, and carry too much youthful power, as great as Manny’s chin is. But Pacquiao sits at five for the moment.

Ugas goes up to three, jumping over Shawn Porter. I know Porter beat Ugas in 2019, but that was highly questionable, first of all, and it’s not 2019 anymore, either. But that’s a switchable position, I think. The top four are, to me, pretty clear at this point, with 1-2 being Spence/Crawford or Crawford/Spence, and 3-4 being Ugas/Porter or Porter/Ugas.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Terence Crawford vs (4) Shawn Porter, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (7) Ivan Baranchyk vs Montana Love [welterweight], Aug. 29 … (1) Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall, Dec. 18

Upcoming Fights: (1) Teofimo Lopez vs (8) George Kambosos Jr, Oct. 5

Upcoming Fights: (1) Oscar Valdez vs Robson Conceicao, Sept. 10 … (3) Jamel Herring vs (5) Shakur Stevenson, Oct. 23 … (7) Shavkat Rakhimov vs Kenichi Ogawa, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (4) Mauricio Lara vs (6) Josh Warrington, Sept. 4

Upcoming Fights: (2) Stephen Fulton Jr vs (3) Brandon Figueroa, Sept. 18 … (10) Ra’eese Aleem vs Eduardo Baez, Sept. 18 … (1) Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs (8) Ronny Rios, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (9) Takuma Inoue vs Shingo Wake [junior featherweight], Nov. 11

Upcoming Fights: (2) Kazuto Ioka vs (10) Francisco Rodriguez Jr, Sept. 1 …(1) Juan Francisco Estrada vs (4) Chocolatito Gonzalez, Oct. 16 … (3) Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Carlos Cuadras, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (3) Junto Nakatani vs (6) Angel Acosta, Sept. 10 … (2) Sunny Edwards vs Jayson Mama, Sept. 11

Upcoming Fights: (1) Kenshiro Teraji vs Masamichi Yabuki, Sept. 10 … (2) Hiroto Kyoguchi vs (10) Esteban Bermudez, TBA … (4) Elwin Soto vs (6) Jonathan Gonzalez, TBA

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Upcoming Fights: (8) Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua, Sept. 25 … (9) Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder, Oct. 9 … (10) Juan Francisco Estrada vs Chocolatito Gonzalez, Oct. 16 … (1) Canelo Alvarez vs Caleb Plant, Nov. 6 … (7) Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall, Dec. 18 … (4) Teofimo Lopez vs George Kambosos Jr, TBA … (6) Terence Crawford vs Shawn Porter, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (3) Amanda Serrano vs Yamileth Mercado, Aug. 29 … (1) Katie Taylor vs Jennifer Han, Sept. 4 … (6) Mikaela Mayer vs (10) Maiva Hamadouche, TBA