Rankings (April 4): Tszyu, Warrington, Marshall, more

Rankings go up on Mondays.

Ranked fights this week:

• Middleweight: (1) Gennadiy Golovkin vs (4) Ryota Murata, Apr. 9
• Junior Middleweight: (3) Erickson Lubin vs (6) Sebastian Fundora, Apr. 9
• Lightweight: (6) Ryan Garcia vs Emmanuel Tagoe, Apr. 9
• Flyweight: (2) Junto Nakatani vs Ryota Yamauchi, Apr. 9
• Women’s P4P: (5) Mikaela Mayer vs Jennifer Han, Apr. 9

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Tyson Fury vs (6) Dillian Whyte, Apr. 23 … (10) Tony Yoka vs Martin Bakole, May 14

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Notes: Arsen Goulamirian, who holds the WBA “super world” title but hasn’t fought since 2019, has finally been dropped on inactivity. We gave a long leash post-COVID, but at this point, basically everyone has fought if they were gonna fight. In is Ryad Merhy, who won the WBA “world” title last July, getting a close nod over Richard Riakporhe and Chris Billam-Smith, but Billam-Smith could change that depending on how good he looks in his rematch against Tommy McCarthy on April 16.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Mairis Briedis vs Jai Opetaia, May 11

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Upcoming Fights: (2) Dmitry Bivol vs Canelo Alvarez, May 7 … (8) Joshua Buatsi vs Craig Richards, May 21 … (1) Artur Beterbiev vs (3) Joe Smith Jr, June 18

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Canelo Alvarez vs Dmitry Bivol [light heavyweight], May 7 … (2) David Benavidez vs David Lemieux, May 21 … (9) Zach Parker vs Demetrius Andrade, May 21

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Gennadiy Golovkin vs (4) Ryota Murata, Apr. 9 … (3) Demetrius Andrade vs Zach Parker [super middleweight], May 21 … (7) Janibek Alimkhanuly vs Danny Dignum, May 21 … (2) Jermall Charlo vs Maciej Sulecki, June 18

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Notes: The guy out of the rankings is former titleholder Jeison Rosario, who is active but has been fighting above 154 — once at 168, once at 160 — and looks to be settling in for a run at middleweight after back-to-back losses to Jermell Charlo and Erickson Lubin. Charles Conwell, who recently signed with Probellum, is in at No. 10; he’s a general site favorite, I think, and someone a lot of us see as a rising star.

Tim Tszyu moves up two spots after his March 26 win over Terrell Gausha. That fight was scored closer than I thought it was, as Tszyu recovered well from a first round knockdown and poured the pressure on the veteran. Tszyu still has something to prove, but this is a division that has thinned itself out over a few years simply because the top guys kept fighting each other, and then some of them (Jarrett Hurd, Julian Williams) started losing follow-up fights to lesser opponents. There’s still good talent at 154, and Tszyu is looking like he’s part of that next generation for sure. Gausha is a capable, solid fighter, and that was a damn good win for Tim, in my opinion.

Upcoming Fights: (3) Erickson Lubin vs (6) Sebastian Fundora, Apr. 9 … (5) Liam Smith vs Jessie Vargas, Apr. 30 … (1) Jermell Charlo vs (1) Brian Castano, May 14

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Errol Spence Jr vs (3) Yordenis Ugas, Apr. 16 … (8) Radzhab Butaev vs Eimantas Stanionis, Apr. 16 … (9) Conor Benn vs Chris van Heerden, Apr. 16 … (10) Cody Crowley vs Josesito Lopez, Apr. 16 … (5) Jaron Ennis vs Custio Clayton, May 21

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Notes: Sandor Martin was in action on April 1, picking up a stay-busy win over Jose Felix in Barcelona. The fight was about what you’d expect, one-sided outcome for Martin via 10-round decision, and it was for a minor WBA title which will have Martin somewhat in line to eventually fight for one of the belts Josh Taylor will vacate sooner than later. Better to stay busy than go rusty, it wasn’t the biggest fight for Martin but it was something to get active and improve his ranking with a body.

Upcoming Fights: (10) Montana Love vs Gabriel Valenzuela, May 7

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Notes: We got hit with a wave of big fights at 135 late last year, and are about to have a lot going on again, too, with Ryan Garcia back this weekend, Tank Davis at the end of May, and Kambosos-Haney finally official for June 4. We’ll see some moving pieces here soon.

Upcoming Fights: (6) Ryan Garcia vs Emmanuel Tagoe, Apr. 9 … (10) Isaac Cruz vs Yuriorkis Gamboa, Apr. 16 … (5) Gervonta Davis vs Rolando Romero, May 28 … (1) George Kambosos Jr vs (4) Devin Haney, June 4

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Upcoming Fights: (1) Oscar Valdez vs (2) Shakur Stevenson, Apr. 30 … (3) Jamel Herring vs TBA, May 21

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Notes: Josh Warrington has the IBF title back thanks to his March 26 rematch stoppage win over Kiko Martinez, and he’s up to No. 6 in our rankings, right in the mix with everyone after Navarrete, basically. A fight with Leigh Wood would be great, a fight with the Magsayo-Vargas winner would be great, but it sounds like the plan — and Warrington’s desire — is to get a title defense in the U.S. in next, probably not against a TOP contender, but someone IBF ranked, and then look at possible unification and all that. He fought well back at home in Leeds in front of arguably the best home crowd any fighter has in the sport right now, looked very much like the Josh Warrington of a few years back.

Martinez is out. I know losing to a good fighter and dropping from No. 6 to out seems harsh, and everyone loves Kiko’s story and that great, dramatic win over Kid Galahad last year, but it came as a massive upset in a fight he was losing badly because he caught Galahad with a shot and Galahad just couldn’t recover. Fair play to Kiko, that’s a clean, earned win, but it didn’t really represent what his career had been looking like for years. The Warrington rematch did, and Kiko hadn’t been considered top 10 for a long time. Still, there are fights I’d like to see him in — those final three guys could all do worse than fighting Kiko. You know the Spanish vet is going to come to fight and give his best, which is why he will remain welcome to a certain level.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Mark Magsayo vs (7) Rey Vargas, July 9

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Upcoming Fights: (2) Stephen Fulton Jr vs (4) Danny Roman, June 4 … (1) Murodjon Akhmadaliev vs (8) Ronny Rios, TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (3) John Riel Casimero vs Paul Butler, Apr. 22 … (1) Naoya Inoue vs (2) Nonito Donaire, June 7

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Upcoming Fights: TBA

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Upcoming Fights: (2) Junto Nakatani vs Ryota Yamauchi, Apr. 9

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Notes: Felix Alvarado is out, as he vacated his belt and made clear that he’s going up to flyweight. Carlos Canizales is back in; the former secondary titleholder has won two straight since his upset loss to Esteban Bermudez about 10 months ago.

Upcoming Fights: TBA

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Notes: Petchmanee CP Freshmart beat Wanheng Menayothin again, and he’s claiming the No. 1 slot now; it was no fluke the first time, and I think proving that gives him the rightful spot over Knockout CP Freshmart, who more inherited it after Petchmanee beat Wanheng the first time around, which was a big upset pretty much out of nowhere.

Shigeoka also won again, beating Tatsuro Nakashima on March 27 by 10-round decision, winning the Japanese title. I really think Shigeoka is a rising force at this weight.

Upcoming Fights: (4) Masataka Taniguchi vs Kai Ishizawa, Apr. 22

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Upcoming Fights: (5) Errol Spence Jr vs Yordenis Ugas, Apr. 16 … (8) Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte, Apr. 23 … (1) Canelo Alvarez vs Dmitry Bivol, May 7 … (10) George Kambosos Jr vs Devin Haney, June 4

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Notes: Savannah Marshall did what everyone expected, blasting Femke Hermans out early and having another little staged showdown with Claressa Shields. You should get excited for their fight because it’s exciting. And their rematch could be, too. And then, well, I don’t know, because the two of them are so far above everyone else at 154/160 that the only thing to do then, maybe, is for the winner to go for undisputed at 168. And THEN what? Really don’t know.

Upcoming Fights: (5) Mikaela Mayer vs Jennifer Han, Apr. 9 … (1) Katie Taylor vs (3) Amanda Serrano, Apr. 30 … (10) Chantelle Cameron vs Kali Reis, TBA