Rankings (July 18): Garcia moves to 140, Jimenez, Collazo, more

Rankings go up on Mondays. No update next week. There is just not near enough meat on the bone for an entire post next week. Honestly, there’s not really enough of consequence for two weeks from now, either, but I don’t want to go three. So we’ll do one in two weeks, next one comes on Aug. 1.

Ranked fights the next two weeks:

• Middleweight: (8) Sergiy Derevyanchenko vs Joshua Conley, July 30
• Featherweight: (9) Joet Gonzalez vs Isaac Dogboe, July 23
• Minimumweight: (2) Knockout CP Freshmart vs (3) Wanheng Menayothin, July 20

Upcoming Fights: (2) Oleksandr Usyk vs (4) Anthony Joshua, Aug. 20 … (5) Andy Ruiz Jr vs (9) Luis Ortiz, Sept. 4 … (6) Joe Joyce vs TBA, Sept. 24

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Upcoming Fights: (2) Artur Beterbiev vs (9) Anthony Yarde, TBA … (5) Callum Smith vs (8) Mathieu Bauderlique, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (10) Carlos Gongora vs Oscar Riojas, Aug. 13 … (1) Canelo Alvarez vs Gennadiy Golovkin, Sept. 17

Upcoming Fights: (8) Sergiy Derevyanchenko vs Joshua Conley, July 30 … (1) Gennadiy Golovkin vs Canelo Alvarez [super middleweight], Sept. 17

Upcoming Fights: (1) Jermell Charlo vs (4) Tim Tszyu, Jan. 28

Notes: So much waiting on the Spence vs Crawford domino to fall, either way it falls.

Upcoming Fights: (6) Vergil Ortiz Jr vs Michael McKinson, Aug. 6

Notes: Ryan Garcia says he’s staying at 140 after his win over Javier Fortuna, so I’m putting him at 140. If he changes his mind I can move him back to 135, who gives a shit? This is all make believe.

Both of Garcia’s fights this year have been in this division, technically. Is beating Emmanuel Tagoe and Fortuna enough to rank him at 140? I think so, yeah, given his talent level, which I believe is very obvious. And Montana Love is the guy who falls out, what’s he done that’s any more, really?

In fact, I’d pick Garcia to beat anyone else in the back half of this top 10, and confidently. The top five, however — could be a different story. All those guys can legit fight, they’re really good. Maybe still overlooking a guy, I admit, but I’d pick him to beat Catterall, who I think had a great night while Josh Taylor had a really bad one. But Taylor on point, Prograis, Ramirez, Zepeda — those dudes can go, and they’ve done it at high level, often with one another.

I do think Garcia is a genuine huge prospect as a fighter. Mentality and all that, we’ll see. We’ll get into much more of that on the podcast tomorrow.

Upcoming Fights: (6) Batyr Akhmedov vs Alberto Puello, Aug. 20 … (9) Jose Pedraza vs Richard Commey, Aug. 27

Upcoming Fights: (7) Isaac Cruz vs Eduardo Ramirez, Sept. 4 … (1) Devin Haney vs (3) George Kambosos Jr, TBA

Upcoming Fights: (7) Hector Garcia vs (9) Roger Gutierrez, Aug. 20 … (1) Shakur Stevenson vs (6) Robson Conceicao, Sept. 23

Upcoming Fights: (9) Joet Gonzalez vs Isaac Dogboe, July 23 … (1) Emanuel Navarrete vs Eduardo Baez, Aug. 20 … (10) Luis Alberto Lopez vs Yeison Vargas, Aug. 20

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Notes: Kazuto Ioka took care of business in an unnecessary rematch with Donnie Nietes, and now hopefully he’ll get his wish to unify with someone. He deserves it; he’s been an underrated great fighter over his career, one of the best of his generation.

Upcoming Fights: (1) Juan Francisco Estrada vs (5) Joshua Franco, Aug. 20 … (4) Jesse Rodriguez vs Israel Gonzalez, Sept. 17

Notes: David Jimenez crashes the party at 112, upsetting Ricardo Sandoval in a very competitive fight on the Garcia vs Fortuna undercard on Saturday. I scored the fight for Sandoval, but seven rounds to five with some swing rounds, it easily could have gone the other way on my piece of paper, and it did on the pieces that count.

Is Jimenez a real threat to the top of the division? Probably not. But he fought his ass off and eked out a win. If he wanted to have a crack at real contender status, he needed that one; he’s 30, he’s from Costa Rica — nothing against Costa Rica, but it’s not a hotbed of boxing talent and doesn’t come with a big audience for marketing purposes.

Sandoval is still here, still mostly fought pretty well, and he’s 23. He has time still.

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Notes: Daniel Matellon picked up a win on the weekend. Nothing much to it, but gets him active.

Upcoming Fights: (7) Masamichi Yabuki vs Thanongsak Simsri, Aug. 11

Notes: Oscar Collazo comes in at No. 7 with a very solid win over former titleholder Victorio Saludar. Erick Rosa barely — and in debated fashion — slipped by Saludar in his last fight, so I can’t help but see Collazo of deserving a spot for the way he beat Saludar, who is still a tough pro.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Knockout CP Freshmart vs (3) Wanheng Menayothin, July 20 … (1) Petchmanee CP Freshmart vs Tsubasa Koura, Aug. 30

Upcoming Fights: (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua, Aug. 20 … (6) Canelo Alvarez vs Gennadiy Golovkin, Sept. 17 … (9) Shakur Stevenson vs Robson Conceicao, Sept. 23

Upcoming Fights: (3) Amanda Serrano vs Brenda Carabajal, Aug. 6 … (4) Seniesa Estrada vs Anabel Ortiz, Aug. 6 … (2) Claressa Shields vs (8) Savannah Marshall, Sept. 10 … (5) Mikaela Mayer vs (10) Alycia Baumgardner, Sept. 10