18 October 2021

Cruiserweight Kevin Lerena exits his #5 ranking due to extended in-division inactivity. Richard Riakporhe is voted in to replace him. Noel Gevor and Chris Billam-Smith also had some support, but it was the undefeated Riakporhe, who defeated Billam-Smith in 2019, who enters the top ten.

Milddeweight Chris Eubank Jr. moves up from #9 to #7 after stopping Wanik Awdijan in five rounds. His advance was balked at by several members because Awdijan is unheralded, but the advance is just as much because Maciej Sulecki and Liam Williams, now ranked at #8 and #9, were both recently defeated by Demetrius Andrade (#3).

Sandor Martin scored a frankly shocking upset over former Jr. Welterweight champion and welterweight contender Mikey Garcia at a catchweight of 145 lbs. It was a majority decision win (and that’s only because one judge scored it a draw, which it absolutely was not), though Martin fought an excellent fight; using a varied attack and feints to prevent Garcia from finding any pattern to exploit. His overhands rights kept Garcia a little gun shy too. Several board members believed that the bout should be considered strictly a welterweight bout and that Martin should not be ranked at jr. welterweight. Given that Martin is a career-long jr. welterweight, most members, however, voted to consider the bout an over-the-weight bout for Martin and thus rank him in that division. He is now #7. Subriel Matias is bumped out.

Featherweight Emanuel Navarrete impressed the board again with a formidable performance and a justified unanimous decision win over the #10-ranked contender, Joet Gonzalez. Navarrete moves up from #3 to #2 though more than a few argued that he should now be ranked #1, over Mauricio Lara. As it is, they are the top-two contenders in the division and should fight to not only resolve the question of who is better, but also to give boxing a featherweight king. That division’s throne has been open since Manny Pacquiao abdicated in 2005 –which confirms, again, how ridiculous the current multi-champion model is.

Jr. Flyweight Jonathan Gonzalez demonstrated considerable skill and a great pair of legs with a big win against #4-ranked Elwin Soto. He has earned the #4 ranking. Soto drops to #6, bumping out Daniel Matellon.

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Every member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board is a volunteer. We are on the following continents:

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