RANKINGS: Naoya Inoue and Canelo hold firm in top spots, more

Naoya Inoue and Canelo Alvarez took care of business this week, and hold their top spots.

The next update will come next Monday, May 20, and it’ll be a big one.

Ranked fights this week:

• Heavyweight: (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs (2) Tyson Fury, May 18
• Heavyweight: (7) Frank Sanchez vs (10) Agit Kabayel, May 18
• Cruiserweight: (1) Jai Opetaia vs Mairis Briedis, May 18
• Welterweight: (2) Giovani Santillan vs Brian Norman Jr, May 18
• Lightweight: (1) Vasiliy Lomachenko vs (9) George Kambosos Jr, May 11
• Super Featherweight: (1) Joe Cordina vs Anthony Cacace, May 18
• Super Bantamweight: (3) Marlon Tapales vs Nattapong Jankaew, May 10
• Bantamweight: (7) Paul Butler vs Norbelto Jimenez, May 11
• Super Flyweight: (6) Andrew Moloney vs Pedro Guevara, May 11
• Flyweight: (10) Hiroto Kyoguchi vs Vince Paras, May 11

SEE ALSO: Our May pound-for-pound list!

Upcoming Fights: (1) Oleksandr Usyk vs (2) Tyson Fury, May 18 ... (7) Frank Sanchez vs (10) Agit Kabayel, May 18 ... (6) Zhilei Zhang vs (9) Deontay Wilder, June 1 ... (5) Filip Hrgovic vs Daniel Dubois, June 1

Upcoming Fights: (1) Jai Opetaia vs Mairis Briedis, May 18 ... (5) Norair Mikaeljan vs Ryan Rozicki, June 7 ... (2) Chris Billam-Smith vs (3) Richard Riakporhe, June 15 ... (6) Michal Cieslak vs (7) Isaac Chamberlain, June 15

Upcoming Fights: (7) Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs David Benavidez, June 15 ... (1) Dmitry Bivol vs (2) Artur Beterbiev, TBA

Notes: Canelo took care of Jaime Munguia pretty easily, really, when you get right down to it, which is not anything unexpected. Munguia sticks at No. 2 because, like, what else is here with Benavidez and Morrell gone? I’m not really big on, “Well, he lost the way everyone else would, so now it’s their turn to be No. 2.” Munguia fought as well as he can and would have quite possibly beaten everyone else here on the night.

Think it’s kind of a shame for Canelo to play out the padding years of his career in a division that has no significant or particularly interesting challenges for him since he refuses to fight Benavidez. Of course, now that Benavidez is returning on June 15 at 175 lbs, Canelo sounds more ready than ever to accept the Benavidez challenge in September at 168. I’m not a general Canelo conspiracist, but that reeks of trying to get a guy to go up and then come back down within a 90-day frame.

Canelo can take great offense to this or whatever, it’s just that I’m not all that concerned in 2024 with what he did a decade ago, which seems to be his biggest defense against the Benavidez duck allegations. “I fought (W) and (X) and (Y) and (Z) when people said I wouldn’t!” Yeah, we know. Long time ago now. Does nothing to make Canelo vs Berlanga seem more interesting.

Upcoming Fights: (3) Christian Mbilli vs Mark Heffron, May 25 ... (9) Kevin Lele Sadjo vs TBA, June 13

Upcoming Fights: (7) Hamzah Sheeraz vs (9) Austin Williams, June 1

Notes: Vergil Ortiz Jr enters the rankings. It’s not that his two wins in 2024 have been much, really, but we know the fighter we think he is — this is a dumb way to put it, but boxing is a dumb sport to “rank.” And the fact that he’s inked to face Tszyu in a few months says plenty about what he wants to do, and he and his team must be confident enough in his physical condition now. That’s a big fight, could be a truly great one.

Upcoming Fights: (2) Tim Tszyu vs (7) Vergil Ortiz Jr, Aug. 3 ... (3) Israil Madrimov vs Terence “Bud” Crawford, Aug. 3

Notes: Eimantas Stanionis is back, and he’s in at No. 2. He’s never beaten anyone all that great, but that goes for everyone on this list. Comb through all of them and the most notable win here might be Barrios beating a faded Yordenis Ugas. This is a hard “rebuilding” period in this division, like when a baseball team

Upcoming Fights: (2) Giovani Santillan vs Brian Norman Jr, May 18 ... (9) Lewis Crocker vs Conah Walker, June 22 ... (1) Jaron “Boots” Ennis vs (4) Cody Crowley, July 13

Notes: Jose Ramirez had some scares against Old Man Barthelemy on Apr. 27, but got the job done convincingly, and it was a good fight. He remains a contender.

Upcoming Fights: (4) Jack Catterall vs (10) Josh Taylor, May 25 ... (1) Subriel Matias vs (8) Liam Paro, June 15 ... (6) Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz vs Jose Valenzuela, Aug. 3

Upcoming Fights: (1) Vasiliy Lomachenko vs (9) George Kambosos Jr, May 11 ... (2) Gervonta “Tank” Davis vs (5) Frank Martin, June 15

Upcoming Fights: (1) Joe Cordina vs Anthony Cacace, May 18

Upcoming Fights: (3) Brandon Figueroa vs Jessie Magdaleno, May 4 ... (4) Nick Ball vs (7) Raymond Ford, June 1 ... (1) Luis Alberto Lopez vs Angelo Leo, Aug. 10

Notes: Well, Naoya Inoue got knocked down, and then he spent the next four rounds and change just dominating Luis Nery before finally knocking him out. Sam Goodman looks to be the next opponent. There is nothing that Goodman can do with Inoue on paper, but that goes for just about everyone. Unlike Nery, Goodman’s not even a puncher.

If you’re wondering why the different attitude here, it’s because if there was a David Benavidez in this weight class, Inoue would fight him, or already would have.

Upcoming Fights: (3) Marlon Tapales vs Nattapong Jankaew, May 10

Notes: Takuma Inoue retained, Yoshiki Takei and Ryosuke Nishida won their first world titles by beating Jason Moloney and Emmanuel Rodriguez, respectively. It’s a big division for Japan at the moment, with the top four and all titleholders coming from the country, which follows close behind Naoya Inoue going undisputed here.

Upcoming Fights: (9) Paul Butler vs Norbelto Jimenez, May 11

Upcoming Fights: (6) Andrew Moloney vs Pedro Guevara, May 11 ... (1) Juan Francisco Estrada vs (3) Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, June 29 ... (2) Kazuto Ioka vs (4) Fernando Martinez, July 7

Upcoming Fights: (10) Hiroto Kyoguchi vs Vince Paras, May 11 ... (1) Sunny Edwards vs Adrian Curiel, June 29

Upcoming Fights: TBA

Upcoming Fights: (1) Oscar Collazo vs Gerardo Zapata, June 7

Upcoming Fights: (9) Dina Thorslund vs Seren Cetin, May 25 ... (2) Katie Taylor vs (5) Amanda Serrano, July 20