Ring Ratings Analysis Through fights of May 4, 2025 • By Brian Harty
the ring, and it’s unfortunate that he didn’t spend more of those two-plus months cutting weight, because a bit more mobility might’ve helped against Efe Ajagba, who used his much quicker feet and long reach to box from a safe distance in their 10-rounder on the Canelo-Scull undercard. Bakole lumbered forward in pursuit of a fight, and occasionally a brief one broke out, but the bout never really found a storyline and was scored a majority draw. Accordingly, Ajagba was lifted from No. 10 to No. 9 so he could sit beside No. 8-rated Bakole on the list. CRUISERWEIGHT On the tail of losing his WBO title in a brave but futile stand against Gilberto Ramirez last November, Chris Billam-Smith (No. 2) jumped back into the trench for 12 rounds of fierce hand-to-hand combat with Brandon Glanton (No. 8 at the time) on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn in London. This time it was Glanton who was tough but unsuccessful, however. Billam-Smith held off the American’s charges long enough for exhaustion to set in, then capitalized with cleaner punching down the stretch. Clearly itching for another title shot, “The Gentleman” held his position below No. 1-rated Ramirez while Glanton dropped to No. 10. After 26½ months out of the ring and somehow still the WBC titleholder, Badou Jack finally returned and defended his belt with a majority decision over Noel Mikaelian, who himself had been inactive for 18 months but was somehow not the WBC titleholder (it’s complicated). But considering the amount of downtime, it was a decent scrap. Jack reentered the list at No. 6, Mikaelian settled in just below him at No. 7, and two men had to make way for their arrivals: One was Glanton, and the other was No. 4-rated Richard Riakporhe, who tested the water at heavyweight on the same card and scored a fourth-round stoppage of journeyman Kevin Nicolas Espindola. SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT Back in December, Jaime Munguia tried his traditional steamroll approach against Bruno Surace and ended up on the starched side of a one-punch Upset of the Year. In the May 3 rematch, Munguia introduced just enough discipline to box smartly and avoid another disaster as he wore Surace down
after which Stanionis’ corner surrendered. With the WBA/IBF unification fight also being a Ring No. 1 vs. No. 2 contest, Boots traded in his number for the vacant championship and everyone else moved up a notch, except Stanionis, who remained at No. 2 while Brian Norman Jr. (No. 3 last month) jumped into the No. 1 slot. At the bottom, Chukhadzhian reentered the list at No. 10. And it should be said that Ennis’ win did earn a few votes for him to enter the pound-for-pound list, but the panel still leaned more toward bringing Benavidez back into the fold. Rohan Polanco rose from No. 9 to No. 7 after a punishing shutout decision over unrated Fabian Maidana, who went down from a body shot in the final round but showed toughness worthy of the family name (his older brother is former welterweight titleholder Marcos Maidana) in making it to the final bell. JUNIOR WELTERWEIGHT Dalton Smith entered the ratings at No. 10, partially on the merit of a 12-round blowout of Mathieu Germain in Sheffield, Smith’s hometown, and also because the existing No. 10, former division champion Josh Taylor, was looking at an impending matchup with Ekow Essuman at welterweight. Haney (No. 1) also went north for his fight with Ramirez, so his removal made room for undefeated (24-0, 19 KOs) southpaw Andy Hiraoka at No. 10. The movement at the top of the list plus a drop for losing a unanimous decision to division champ Teofimo Lopez left Arnold Barboza (No. 3 last month) sitting at No. 4. JUNIOR LIGHTWEIGHT In his second fight at 130 pounds, Raymond Ford pitched a 10-round shutout against Thomas Mattice and entered at No. 10, replacing Albert Bell, who seems like he’s been stuck in a revolving door at the bottom of the list for ages.
with a steady regimen of body shots, and the result was a wide unanimous decision and a promotion from No. 8 to No. 5 in the Mexican’s favor. Surace slipped from No. 7 to No. 8 while the loser of the main event, Scull, was pushed down to No. 6 from No. 5. MIDDLEWEIGHT Eubank Jr.-Benn was, thankfully, a heavily hyped-up fight that delivered a hell of a good time for the 65,000 fans who packed Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to witness the hereditary grudge match, but it resulted in no movement in the ratings. Eubank stayed put at No. 5 and Benn remained outside the list. In one of the support bouts, 25-year- old Irishman Chris McKenna notched the biggest win of his career thus far with a wide unanimous decision over former 154-pound titleholder Liam Smith, 36, who one panelist said “looked like a shell of his former self.” McKenna replaced Denzel Bentley at No. 10. WELTERWEIGHT Jaron “Boots” Ennis vs. Eimantas Stanionis was another chance to see a developing star in action and another opportunity to trot out some corny riffs on Ennis’ nickname: Stanionis went to boot camp and got stomped; he asked for a promotion and got the boot instead, he made like a hard drive and got booted up, the boots licked him. Or simply: Boots kicked his ass. Aside from landing a good shot here and there, any pre-fight promises the Lithuanian made about applying relentless pressure were stifled once Ennis settled into his comfort zone. From there, the Philadelphian was so fluid with his stance, defense and punch choice that it was difficult to pin his style down – sometimes he looked like a Mayweather wannabe and others he just seemed to be making it all up in the rhythm of the moment, Drunken Master-style. That relaxation still led to lapses that resulted in punches received – good for entertainment value – but Stanionis didn’t have the power to capitalize on those sporadic hits. Regardless, Ennis clearly approached this assignment with something to prove after his previous fight, a more lackadaisical UD victory over Karen Chukhadzhian, and tore into his opponent with unapologetic gusto. He capped it off with four rapid-fire uppercuts to score a knockdown at the end of the sixth round,
POUND FOR POUND Movement on the P4P list was more about demotions than promotions in the past month. Canelo Alvarez dropped a notch to No. 8 after his record-setting win over William Scull – that record being the lowest number of thrown punches (445) that CompuBox has ever counted in a 12-round fight, and Canelo only accounted for about a third of them. He is once again the undisputed super middleweight champion after reclaiming the IBF title, and the
Eimantas Stanionis eventually folded under the pressure from Jaron Ennis.
hope now is that Terence Crawford will force a less cautious version of the Mexican superstar to show up in September. Devin Haney (No. 9 last month) and Jose Ramirez also seemed reluctant to risk much in a fight that saw just over 500 punches thrown. Haney cruised safely to a unanimous decision win, but the performance didn’t really scream “best in the world,” so he was dropped from the list and David Benavidez returned at No. 10.
FEATHERWEIGHT You’d think that with a six-inch height
HEAVYWEIGHT In late February, Martin Bakole sacrificed himself to save the day by swooping in from his home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to be a last-hour replacement against Joseph Parker. On May 3, he was back in
advantage, Rafael Espinoza would’ve been landing a lot of punches on the top of Edward Vazquez’s head, but the lanky WBO titleholder used an astonishing number of uppercuts and body shots – even crouching to do the latter – in pushing his opponent toward a seventh-
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