ON Thursday, reports filtered out that Boxing News’ number one ranked fighter at super-middleweight, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, would defend his WBC, WBA and WBO belts against Edgar Berlanga in Las Vegas on September 14. The IBF will not be on the line, and that holds potential ramifications for the bottom half of our top 10, which we will discuss shortly.
While Canelo remains the king, the rest of the super-middleweight division is bubbling up. Jaime Munguia, who lost a fair but competitive unanimous decision to Canelo in May, remains number two. The Mexican has since signed with Top Rank.
Our number three, Caleb Plant, was supposed to headline the PBC’s first non-PPV offering in August. That was until opponent Trevor McCumby suffered a nasty cut that left him sidelined before the bout was officially announced.
David Morrell is still number four in the rankings despite the fact he is about to make his light-heavyweight debut against Radivoje Kalajdzic on the August 3 Crawford versus Madrimov undercard.
David Morrell (Getty Images)
Christian Mbilli remains at number five. The French powerhouse fights number 10 ranked Sergiy Derevyanchenko on August 17 in Canada.
Number six, Diego Pacheco returns to action at the close of August against Maciej Sulecki in Carson.
Edgar Berlanga stays at number seven. An unlikely win for the unbeaten Puerto Rican on September 14 would see him rocket through the rankings when he faces our number one Canelo.
One name missing from the rankings so far is William Scull, the man responsible for Canelo’s IBF super-middleweight title not being on the line in Las Vegas. Scull is expected to fight Vladimir Shishkin for the vacant title (once Canelo is officially relieved of his fourth belt). Shishkin is currently ranked as our number eight.
German-based Cuban banger Osleys Iglesias looks like he could be the dark horse of the division. Currently ranked at number nine, if he keeps obliterating opponents, the 11-0 (10 KOs) southpaw will also be pushing for the top five soon.
