1.   Jermell Charlo - Long live the new 154-pound king! Jermell Charlo is now the indisputable world junior middleweight champion in the wake of unifying the IBF, WBC and WBA titles by knocking out the prior #1, Jeison Rosario. (And, no Patrick Teixeira's WBO title doesn't count here, since he won a vacant title by beating someone who was not a top contender.) There are still plenty of great match-ups for Charlo, as most of the top 154-pounders are his PBC roster-mates. Either Erickson Lubin or Erislandy Lara could be next for Charlo. (Charlo KO'd Lubin in one round back in 2018).

 

2. Jeison Rosario - We wont drop Rosario too far despite the loss to Charlo. Rosario was competitive, winning at least three rounds, and with a prior win over #4 Julian Williams, Rosario can fall no lower than #3. We'll keep him at #2 for now.

 

3.  Erislandy Lara - Lara could easily be rated #2, but his last two opponents have been weak (Greg Vendetti, Ramon Alvarez) for a top contender. Charlo has shown some difficulties facing boxer types, so the guess here is he does not select Lara for his next defense.

 

4.  Julian Williams - It wasn't J-Rock's night vs. Jesion Rosario, but his rating is protected by his May win over Jarrett Hurd. We look forward to Williams staying in the mix with the top 154 pounders, because almost all of them are with Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions.

 

5. Jarrett Hurd - The  former IBF/ WBA champion returned with a safe win in January over Francisco Santana (who had lost three out of his last four coming in).  Despite his loss to Julian Williams, Hurd demands a top five spot due to wins over Erislandy Lara (a 2018 split decision), Austin Trout and Tony Harrison.

 

6. Tony Harrison - A log jam keeps the former WBC title holder out of the top five. He was doing well in his rematch against Jermell Charlo (Dec. 19, 2019) until getting stopped in round eleven, and he holds a controversial win over Jermell in their first fight.

 

7.  Brian Castano - The Argentine boxer is listed at 16-0-1, but he had another three pro wins in the World Series of Boxing, including a five-round decision over current middleweight contender Sergey Derevyanchenko. The draw is against #3 Erislandy Lara, so Castano's resume is clearly that of a solid top ten contender. Next up for Castano is a likely WBO title shot vs. Patrick Teixera. A convincing win over Teixeira could boost Castano to Boxingtalk's #2 spot. [Note - Castano defeated Teixeira in February 2021].

 

8. Erickson Lubin - Lubin is comng off a very solid win over former Olympian Terrell Gausha. He's won five in a row since the disastrous 2017 loss to Jermell Charlo, so its safe to say trainer Kevin Cunningham has helped Lubin right the ship.  

 

9.  Michel Soro - French contender's only loss since 2012 was a split decision to #7 Brian Castano. He's had five good wins since then.

 

10.  Tim Tszyu - The Australian heir-apparent is now 16-0 and has been cleaning up the domestic scene down under. A win in Australian super-fight vs. former WBO weterweight champion Jeff Horn was the perfect introduction to the top ten for Kostya's son. 

 

11. Kell Brook - A February win over Mark DeLuca kept the former welterweight title holder in the mix, but it looks like his next fight might be in his old weight class, an ambitious crack (or is it a cash out?) at WBO champion Terence Crawford. Note: he lost to Crawford in November.

 

12.  Sergio Garcia - The European champion, who comes from Spain, is 31-0. He's defended the European title three times. 

 

13.  Patrick Teixera - He holds the WBO title, but is on the outside of the top ten looking in for a couple of reasons. His title is really a paper championship because he beat Carlos Adames, a non-champion, for the interim title then inherited the full WBO title when Jaime Munguia moved up in weight. Also, he has a stoppage loss to Curtis Stevens. He'll get his chance to crack the top ten when he defends vs. #7 Castano.

 

14. Israel Madrimov - Uzbekistan contender put a serious beating on Eric Walker in August, but didn't quite live up to the expectations that he was already championship level. 

 

15.  Magomed Kurbanov - Russian up-and-comer is 20-0 with three wins coming against quality opposition. He had an August win at 158 pounds, so he may belong in the middeweight rankings.

 

16.  Austin Trout - Ex-title holder is fighting father time, and had a 2019 draw vs. Terrell Gausha, a former Olympian. He won a February tune-up against low-level opposition in his home state of New Mexico.

 

17.  Liam Smith - Nicknamed "Beefy," he's a former WBO title holder who has two forgivable losses (Canelo Avarez and Jaime Munguia) and won three fights in 2019. *Note - Will be reclassified as a middleweight.

   

18.  Jack Culcay - Culcay has done some good work at junior middleweight, including wins over previously unbeaten Dennis Hogan and Jama Saidi, but reports say he got a gift decision vs. Abass Baraou in August's all-German bout, so we are withholding full credit for the win.

 

19. Abass Baraou - Now 9-1, his stock rose in the controversial loss to Culcay.

 

21.  Souleymane Cissokho - Born in Senegal, fights out of France. He's undefeated but needs at least a gatekeeper fight to move up. Faces Kieran Conway in December.

 

22.  Bakram Murtazaliev - Egas Klimas-managed Russian is 17-0 and coming off a step-up win over Jorge Fortea in November.

 

23. Serhii Bohachuk - 18-0 Ukrainian got a nice road win over Alejandro Davila in Mexico on September 25th, and Bohachuk is poised to move up a few more notches soon. For now, Murtazaliev stays above Bohachuk due to fighting better overall competition in their respective careers.

 

24. Terrell Gausha - Ex-Olympian has a draw vs. Austin Trout and losses to Erislandy Lara and Erickson Lubin.

 

25. Scott Fitzgerald - Hasn't fought in eleven months, but this undefeated Brit holds quality wins over Anthony Fowler and Ted Cheeseman, both of whom went on to score good wins after losing to Fitzgerald.

 

26-40: 26. Hassan Mwakinyo, 27. Anthony Fowler, 28. Jorge Cota, 29. Carlos Adames, 30. Chordale Booker, 31. Kerman Lejarraga, 32. Islan Edisultanov, 33. Charles Conwell (*defeated Toussaint after rankings issued), 34. Hironobu Matsunaka, 35. Zakaria Attou, 36. Carlos Ocampo, 37. Ted Cheeseman, 38. James Metcalf, 39. Nathan Gallimore, 40. Dylan Charrat.

 

Notes: Jeff Horn moved down from 160;  Sadriddin Akhmedov defeated Stephan Danyo; Adames moving up to 160.