We all love to rip the rankings of the various organisations to pieces, lets be honest it's often more interesting than watching a Miguel Vazquez fight (oooh burn!) but sometimes they do get it right and we need to be fair and give credit where it's due. So in the interest of fairness Let me just congratulate the WBC on having some very good rankings.
For example the WBC rank Denver Cuello #1 (Minimumweight) a very, very deserved ranking for one of the real danger men at 105lbs. Like wise they also rank Kazuo Ioka at #1 (Light Flyweight) following his move from 105lbs where he had to vacate the WBC belt. Unsurprisingly Bernard Hopkins (Light Heavyweight) is also the #1 ranked fighter having recently held the WBC world title in that division (though I do expect him to fall swiftly if he doesn't fight again in the next few months) and quite deservedly Erislandy Lara is #1 at Light Middleweight. I don't think too many fight fans would complain at any of those rankings.
With that said however I do need to remember that this is
weirdboxing.info and not http://suljosblog.com, I'm not here to be nice to the WBC and in fact I'm only here to be fair. I've been fair and pointed out the WBC do have some good rankings...so on the flip of that, I'm now going to point out some of their ludicrous #1 contenders (after all, I like fairness!).
At Heavyweight the WBC have Chris Arreola (35-2, 30) at #1. I like Arreola, he's great for weird boxing due to his memorable interviews and his unique personality, however he is a man who's beaten no one of note since erm...er...Chazz Witherspoon? Arreola will be fighting the WBC's #2 ranked fighter Bermane Stiverne (22-1-1, 20) in a WBC Eliminator later this year and whilst I do love the look of that bout, I need to ask how either man got his ranking.
At Cruiserweight the WBC have veteran Giacobbe Fragomeni (29-3-2, 12) at #1 and fellow Italian old man Silvio Branco (62-10-3, 37) at #2. Now I like the fact these two are #1 and #2 they drew last time out showing that they are about on level pegging with one another. However Fragomeni is now 3-2-2 in his last 7 (including 0-2-1 in WBC world title bouts) and Branco has barely fought at Cruiserweight having started his career around Middleweight. Someone one from the Mafia helping the Italian pair here?
Below Light Heavyweight we get into the realm of "who?" with Super Middleweight Nikola Sjekloca (25-0, 7) who's best win appears to be over Khoren Gevor-who at the time was banned after hitting referee Manfred Kuechler just months earlier. Likewise at Middleweight we have Argentinian Billi Facundo Godoy (26-1, 13), who was oddly upset after the rankings came out by the unranked Sergio Jose Sanders (20-9-2, 11). Lets see what happens there over the coming weeks!
The WBC's stupid rankings were of course shown up last weekend when their #1 Welterweight Thomas Dulorme (16-1, 12) was stopped in 7 by hard hitting Argentinian Luis Carlos Abregu (34-1, 28). Going into this bout Dulorme had beaten nobody for his ranking, Abregu, whilst with out big wins himself had only lost to Timothy Bradley and had beaten a number of "credible" opponents. It'll be interesting again here to see how far Dulorme falls and how far Abregu climbs when the next rankings come out in November.
We then get another case of "who?" with Light Welterweight Prawet Singwangcha (48-3-2, 27). Singwancha maybe known by some as "the guy who drew with Jose Cotto" but that is pretty his only claim to fame other than losing to Jose Alfaro in his following fight. Since the Cotto and Alfaro fights Singwangcha has vanished into relative obscurity back in Thailand piling up a number of wins against limited opponents.
Things do, thankfully get better at Lightweight where Nihito Arakawa (23-1-1, 15) is ranked #1 and whilst he may not be as well known as someone like Gavin Rees (37-1-1, 18) he is a deserving top ranked fighter. Arakawa will be fighting in an Eliminator with the #2 ranked Daniel Estrada (29-2-1, 22) in what on paper should be a great bout. I certainly can't argue with this bout.
Super Featherweight is much like Lightweight with the WBC having a deserving #1 in Sergio Thompson (25-2, 23) who is perhaps a little over-looked though is a very dangerous guy at 130lbs. The story doing the rounds is that Thompson is favoured for a bout with current champion Gamaliel Diaz (37-9-2, 17) who took the WBC title from Takahiro Ao earlier this week.
After having really good #1 ranked fighters at both Lightweight and Super Featherweight we then get Thai Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo (44-0, 27) who has really faced no one of note, however on November 9th Piriyapinyo will fight for the WBA "super" title at Featherweight against Chris John (47-0-2, 22). Whilst 91-0-2 (47) looks great for a combined record, it's hard to get excited about that bout.
Thankfully the WBC have some common sense and have Victor Terrazas (35-2-1, 21) as their Super Bantamweight #1. Whilst Terrazas is probably best known in the UK for losing to Rendall Munroe, he has since bounced back with 9 wins including victories over Nehomar Cermeno and Fernando Montiel. Solid wins have been rewarded here.
Sadly the WBC then go a bit weird and have Hugo Cazares (37-7-2, 26) as their #1 Bantamweight, despite the fact he's never fought between 115 and 118 and actually fought all the way up at 122 last time out. I really like Cazares, he's always fun to watch, however this ranking does seem a little bit "off" with not only the fact he's never fought at the weight, but he's also never won a WBC "world" title at any weight.
Despite not agreeing with Carlos Cuadras (26-0, 22) being the #1 guy at Super Flyweight, I can understand where the WBC are coming from here. Cuadras is an exciting and popular Mexican and he's the "Silver" belt holder however I'd personally have slightly down the rankings due to his competition (or rather lack of).
Thankfully as mentioned much earlier on the WBC have got it right at both Minimumweight and Light Flyweight, though it's also worth noting that their Flyweight #1, Edgar Sosa (47-7, 28) is also a worthy top ranking fighter.
These are the October rankings so don't be shocked when they change massively in the next few days. At least 2 of the current "#1" fighters should have lost their ranking though it will interesting to see what happens to the men who beat them.