There's not much change of note in the November Heavyweight Boxing Top 100; this session is more noteworthy for a few that make their debut on the list, and some fights that take place in the coming month.
| -3 Yr |
-1 Yr |
-6 mo |
Oct 2019 |
Nov 2019 |
Fighter |
Rating
|
Rated Record | October results; •November schedule |
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | TYSON FURY | 45.38 | 17-0-1 |  |
| 12 | 38 | 30 | 2 | 2 | ANDY RUIZ JR | 39.57 | 13-1-0 | |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | DEONTAY WILDER | 39.23 | 17-0-1 | •11/23 vs. #9 LUIS ORTIZ |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | ANTHONY JOSHUA | 37.02 | 15-1-0 | --last rated win -13 months. |
| 30 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | DILLIAN WHYTE | 24.91 | 12-1-0 | |
| 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | ALEX POVETKIN | 24.70 | 29-2-0 | |
| 22 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | JARRELL MILLER | 19.87 | 9-0-0 | |
| 10 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | KUBRAT PULEV | 18.64 | 19-1-0 | •11/09 vs. #226 RYDELL BOOKER |
| 9 | 14 | 9 | 9 | 9 | LUIS ORTIZ | 17.22 | 15-1-0 | •11/23 vs. #3 DEONTAY WILDER |
| -- | 18 | 15 | 10 | 10 | EFE AJAGBA | 16.95 | 6-0-0 |
October 2019 Fight Results
As noted, not much excitement:
- Frank Sanchez Faure (14-0-0) moved from #23 to #18 with a 10-round decision win over #133 Jack Mulowayi
- Vladyslav Sirenko (13-0-0) made the biggest jump in the Top 100, leaping from 69 to 23 with a first round TKO of former #26 Ivan Di Berardino, who fell to #83 and to 9-2-1.
- Darmani Rock (17-0-0) took care of #156 Maurenzo Smith pretty quickly, scoring a 2nd round TKO and sliding up 6 spots to #48
- Dereck Chisora (32-9-0) finally made it back into the top 100 after winning the most prominent heavyweight bout of the month with a 4th round TKO (towel thrown) of David Price, who was #77 last month. Chisora is at #87 and has won 3 of his last 7 significant bouts (he is 13-9-0 in rated fights). Price dropped out of the rankings and fell to 25-7-0.
November 2019 Upcoming Bouts
The November schedule looks considerably better than October, notwithstanding cancellations, etc. In order of our interest:
- 11/23 #3 Deontay Wilder vs. #9 Luis Ortiz. This is the big one. It's not the rematch we really need (Wilder vs. Fury) but it's the one we get, and as heavyweight boxing fans we've learned to be satisfied with a morsel here and there. It's not a bad match, as the first fight was a barnburner. Wilder can pass Ruiz Jr for #2 on our rankings with a win; a loss would send Wilder to around #7, while Ortiz would leap to #4 and serious consideration for the Ruiz-Joshua rematch winner. Another loss to Wilder would sent Ortiz well out of the top 10, and at his advanced age (whatever it really is) probably means his last hurrah.
- 11/30 #58 Zhilei Zhang vs. #73 Sergey Kuzmin. I will be quite pleased if we make it to Thanksgiving and this fight is still on. Zhang, who showed promise as an Olympic silver medalist with a 20-0-0 start, hasn't had a significant win in 2 1/2 years and has slid from the mid-20s to #58. Either he or Kuzmin (15-1-0), who lost recently to #14 Michael Hunter, will get a much-needed boost.
- 11/09 #9 Kubrat Pulev vs. #226 Rydell Booker. A keep-busy fight for Pulev, who is the mandatory for Anthony Joshua if Joshua beats Ruiz in their rematch. A win here does nothing for Pulev, of course, while a loss ends his top 10 run and his title hopes. It would also be a huge comeback for Booker, who was gone from the sport for 12 years while in prison for dealing cocaine. Win or lose, Rydell Booker has always had the best name for a boxer—of all time—in my estimation. Boxrec doesn't list this fight as of this writing, and it does look like a good candidate for cancelation as Pulev has nothing to gain here.
- 11/15 #49 Junior Fa vs. #77 Devin Vargas. Another intra-top 100 fight; Fa has an unblemished 18-0-0 record with 4 significant wins, while Vargas is 21-5-0 and spent several years outside the top 100 before returning with a win over Niall Kennedy in August.
- 11/02 #82 Martin Bakole Ilunga vs. #98 Rodney Hernandez. Not the highest-ranked fighters but maybe a fun one to watch. Bakole is 14-1-0 with 5 significant wins, 2 of them after falling to Michael Hunter. Hernandez is a storied 13-8-2, with a 3-7-2 record on our watch—but 6 of those losses are to fighters still in the top 100. Watch this one to see Hernandez explode with power early in each round and, after tiring, take punishment that would kill most humans.
- 11/23 #22 Shawndell Winters vs. #118 Sergiej Werwejko. Winters is pretty new to our top 100, having just beaten Sasha Teslenko in September. At 12-2-0, he's fighting Werwejko, who is 11-2-0 and has won three minor fights since losing to Ali Demirezen a year ago.
- 11/27 #57 Cassius Chaney vs. #153 Nick Jones. Chaney (17-0-0) is coming off a 1st round KO of non-rated Santander Silgado, while Jones (7-2-0) is attempting to come back from back-to-back losses to Efe Ajagba and Rodney Hernandez. Something tells me Jones is transitioning to sure-thing journeyman unless he gets the upset here.
Top 100 Debuts / Career Prognostication
Here we give our outlook/forecast for how far each of the new fighters debuting in the Top 100 will do. Our intentionally simple system looks at the fighter's amateur experience, his age, and how he's done in his career so far (to the point of his top 100 debut). Using this system, the last two heavyweights to get an A+ rating (forecast to be #1 HW champ) were Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko. Deontay Wilder got an A (forecast to make the top 3), while Tyson Fury got just a B+ (top 10). Andy Ruiz, Jr, graded at an A- (in or near top 5).Five fighters make it in this month; presented in order of debut rank.
- #26 Marcin Siwy (20-0-0) Age: 28
Amateur exp: Average
Polish boxer Siwy defeated Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko (6-5-1) to make our list, winning a unanimous 8-round decision by comfortable but not dominant cards. The rest of his record is similarly bland, but he gets credit for not losing so far. He's still young, big, and looks tough but is not getting a lot of stoppages against the weak competition so far.
Grade: B
Forecast: Siwy could be an eventual top 15 contender in the alpha-belts, but not a Ring top ten. - #44 Oleksandr Usyk (17-0-0) Age: 32
Amateur exp: Excellent
Here's the one we've been waiting for forever. Finally cruiserweight champ Usyk has his first win, a yawning affair over Chazz Witherspoon but we'll take it. It allows us to use our method to forecast Usyk's heavyweight success. So far, he's done nothing wrong, winning the world championships and olympic gold medal and beating every cruiserweight of note. Though he has only one pro win at heavyweight, he's already beaten several in our top 100: Usyk defeated #14 Michael Hunter and #69 Tony Bellew at cruiserweight, and holds amateur (World Series of Boxing) wins at heavyweight over #49 Junior Fa and #25 Joe Joyce. Usyk's only slight drawbacks are his age (32) and size (he weighed 215 vs. Witherspoon). Can he compete with the real giants? We will probably soon see, as he is being fast-tracked for title contention.
Grade: A-
Forecast: We see a probable top-5 ranking for Usyk, which likely means a belt of some kind, but not beating the very top of the heap to reach our #1 spot. We'll guess that he peaks outside the top 3. - #59 Sahret Delgado (8-0-0) Age: 25
Amateur exp: Average
Delgado stopped 7 opponents before decisioning Joel Caudle (8-4-2) to break into the top 100. The Puerto Rican (fighting out of New Jersey) is still quite young and noted for his power. But again, the first "real" fighter he faced wouldn't drop. Similar size to Siwy, which isn't necessarily a good thing (a bit too short at 6'2" for his nearly 270 pounds).
Grade: B
Forecast: Another top 15 prospect some day, but not a top ten fighter. - #66 Kenzie Morrison (17-0-2) Age: 29
Amateur exp: None
Though he was formerly known as James Witt, he's now James McKenzie Morrison or just Kenzie Morrison. He's another of the late Tommy Morrison's sons, along with Tre Lippe (Morrison), who coincidentally just dropped out of our top 100 last month. He looks a lot like his father, is currently undefeated, and just KOed Keenan Hickman (6-5-1) in the first round to debut in our top 100. Morrison has 15 stoppages among 17 wins, which is good, and the competition hasn't been awful. But those two draws—to journeyman Aaron Chavers (8-9-1) over 6 rounds (he avenged it with a stoppage) and Chris Harris (2-4-2) don't bode well. Neither does his lack of amateur experience; we don't give points for pedigree. He's still young, but should be peaking soon, so it's good that he's making his move now.
Grade: C
Forecast: Some upside; a few more wins should put him into the top 30-40, but we don't foresee him making our top 25. - #68 Mike Balogun (15-0-0) Age: 36
Amateur exp: Pro football
Balogun jumped to about 6 different NFL teams before trying his hand at boxing. Ex-footballers don't exactly have a stellar record in the ring; we give credit only for experience in other combat sports (kickboxing and MMA). To be fair, though, he hasn't lost yet, beating Mike Bisset (15-13-1) with a first-round KO on October 24th. He has 11 stoppages so far, with a few familiar journeymen on the list. At age 36, time is running out for Balogun to make some noise.
Grade: C
Forecast: Like Morrison, Balogun should score a few more rated wins and rank in the 30s but not much higher before he meets someone who outclasses him.
We'll try to make these forecasts monthly and see how they do in the long run. Should be interesting!
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