LinealBoxingChampion.com: The Record Keeper of Boxing's Lineal Title

May 2021 Ratings – Updates

*A fighter is typically removed from our ratings, if she has been inactive from her weight class for 12 months, and still has no fight scheduled. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, few fights have been taking place, so extra allowances have been given.

Junior Flyweight

Tenkai Tsunami, who outpointed Shione Ogata on April 4th, enters at #3 – replacing Jessica Plata, who is now fighting at flyweight, so exits our top 5.

Featherweight

Mrdjenovich drops to #5, following her WBA title, 7th round TD loss to Erika Hernandez. Erika enters at #2. Heather Hardy exits due to inactivity at 126lbs, and most recently, losing to Jessica Camara in a bout above 135lbs. Meinke and Mahfoud each move up a place.

Lightweight

Volante whose last fight at 130lbs, was a stoppage loss to Katie Taylor over two years ago – Volante’s most recent fight was at junior welterweight. Natasha Jonas enters at #5, following her impressive performance (albeit a close points defeat), against divisional queen, Katie Taylor.

Junior Welterweight

Erica Farias, scheduled to fight Mikaela Mayer on June 19th, at junior lightweight, exits the ratings. Erica’s previous two fights were points losses to McCaskill at 140lbs. Victoria Bustos enters at #5. McGee, Linardatou , and Reis, each move up a place.

Welterweight

Reis exits. Olivia Belkacem, scheduled to face Oshin Derieuw, for the European title at 147lbs on Une 26th, enters at #5. Domini and Muzeya each move up one place.

Junior Middleweight

Hanna Gabriels’ departure to heavyweight, results in Berghult, Miller and Vidal, each moving up a place. Chris Namus enters at #5.

Heavyweight

Hanna Gabriels enters at #3 following her debut at heavyweight, a second round KO of Martha Gaytan, on April 17th.Gabriels has only once weighed above 160lbs, and that was for her first professional bout back in 2007. Coming in, Martha had lost four of her five last fights, the most recent being a first round KO at the hands of 5-0, Shadasia Green. Perplexingly, the WBA and WBC sanctioned Gabriels/Mart ha for their vacant belts (their light heavyweight and heavyweight titles, respectively).

Gabriels enters at #3. Claire Hafner exits – her previous fight being a loss down at super middleweight in February 2020, and not having won a fight at heavyweight for almost 2 years.

Pound-For-Pound:

No changes.

Our overall Pound-for-Pound top 10 is worked out by allocating points to each panellist’s top 10, and totalling the figures – so, 10 points for each panellist’s #1, 9 points for #2...1 point for #10.

Ratings Panel

David Avila: 2019 Inductee IWBHF. Journalist at The Sweet Science. California, USA. @AvilaBoxing

Anthony Cocks: Journalist for Max Boxing, and previous contributions for Boxing Monthly. Australia. @el_pollo_loco

Daniel Yanofsky: Boxing journalist, including articles for FIGHT SPORTS and The Scrap. New York/Florida, USA. @DanYanofskyMMA

Ireneusz Fryszkowski: Boxing Journalist. Poland. @RingBlogpl

Julian Haramoure: Boxing journalist, including articles for Argentina Amateur Deporte and ElRoundFinal.com. Argentina. @JulianFunky

Yuriko Miyata: Boxing journalist, including articles for The Ring and ThePrizeFighters.com. Japan. @Yuriyuri0803

GM Ross: Boxing journalist. Host of Pugilistically Inclined podcast. Canada. @punchingprof

Blanca Gutierrez: Creator of Beautiful Brawlers. 2019 Inductee IWBHF. 2018 Inductee WCBHOF. USA. @bbrawlersboxing

Inaky Arzate: Boxing journalist, including articles for TUDN. Mexico. @inaky_arzate

Adam McMeeking: Member of the International Boxing Research Organisation, and Editor of LinealBoxingChampion.com. United Kingdom. @LinealBoxChamp

April 2021 Ratings – Updates

Atomweight

Following her majority draw with Rie Matsuda, Saemi Hangata retired from boxing, as per Joe Koizumi, writing for FightNews.com. Bytqi and Ikeyama each move up a place, and Matsuda enters at #5.

Strawweight

Seneisa Estrada moved to the top of the division after dominating Anabel Ortiz over 10 rounds on March 20th, taking the Mexican’s WBA title. Katia Gutierrez exits, and Ortiz drops to #5.

Bantamweight

Prior to losing to Serrano at featherweight last month, Daniela Bermudez relinquished her WBO title at 118lbs, but seems likely to return to 122lbs to defend her WBO belt there. Bermudez therefore exits the ratings, resulting in last month’s #2 - #5 all moving up a place. The decision to put Yulihan Avila – who dominated long reigning bantamweight titlist, Mariana Juarez, last year- in the #1 spot, was unanimous in the opinions of all voting panellists.

Some panel members voted to move Shannon O’Connell into the #5 spot, but the consensus went with Britain’s Shannon Courtenay, after her close, grueling, points win over Australian, Ebanie Bridges, for the vacant WBA belt. Writing for The Prize Fighters, David Avila acknowledged that Shannon Courtenay had been the solid favorite beforehand, but after the fight was also impressed with Bridges, commenting: “It was quite a surprise to see the fighter known as the Blonde Bomber keep steadfast in pursuit of a knockout and her assortment of punches behind a tight guard showed skill.” At the completion of ten hotly contested rounds, Courtenay/Bridges had raised the stock of both women.

Incidentally, Argentina’s Debora Dionicius (who fights for the vacant WBO belt in June) was considered, but her only victory at bantamweight in the last four years was a points win over Aixa Adema, 3-3-4 - not enough to warrant placing her above Courtenay, or O’Connell.

Junior featherweight

Jackie Nava picked up a solid win over Karina Fernandez, however, it’s worth noting that, Yamileth Mercado (ranked above Nava), also outpointed Fernandez back in June 2019. Thorslund is scheduled to fight for a WBO bantamweight belt on June 25th, so may soon be exiting the rankings, if she decides to stay there. P4P ranked, Bermudez, lost to Serrano, but that was up at featherweight, and appears likely to return to 122lbs to defend her WBO belt.

Junior Welterweight

The Lineal World Championship at 140lbs is now vacant. On March 16th, when asked if Jessica McCaskill was staying at 147lbs and if the Lineal Championship was now vacant, Rick Ramos told Lineal Boxing Champion, “Yes. We are now staying at 147lbs.”

Middleweight

Savannah Marshall made short work of late replacement, Maria Lindberg, knocking her out in the second round of their clash on April 10th. Aside from the occasional higher weight bout, Lindberg, 44 years old, is a career junior middleweight, but had never been halted previously, and had twice taken Hammer the 10-round distance. This was the sixth consecutive KO victory for Marshall, and together with Hammer’s inactivity at the weight, was enough for the majority of the panel to vote in favor of moving her above Hammer in the ratings.

Shields is still the reigning lineal champion at 160lbs, and has reiterated multiple times that she ready and willing to fight Marshall for the right price.

Pound-For-Pound:

No changes. Seniesa Estrada defeated Anabel Ortiz, winning the WBC strawweight belt, and moved to #1 in our 118lbs rankings. One of our panelists voted to place Estrada in the P4P top 10, but the consensus felt she hasn’t quite done enough to knock the likes of McCarter or Fujioka, out of the list, just yet.

Our overall Pound-for-Pound top 10 is now worked out by allocating points to each panelist’s top 10, and totaling the figures – so, 10 points for each panelist’s #1, 9 points for #2...1 point for #10.