1. Naoya Inoue: Does what the Monster does, lay out whomever is across from him with hellacious body shots.
2. Jermall Charlo: Juan Macies Montiel made him work for it, but after twelve rounds, Charlo is still the WBC Middleweight champion after a unanimous decision in front of his hometown crowd in Houston.
3. Chan Sung Jung: Came in as an underdog against Dan Ige, and after 25 minutes, the Korean Zombie earned a wide decision win. He’s now won three out of his last four tilts and might be in the title mix.
4. Jaime Munguia: Held serve and did what he had to do, which was batter Kamil Szeremeta until his corner had seen enough, retaining his secondary WBO title at middleweight, and possibly a date with Gabe Rosado awaits?
5. Gleison Tibau: The patron saint! That’s right, the Undercard Superstar himself, namesake of his great website prevailed, not in the main event, but in the main event of PFL 5, winning via split-decision over Rory MacDonald.
6. Marlen Esparza: In the tightest championship matchup of the weekend, two top-five flyweights battled, as Esparza defeated Ibeth Zamora Silva to become the new WBC flyweight champion.
7. Gabriel Rosado: In one of the feel-good stories of the weekend, Gabriel Rosado, a game journeyman who never backs down from a fight, picked himself up from the canvas and absolutely rocked Bektemir Melikuziev, a 7-0 Uzbek prospect, laying him out and earning a knockout win, claiming both WBO and WBA secondary titles at 168lbs. But what now? He’s twice challenged for a world title and was knocked out in both. He’s 5-8-1 since 2013, granted, his losses were all world championship-level boxers. But what now? Does he challenge for a title? Do you test another prospect against him? What if he knocks out another one? Do you chance it? Do you put him against another journeyman to try and pop a TV rating? Do you throw him and Jaime Munguia against each other until one of them falls?? It’ll be interesting to see what this win does for him and where he goes from here.
8. Anderson Silva: This is a new, previously unthought low for one Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.. The fighter once thought to be the next megastar was supremely outclassed by a 46-year old Anderson Silva, as Silva’s unorthodox style absolutely flummoxed Chavez. As usual, he couldn’t be bothered to make weight, and even worse, he actually tried in the ring, just had no answers for 1-1 Silva.
9. Mikaela Mayer: Retained her WBO world title at 130lbs with a UD win over Erica Anabella Farias in the co-main of Top Rank’s card on ESPN Saturday.
10. Craig Jones: In the main event of Who’s Number One, it was Jones topping Tye Ruotolo by decision.
11. Tex Johnson: In a battle of BJJ icons, it was Johnson besting Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa by UD in the main event of Fight To Win 174.
12. Ray Cooper III/Chris Camozzi/Cory Hendricks/Joao Zeferino/Magomed Magomedkerimov/Tom Lawlor/Sadibou Sy: All banked points with victories at PFL 6.
13. Rob Morrow: Pulled off an upset, defeating American kickboxing veteran Randy Blake to claim the vacant XFN Heavyweight title.
14. Peter Stanonik: The main event victor via UD in the XFN Kickboxing 371 over Brian Foster, then called out Alfred Walker.
15. Mica Galvao: The one-night tournament victor at Third Coast Grappling 7, submitting Pedro Marinho in the finals with a straight armlock.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
