• I generally respect the rankings of Ring magazine, certainly far more than the polluted rankings of the sanctioning organizations. I know how hard rankings are to do because I've been doing them every single month for almost eight years, first at USA Today and now at ESPN.com. But the latest batch of Ring's rankings at heavyweight must be seriously taken to task. Prospect Cristobal Arreola (21-0, 19 KOs) made his debut at No. 10 even though he has no credentials whatsoever to deserve the spot -- not even close. When I saw him ranked, I thought for a minute I was reading IBF rankings. Having Arreola in the top 10 right now -- he may eventually deserve to be there -- is not legitimate, no matter how desperate we all are for a new American heavyweight to watch. Before Arreola, who has never faced anyone of note, there are several other heavyweights who deserve the slot way more (in no particular order): Calvin Brock, Chris Byrd, Hasim Rahman, Tony Thompson, Evander Holyfield, Matt Skelton, Jameel McCline, John Ruiz, Oliver McCall, Shannon Briggs, DaVarryl Williamson, Alexander Povetkin, Juan Carlos Gomez, David Tua and several others. I hope for the sake of credibility, there is a change made next month. We all make mistakes. Just admit this was one of them and move on.
• Don't you just wish title fights were still 15 rounds? The
Paul Williams-
Antonio Margarito bout, fought at an extremely fast pace throughout, begged for those final three rounds.
• Weekend promotional winner:
Dan Goossen. Four of his most important fighters racked up wins and looked good doing so. Besides Williams' welterweight title win against Margarito, prospects
Andre Ward and Arreola also were impressive in front of HBO personnel and heavyweight Thompson stopped
Luan Krasniqi in Germany to become the mandatory challenger for
Sultan Ibragimov. Anyone who knows Goossen knows he loves being a player in the heavyweight division.
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Dan Rafael
