By Allan Fox: Errol Spence Jr. still finds himself rated behind inactive WBA 147lb champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman in The Ring’s ratings at welterweight despite looking sensational recently in stopping IBF mandatory challenger Carlos Ocampo in the 1st round this month on June 16 at The Ford at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
Unfortunately, The Ring tends to be slow in updating their rankings for the divisions. That’s why guys like Saul Canelo Alvarez and Tyson Fury still remained as champions for their respective weight classes long after they’d both lost their alphabet middleweight titles.
Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) hasn’t fought in a year and a half since his victory over WBC 147lb champion Danny Garcia last year in March, and it’s unknown when he will return to the ring. Having Thurman rated No.1 at 147 is confusing because he doesn’t belong there at all.
Here are the Ring’s ratings for welterweight:
– Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman
– Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr.
– Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford
– Shawn Porter
– Danny Garcia
– Manny Pacquiao
– Jessie Vargas
– Lucas Matthysse
– Egidijus Kavaliauskas
– Jeff Horn
Is it time for Thurman to be stripped of his rankings?
Aside from The Ring having Thurman still at No.1, the rankings appear to be accurate. Crawford deserves to be rated at least No.3 at welterweight, but I think a lot of boxing fans would argue that he should be No.2 and Spence No.1 If Thurman can’t stay active because of his increasingly fragile body, then he has no business being rated No.1 by any organization, especially with The Ring. Some fans feel that the World Boxing Association should have made a move to strip Thurman a long time ago of is title once he’d been out of the ring for an entire year. When a fighter has been out of the ring continually for 12 months, then they should lost whatever title and/or ranking that they previously had, no matter what the situation. It’s nice that Thurman has a good excuse for his inactivity in blaming his inactivity on injury related problems.
The case against rating Errol Spence No.1 at 147
Spence is clearly a very good fighter, as the boxing public saw with his wins over Carlos Ocampo, Lamont Peterson and Kell Brook, but the fact of the matter if he still lacks the wins to be moved to No.1 at welterweight. Beating Brook, Peterson and Ocampo were good victories for Spence, but it still failed to prove that he rates to be considered the No.1 fighter in the welterweight division. There are still a lot of unknowns about Spence, and we won’t find that out until he takes on Thurman, Crawford, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Jeff Horn. The problem is Spence may never fight even half of those guys, given how careful many of the promoters are when it comes to matching their fighters against other top guys.