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Jerusalem Leads Five Pinoys in Ring's Ratings; Japan Dominates the Lower Weights Class By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Tue, 29 Apr 2025  SPOILER: Three Japanese fighters are included in The Ring Magazine's latest top ten Pound for Pound Best Fighters today. They are undisputed super bantamweight ruler Naoya Inoue at #2, WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani at #7, and unified WBC-WBA flyweight titlist Kenshiro Teraji at #9. No Filipino boxers have made the elite list since the triumvirate of Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, and Donnie Nietes in the 2000s, oddly almost with the same ranking. WBC minimumweight champion Melvin Jerusalem and former unified WBA-IBF super bantamweight titleholder Marlon Tapales led five Filipino fighters who made it to the latest Ring Magazine's all-weights-classes ratings. Both Jerusalem and Tapales are rated #1 in their respective weight classes. Also making the list are current IBF minimumweight champion Pedro Taduran and the light flyweight pair of Christian Araneta and Regie Suganob. Taduran is rated #2 behind Jerusalem at 105 lbs, while Araneta and Suganob are #5 and #6 at light flyweight. However, a total of 32 Filipinos are in the ratings of the four major boxing sanctioning bodies (WBC, WBA, IBF, and the WBO), including the five mentioned fighters. The most significant number of world-rated Filipino fighters are in the minimumweight class, with eight, including Jerusalem and Taduran as champions and Vic Saludar, Joey Canoy, Ian Abne, Joseph Sumabong, Samuel Salva, and Christian Balunan as contenders. The light flyweight division has seven: Araneta, Suganob, AJ Paciones, Jayson Vayson, ArAr Andales, Alvin Magramo, and Vince Paras. The flyweight division includes Esneth Domingo, Vince Paras again, and Mark Vicelles. The super flyweight division features Jayr Raquinel, KJ Cataraja, Jason Mama, and Raymart Tagacanao. The bantamweight division has Kenneth Llover, Reymart Gaballo, Froilan Saludar, and Vincent Astrolabio. It was not long ago that we used to have as many as two concurrent major world champions and a bevy of contenders in this division. The super bantamweight class includes Tapales, Johnriel Casimero, Carl Jammes Martin, and Jerwin Ancajas. Rounding up the world-ranked Filipino fighters are Charlie Suarez, who is at super featherweight, and Mark Magsayo, who is rated at both super featherweight and lightweight. Overall, there may be more world-rated Filipino fighters than Japanese, but clearly showing Dai Nippon's dominance, especially in the lower weight classes, is that seven Japanese fighters, including their four world titleholders (Nakatani, Ryosuke Nishida, Yoshiki Takei, and Seiya Tsutsumi), are in the top eight at bantamweight and in the top three at flyweight through current champions Kenshiro Teraji, Yuri, and Masamichi Yabuki, and former titlist Seigo Yuri Akui. Furthermore, Japan also has highly rated fighters at featherweight (Tomoki Kameda), super lightweight (Andy Hiraoka), and welterweight (Jin Sasaki), who have respective scheduled fights for world titles in an attempt to expand Japan's reach above the super bantamweight class. Let us see how they will fare. The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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