Top 10 Boxers South of Bantamweight

One of the most attractive aspects of weight class-based sports like boxing is that they provide a venue for the smallest of competitors. A 112-pound athlete has few options in team sports, but in boxing he can aspire to become a world champion.

Media coverage can still be hard to come by, though. While the smallest weight classes have a healthy following across Asia, the Pacific and throughout Mexico and Latin America, it is rare to see even the best flyweights featured on prominent, televised cards in the United States.

That can make it difficult to get a really accurate picture of who is truly the best among the smallest pool of fighters, and how they stack up against each other. To put together this ranking, I have relied on The Ring ratings, Boxrec.com ratings and records, and a lot of time searching for fights on YouTube.  

Filipino Sonny Boy Jaro, 34(24)-10(7)-5, is the current WBC and Ring flyweight champion, having upset the legendary Pongsaklek Wonjongkam on March 2 of this year via a sixth-round TKO.

With double-digit losses and seven coming by way of stoppage, it is fair to regard Jaro as something of a journeyman. But he took it to the champion—in his native Thailand, no less—knocking him down once each in the first and third round and twice in the decisive sixth. 

This was a Rocky type of upset for Jaro; it gives his career some new life, and the Philippines another world champion. Jaro fights an aggressive, wide-open style and it is tough to imagine him retaining the belt for long in a division full of speedy counter-punchers.

But a month ago I wouldn't have imagined him winning the title at all, so who knows?

As far as I can determine, Tomonobu Shimizu of Japan, 19(10)-3(3)-1, is one of three current WBA super flyweight champions, the other two being Liborio Solis of Venezuela and Tepparith Singwancha of Thailand. 

Solis and Singawancha are interim champions, whereas Shimizu knocked off the actual champion, Hugo Fidel Cazares of Mexico, last August. Why the WBA feels the need to name all these interim champions is really beyond me. Interim champions are generally crowned when the reigning champion is unable to defend his belt over a lengthy period of time due to injury, and this was never the case with Cazares. 

Of course, this is the same WBA that named Wladimir Klitschko their "super" world champion, thereby allowing them to declare their "regular" world championship vacant, providing Alexander Povetkin the opportunity to become a heavyweight world champion without actually having to beat one of the Klitschkos.

Can it be any surprise that boxing writers tend to be openly contemptuous of the various alphabet soup promotional organizations?

At least Shimizu is scheduled to face Singwancha next month in Japan. From the film I have watched of the two, I expect Shimizu to use his superior length to beat his Thai rival. Of Shimizu's three career losses, one came in his second professional fight and the other two were against flyweight superstars Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, in 2008, and Daisuke Naito, back in 2007. 

Prior to being upset by Brian Viloria last December, Giovani Segura, 28(24)-2(1)-1, had been ranked in the pound-for-pound top 10 by The Ring. Things did not go at all according to plan for the former junior flyweight champion when he stepped up and challenged for the belt at 112, but I still think he needs to be ranked in the top 10 among fighters under 118. 

Segura had built his career off of playing the bully role, relentlessly wading inside and pounding his opponents' bodies. In Viloria he faced a tough counter-puncher who was able to time his southpaw delivery perfectly. 

Segura only turns 30 on April 1, so it is way too early to close the book on him. But his performance against Viloria should give some cause for alarm.

Segura has been able to get by in large part through sheer physical dominance in his career. If he is not going to be able to bring that power up with him as he ascends to 112 or 115, he will need to develop some better defensive wrinkles in his game. 

If this were a list of the 10 most exciting fighters under 118, I'd have to consider Nicaraguan sensation Roman Gonzalez, 31(26)-0, for the No. 1 slot. The 24-year-old WBA light flyweight champion has more or less pounded down everybody to cross paths with him.

But it's a record largely built against other young and inexperienced fighters or else journeymen with less-than-stellar records of their own.

I don't doubt that he is the real deal. He has great footwork and explosive punching power with both hands. He attacks the body and head with the lead hook and throws a nice right uppercut/right cross combination.

In the next couple of years he may very well start moving onto pound-for-pound lists. As of right now, I still feel like I need to see him handle the tougher competition of 108 and 112 before I'm ready to rank him above other more proven veterans.  

Julio Cesar Miranda is 37(29)-6(1)-1, but don't let the six check-marks in the loss column mislead you. In a sport where some prospects are coddled and protected for years, nobody held the young J.C. Miranda's hand when he was crossing the street.

He lost his third fight by decision. His seventh and eighth fights were a draw and a third-round TKO, respectively. After a dozen pro fights, he was 8-3-1.

But that was over seven years ago.

In the time since, he built himself into a world champion, and the three fights he has lost have been decisions to Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Moruti Mthalane and Brian Viloria, three of the best flyweights of the past 10 years.

The IBF light flyweight champion Ulises Solis, 34(21)-2(1)-3, claims to have been assaulted by WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez last October, suffering a broken jaw in the exchange. Alvarez's camp has countered that it was actually Alvarez's brother who fought with Solis.

Either way, the head trauma suffered at the hands of a much larger foe throws the power-punching 108-pound fighter's immediate career into some question. 

In the ring, against fighters his own size, Solis has been an elite talent for years. He has shocking power for a guy small enough to be a jockey, as can be seen in the linked video. Since 2004, his only loss has been to current WBO flyweight champion Brian Viloria.

Yota Sato, 24(12)-2-1, is just coming off from a big weekend, as he beat Thailand's Suriyan Sor Rungviasi by unanimous decision on March 24 in Tokyo to win the WBC super flyweight title. His last fight before that was a fourth-round KO of the previously unbeaten Kenji Oba.

The only two losses of Sato's career are four-round decisions he dropped in 2004 and 2005, during his first year as a pro. 

Sato is nearly 5'8" and I believe will end up at least at bantamweight by the end of his career. 

The IBF flyweight champion Moruti Mthalane, 28(19)-2(2)-1, is a tough, pressure fighter with good power. In terms of resume and recent wins, he has to rank high on this list.

In the linked fight from a year ago, he displays very efficient footwork to systematically cut off the ring on Johnriel Casimero en route to a fifth-round TKO.

Mthalane lost in 2008 to Nonito Donaire by a sixth-round TKO. His only other career loss came in 2004, when he was beaten by fellow South African Nkqubela Gwazela via TKO in 11. Boxrec.com describes the fight as one in which Gwazela was being "outboxed" and had to "pull out all the stops" to rally and put the still-young Mthalane away. 

Mthalane claimed the title by beating Julio Cesar Miranda in 2009. 

2011 was a terrific year for Brian Viloria, 30(17)-3(1). In July the two-time light flyweight world champion beat Julio Cesar Miranda for the WBO flyweight belt. He capped off the year by TKOing top-10 pound-for-pound entrant Giovani Segura in December. 

Viloria's win over Segura was regarded as a surprising upset, but you wouldn't know from watching it. Against the feared lefty slugger, Viloria ran a clinic on how to handle an aggressive southpaw.

He spent all night landing effective counter-punching flurries right in the midst of Segura's wildest attacks. When he finally put him away in the eighth, it was no longer a surprise, but it had taken on the feeling of an inevitability. 

The fight exposed Segura as probably too highly rated by many writers, but it also demonstrated that "Hawaiian Punch" is definitely among the most talented fighters in the world in the lowest weight classes. 

Viloria had a strong amateur career, representing the United States in the 2000 Olympics. With his three career losses, he has not always looked spectacular as a professional, and when Carlos Tamara took his IBF light flyweight title by Round 12 TKO in 2010, there was some speculation among fans and writers that he might be finished as an elite fighter. 

Instead, he fought his way back to the top. On May 12, he will get a chance to avenge one of his losses when he meets old rival Omar Nino Romero. 

Hernan "Tyson" Marquez, 33(25)-2(1), is only 23 years old, but he already has the look and feel of a well seasoned veteran. A tricky southpaw who counter-punches with power and aggression, Marquez fights very well at short and long range.

His first fight against Luis Concepcion last April (highlights linked here) was on most short lists for 2011 Fight of the Year. Marquez came back from a first-round knockdown to drop Concepcion in the first, third and 10th before the ringside physician called a stop, awarding Marquez the TKO in 11. 

In the rematch in October, Marquez stopped Conception 1:49 into the first round. 

Marquez is coming off of a unanimous decision victory over Richie Mepranum on March 24, in a fight where Mepranum came in three pounds over the flyweight limit of 112. Marquez dropped Mepranum twice en route to avenging one of his only two career losses.

Marquez's only other career loss came against Nonito Donaire in July of 2010, in a fight where he was physically overmatched.