This shouldn’t necessarily be classified as adding insult to injury, but Jake Paul’s knockout loss to Anthony Joshua has left the social media influencer turned boxer with more than a broken jaw.
Paul’s defeat to Joshua last month at heavyweight has also led to him being dropped from the WBA’s cruiserweight rankings. That was reflected in the sanctioning body’s latest regularly scheduled update, which was released on January 1.
Paul, now 12-2 (7 KOs), first entered the WBA ratings at No. 14 in the sanctioning body’s June list – released in July, following his unanimous decision victory over a washed-up and undersized Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr. He moved down to No. 15 in the November update, released in December.
Many decried that Paul didn’t belong in the rankings whatsoever given his weak level of opposition, accusing the sanctioning body of seeking to cash in eventually on Paul’s celebrity by easing his path toward a title shot at 200lbs.
Others played the role of devil’s advocate by wondering whether there was really much of a difference between what Paul had done (or hadn’t done) and the resumes of the men on either side of him in the rankings at the time: Giovanni Cristian Scuderi and Craig Parker.
Scuderi, at the time 12-0 with 5 KOs, hadn’t even fought in the weight class since 2022 and had recently competed at heavyweight against foes with records of 29-57-10, 7-3-2, 7-2 and 5-8-2.
Parker, at the time 20-0 with 19 KOs, was splitting his time between cruiserweight and heavyweight, and his latest victories had come against opponents with records of 23-32-1, 3-1, 14-11, 13-4-1 and 8-3-3.
All of that is moot now.
Paul is now unranked. Not that any of this will matter to the 28-year-old “Problem Child,” whose matchmaking has mostly been based on creating the biggest events rather than taking the traditional path of developing from a prospect into an actual contender.
And given the reputation of the sanctioning bodies, don’t be surprised if Paul winds up back in the rankings again as he begins to rebuild – once he recovers.
The unified WBA and WBO cruiserweight titleholder is Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, who has a May date with light heavyweight titlist David Benavidez. Ramirez, who is returning from shoulder surgery, may also try to get in a defense beforehand against Robin Sirwan Safar.
The No. 1 spot in the WBA’s Top 15 is vacant. After that comes Leonardo Mosquea at No. 2, followed by Lenar Perez, Aloys Youmbi, Mike Perez, Yuniel Dorticos, Aleksei Egorov, Chris Billam-Smith, Aleksei Papin, Safar, Roman Fress, Scuderi, Pat Brown, Liam Callanan and the man who replaced Paul at No. 15, Edin Puhalo.
Puhalo, 27-3 (26 KOs), was stopped in two rounds in late 2024 by the 18-1 Juergen Uldedaj. Since then, Puhalo has won three straight TKOs against the 32-27-1 Zoltan Sera, the 7-0 Marvin Ruf, and the 38-5 Rashad Karimov.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
