By Cliff Rold

Heavyweight: Anthony Joshua went from untested to battle hardened in a single night, surviving a trip to the brink against Wladimir Klitschko to stop the longtime face of the class. He ascends to the top spot. Given his planned return this year, Tyson Fury remains the historical champion but feel free to regard it as Joshua’s class until proven otherwise. Bermane Stiverne exits the top ten for inactivity. Tony Bellew arrives after an upset of David Haye.

Cruiserweight: Bellew vacated the WBC strap in class, and exits the ratings, leaving Mairis Breidis to win the belt, dominating former titlist Marco Huck to make a leap in the top ten.

Light Heavyweight: Oleksandr Gvozdyk made a statement with a knockout of Yuniesky Gonzalez, making a jump. Eleider Alvarez gets a slight bump for his knockout of former super middleweight titlist Lucian Bute.

Super Middleweight: Bute exits the top ten. Andre Dirrell returns with a chance to win the interim IBF belt and line up a rematch with James DeGale. Expect lots of shake-ups here by the next update.

Middleweight: After much hemming and hawing about Saul Alvarez retaining his place as champion, we arrive at the fight everyone wanted. Golovkin will have the chance to add history’s crown to his belt collection and Alvarez ends up a man of his word (at least as of last year). It should be quite an event. Daniel Jacobs stays just behind Golovkin after proving his place near the top of the class in a fight where the winner was worth debating. David Lemieux moves ahead of Andy Lee. Peter Quillin exits for inactivity while Chris Eubank exits for a higher class. Entering the top ten are Avtandil Khurtsidze and Immanuwel Aleem.

Jr. Middleweight: Canelo remains rated while he retains the WBO belt in class. It is presumed he will be staying at middleweight but we can wait a hair. Jermall Charlo vacated his title and is off to middleweight where he could make some real noise. Jarrett Hurd enters the top ten with his IBF title win over Tony Harrison.

Welterweight: Keith Thurman moves up after unifying a pair of titles against Danny Garcia. Lamont Peterson and Lucas Matthysse enter the ratings after recent wins. Timothy Bradley and Amir Khan exit for inactivity.

Jr. Welterweight: Adrien Broner exits for a return to welterweight and Jose Benavides exits having not fought in the division since 2015. Julius Indongo cemented his top contender’s spot with a unification win over Ricky Burns who remains rated with little else to replace him as yet. Antonio Orozco and Anthony Ygit enter the top ten.

Lightweight: Robinson Castellanos moves into the top ten with an upset of Yuriorkis Gamboa. Luke Campbell enters off a strong win over veteran Daerlys Perez.

Featherweight: Oscar Valdez gets a bump after a rousing win over Miguel Marriaga. Former titlist Simpiwe Vetyeka exits for inactivity. Former Jr. featherweight titlist Scott Quigg enters the top ten. 

Bantamweight: Marlon Tapales lost his WBO title on the scales, won his fight against Shohei Omori, and Zolani Tete walks away with the strap. The sequence of events made Tete, the interim titlist, the owner of the whole belt. Tete moves up the ratings and Tapales remains rated while we see if his missing weight was a one-off. Tomoki Kameda exits the top ten, fighting in higher weights, and Luis Nery enters. 

Jr. Bantamweight: In a controversial upset, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai won a decision over Roman Gonzalez in one of the best fights of the year. The Thai moves into the top slot with Gonzalez dropping and a rematch pending.

Flyweight: Juan Hernandez makes a big jump after winning a title in class. Returning, after another sad layoff is the excellent Moruti Mthalane, still appearing to be a handful for anyone in class. McWilliams Arroyo exits for inactivity.

Jr. Flyweight: Javier Mendoza exits having not fought in the class in well over a year. Milan Melindo enters the top ten and will challenge Akira Yaegashi this month.

Strawweight: Divisional stalwart Katsunari Takayama has retired, ending one of the most fun careers in boxing’s smallest class. Takayama won all four of the various alphabet titles at some point (even if his WBA belt was interim) and briefly held a unified portion of the title late in his sixteen-year career. He went out a WBO titlist and should get a healthy tip of the cap.

The full results of note and the total impact on the ratings are a click away.

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Last ratings update: February 13, 2017

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com