The Super Lightweight Division is Heating Up!

By Bradley “The Bulldog” Johnson

All of boxing seems to be heating up as one of Americas oldest sport is gaining more and more spotlight once again. Not only is HBO and Showtime keeping hot cards on the schedule but ESPN has joined in along with CBS and Fox on occasion.

We watched the welterweight division become one of the hottest divisions in boxing, the flyweights put in their bid as well with exciting boxers and stacked cards. The light heavyweights and cruiserweights are also producing some big power punchers and great matchups, but today I’d like to focus on the super lightweight division (140 lbs.).

Let’s start at the top with Mikey Garcia, who improved his record to an impressive 38-0, 30 KO’s with a 12-round decision over a very tough Sergey Lipinets, 13-1, 10 KO’s. Although Lipinets was handed his first loss earlier this month that is no reason to look down on him. Lipinets showed why he may be one of the best 140 pounders not named Mikey Garcia. Sergey should get his opportunity later this year to make his mark on this division and show us where he really stands.

Next, I am excited to see where the career of Regis Prograis is headed. I think Prograis is the #2 guy in that division and probably the only guy that can build a buzz and threat to the clear best in the division right now Mikey Garcia. Regis Prograis, 21-0, 18 KO’s took out Julius Indongo by 2nd round TKO on March 9th, the same round former unified 140 lbs. champion Terence Crawford stopped Indongo. Regis is a young, very strong, heavy handed 29-year-old, fighting out of Houston Texas and has put the division on high alert. He is hungry and ready to fight the best, and even said he would love to fight Crawford given the opportunity.

The recent emergence comes from last weeks fight between Jose Carlos Ramirez and Amir Imam. Amir Imam known to have “Oh my God” power according to Paulie Malignaggi, was not able to hurt or even slow down Ramirez at any point in this fight. Jose Ramirez, 22-0, 16 KO’s made his mark on the division while capturing the vacant WBC World Title with his mother in attendance at the Madison Square Garden theater in New York. Jose was born and raised in California but his parents are immigrants from Mexico. He has also been very active in his community in the fight for water for the farmers working in the fields. A young aggressive champion who has made his name in and out of the ring for doing the right things.

To me, these are the four guys to keep your eyes on in the division, but I’d like to add Kiryl Relikh who just had an impressive win over Rances Barthelemy. Terry Flanagan, 33-0, 13 KO’s but yet to have a notable win to get the divisions attention. Adrien “has a lot of problems” Broner, well, I’m just not sure which way he is going! Viktor Postol has only fought once since his loss to Crawford in July of 2016 and recently pulled out of his fight with Regis Prograis will need to prove that he can still be relevant in this division.

The only other question is will Mikey Garcia who will have options in several weight classes, and big money fights coming his way, will he stick around at 140 or chase the money. I’d bet he looks for a mega-fight rather then unify the titles which may not benefit his pockets. This will give the other boxers in the division to set up some great match ups for the fans.

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