The featherweight division has been ravaged in the last two to three years by fighters moving up in weight and abandoning the weight class. Some solid names remain at the top, but most below them are largely unknowns. Here’s how the boxing featherweight division currently stands.

Featherweight division rankings last updated January 25, 2010.

1. Chris John – John is seemingly the sole non-defector to higher weight classes and greener pastures from his fellow contemporaries. That includes the man he holds a victory over, Juan Manuel Marquez. He is undefeated in 45 fights and has been a champion for over 5 years. After righting the wrong that was the draw against Rocky Juarez, John is hunting for a big name opponent in the States.
2. Juan Manuel Lopez - Finally making his featherweight debut, JuanMa looked great in taking out respected Steven Luevano, one of the division’s best prior to that bout. Next up it looks like both Lopez and Gamboa will be taking on a few more opponents, looking to build up to a potential clash between the two potentially some time in 2011. Lopez seemed very comfortable at featherweight, and one has to consider that his performance against Mtagwa was a factor of weight-drain in that bout.
3. Yuriorkis Gamboa – While Gamboa looked far more impressive than Lopez did in facing a mutual opponent as well as in appearing on the same televised HBO card, Lopez is coming off a win against a far superior opponent, especially for this division. Gamboa has improved his all-around game however, and has shown less weaknesses than he did in his early fights on television.
4. Bernabe Concepcion – Concepcion was on a four year winning streak until he got DQ’d for a hit after the bell against champion Luevano. The fight was extremely close until that point in time. Now he’s slate to face another guy that gave Luevano a tough go of it, Mario Santiago.
5. Steven Luevano – Luevano got taken to the woodshed by Lopez. While showing good effort, he didn’t have the extra gear that Lopez had and therefore could not compete with him. His lack of power of course doesn’t help him there either. After some close calls in previous encounters against challengers Concepcion and Santiago, the Lopez fight may have signaled a turning point in his career. He needs to look good and win big, and do it soon.
6. Mario Santiago – Santiago gets rated here solely based on his draw with titleholder Luevano. Including that draw, he is 2-1-1 in his last 4 fights, but almost beating one of the division’s best counts for something. Now he gets to battle Concepcion, with the winner hoping for a rematch against Luevano.
7. Rocky Juarez – Juarez is not a full time featherweight fighter, but after the 2 fights against John he may be looking for more work in this weight class. Juarez is 5-4-1 in his last 10 fights, the former hot prospect turned into title defense fodder for the elite of the featherweight and super featherweight divisions. Great power and solid fundamentals are there, but a faulty work rate and ability to pull the trigger hinder him in his big fights.
8. Guty Espadas Jr./Elio Rojas- The two contenders will battle it out for the WBC featherweight crown on February 20. The winner will be able to position himself for bigger bouts against bigger names, and the loser will likely get tossed down to the bottom of the list.

9/10. Israel Vazquez & Rafael Marquez – The two fighters are holding a fourth contest in the coming months, to be waged at the featherweight division. Pending the outcome of that bout and how each performs, we will see where they deserve to be ranked in the division.

Other names: Orlando Salido, Terdsak Jandaeng, Miguel Angel Garcia, Rogers Mtagwa, Daniel Ponce de Leon

More Boxing Weight Class Rankings

• 118-122 lbs – Super Bantamweight Rankings
• 126-230 lbs – Super Featherweight Rankings

Written by: Jake Emen