Shinsuke Yamanaka the new #1 at bantamweight?

Moreno, LSC then Yamanaka for me.

 

Yeah; I'd say so.

Tunacao, Esquivel, and I believe Darchinyan were all rated at 118 at the time (if Darch wasn't rated, he was still a former titleholder at the weight in any event). Rojas wasn't rated, but was still a quality fighter who held a title at a lower weight.

So I think on the basis of activity and consistency, I'd put Shinsuke in the number one slot above Moreno.

 

Nah. LSC has been active, but there's talk of him moving up to 122lb...Plus he didn't really beat anyone in the Top 10 in either Transnational or Ring. Not enough to overtake Shin's quality, imo.

 

It's between him and Moreno.

 

Rather clearly, IMO - although Chemito and Teremoto are close enough to nip at his heels.

 

YEp!!! He's there

 

He is close, He has a solid resume in the division so far. Beat fraud Kameda and unify with Moreno and will be the top dog.

 

1. Moreno
2. Yamanaka

and clearly those two, either order but I think Moreno has an extremely underrated resume at bantam. It trumps Yamanaka's by quite a long ways.

 

I still rank Moreno above him.

 

Why/how does stopping the #7 make him #1?

Not here.

Shouldn't the question be who beats who?

 

It ain't just about beating the #7...it's overall recent body of work. It's a "what have you done for me lately" sport.

With Mares, Darchinyan and Montiel all having climbed up and/or deteriorated it created a vacuum of elites at bantam. For a time it seemed Anselmo Moreno was left to rule the roost (and remember, he is still undefeated in his bantamweight career), standing alone...but LSC has been quietly building himself up to nearly those heights and graduating from deep undercard obscurity, while Yamanaka has been even more quietly putting together an excellent CV with most US boxing fans oblivious to his existence.

Going back two full years:

Yamanaka has Iwasa, Esquivel, Darchinyan, Rojas and now Tuñacao - all more or less B+ as of when he fought them.

Moreno has Parra, Darchinyan, and De La Mora. Even if you generously want to call Parra still B+ as of then, numerically he's still outdone 5-3 by Yamanaka with similar quality.

Santa Cruz has Jamoye, Lopez, Briceno, Romero, Hernandez, Malinga, Morel, Zaleta and Guevera. Numerically he slaughters both Moreno and Yamanaka - hell, combined...but I can't grade any of those over a B. (the applicable versions of Malinga and Morel being game but well past it)


The next tier down is Chokchai, Agbeko, Kameda, Ruiz, Ambunda, Jamoye and Iwasa...but they're all well behind the top three for various reasons. (Chokchai is talented enough to reestablish himself as a player but has accomplished **** all since moving up; Agbeko is coming off a rough stretch of official results; Kameda is a protected fraud hanging onto his belt tenuously via gift decisions; Ruiz is coming off the official loss to Kameda; Ambunda has a very skimpy resume until beating Singyu for the WBO title he'd nabbed while vacant against Banal; and neither Jamoye nor Iwasa have broken ground beyond regional or domestic level respectively)



So unless some blue-chip prospect emerges very soon, it's going to be a tight race between the above trio before a clearly dominant #1 takes shape. There's so much distance between them and the rest of the pack, and really very little distance betwixt them.

 

Yamanaka-Moreno for The Ring belt would be awesome.

 

:nod Santa Cruz waiting on deck. :bbb

 

If he is #1, it'll make it all the sweeter when Iwasa gets his revenge...