There may well have been a scramble in the office when BoxRec realized Jeff Horn had been placed as the third-rated middleweight in the world this week.
On the back of a first round stoppage of Anthony Mundine, Aussie media man Ben Damon pointed out what seemed to be an anomaly in the BoxRec automated rankings.
Horn, despite fighting just once at 160 and being unable to even make the limit, was only behind Canelo and Gennady Golovkin on the updated list.
After posting his findings on social media, BoxRec soon amended Horn’s points tally from 431 to 334. Although they still had Horn in the top five.
Since the change, Horn is now only bettered by Canelo, GGG, Daniel Jacobs and Jermall Charlo at the 160 pound limit.
‘The Hornet’ is unlikely to even be campaigning at middleweight moving forward. So it’s likely Boxrec will have another re-think shortly.
Placing Horn above Billy Joe Saunders is not just bordering on the absurd, it’s practically unfathomable.
Also trailing in Horn’s wake are Demetrius Andrade, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, David Lemieux, Martin Murray and world title holder Rob Brant.
It seems to be a firm indication that some points systems, especially automated examples, can have significant floors.
In their pound for pound offering, BoxRec have Terence Crawford way ahead as their number one despite the American not facing any other P4P star during his career.
WBN rates Crawford at five until such time he does meet someone, even rated in the Top 40. The last time he did this was Viktor Postol in 2016.
Julius Indongo, who Crawford defeated to become undisputed, was rated between 40 and 50 by WBN at the time.
It seems a human eye is firmly needed when racking up the points for a victory. Mundine was seen as way past his best at the time of Horn’s first round stoppage.
OBJECTIONAL
On the WBN list, Horn would not have gained any points for a win of that magnitude as all angles are considered before a fighter moves up the list.
Take Tyson Fury, for example. The former heavyweight number one was rated just outside the top ten in his pomp. Once inactivity set in, Fury dropped to 22 before being completely removed from the ratings in 2016.
Gaining a draw, which is debated to have been a points victory over highly-rated Deontay Wilder. Coupled with his status as lineal champion, meant Fury entered the P4P ratings again at number eight.
As always, Pound for Pound ratings are considerably objectional. But Horn is way too high on his current list.
For our money, Horn could even be removed completely and positioned somewhere on the fringes of the top ten in the lower 154 pound division.
View the full WBN Pound for Pound Rankings here
