Sergey Kovalev remains third in the world with a far from convincing points win over Isaac Chilemba in Russia.
Kovalev keeps his top spot while Chilemba stays at eighth. However Kovalev, who has looked so destructive in the past, was made to look fairly pedestrian by the wily challenger.
Sergey dropped Chilemba in the seventh but was never able to capitalise on the breakthrough, and looked visibly tired at times.
Next up for the Russian is the toughest test, on paper, of his career – a mouth-watering fight with former super-middleweight supremo Andre Ward, who must first move past Alexander Brand on August 6.
Cesar Juarez rises from a first round knockdown to flatten Albert Pagara in eight rounds, thus taking Pagara’s No 6 spot in the rankings.
Prior to this win, Juarez had recently taken Nonito Donaire 12 rounds.
