On June 19th, at LoanDepot Park, in Miami, Florida, Franchon Crews-Dezurn and Elin Cederroos, will clash for the vacant, undisputed super middleweight championship.
Will it be for the lineal championship, crowning a true champion at 168lbs? Well, with all four major belts on the line, this appears to be a no-brainer, but things are not quite so clear-cut as they initially seem.
Christina Hammer has competed in the middleweight division for much of her career, however, she won the WBO title at 168lbs in 2013, and has had two fights at the weight in the last 26 months, most recently knocking out Sanna Turunen in 7 rounds last December to win the lightly regarded WIBF title. She is #2 at super middleweight in Lineal Boxing Champion’s ratings, #1 at super middleweight with BoxRec (albeit, their computer-generated ratings are erratic), and she is considered a top 10 P4P fighter by ESPN (#6). While her total super middleweight fights are limited, the 168lbs weight class is shallow, and knocking out Turunen was something no other fighter had accomplished, including Hannah Rankin and Ema Kozin. In the same 26-month timeframe, The Ring’s #1 super middleweight, Elin Cederroos, has only been slightly more active at the weight, fighting three times.
Elin won the vacant IBF strap against Femke Hermans by majority decision in 2019, knocked out Florence Muthoni (a fighter who lost a shut-out over 8 rounds to Hammer in her next fight) later in the year, but hasn’t fought since January 2020, when she narrowly outpointed Alicia Espinosa. The Espinosa victory was probably Elin’s most impressive professional victory to date, but it’s worth noting, in Espinosa’s four previous WBA super middleweight title fights, she had only ever weighed as much as 161lbs – Espinosa is a small middleweight, not a super middleweight. The most emphatic loss of Espinosa’s career was to Tory Nelson in a WIBA “super middleweight” title fight in 2016 – just two years later, Christina Hammer won a wide 10 round decision over Nelson. Franchon Crews-Dezurn’s two sanctioning body belts were both won against the same fighter, Maricela Cornejo, in 2018 (WBC) and 2019 (WBO) – both vacant titles. Cornejo’s last loss before facing Crews-Dezurn, came against Kali Reis in 2016 – 7 months later, Reis got widely outscored by Hammer at middleweight. Against the best fighters in and around the middleweight/super middleweight division over the last few years, Hammer’s quality has at the very least, proven to be up there with Crews-Dezurn and Cederroos.
Crews-Dezurn is rated #1 in Lineal Boxing Champion’s ratings, with Christina Hammer at #2, and Cederroos at #3. Cederroos is ranked #1 in The Ring ratings at 168lbs, with Crews-Dezurn at #2. The Ring have Hammer ranked at #2 at middleweight, but not at all at super middleweight (despite her most recent bout being the WIBF winning bout at 168lbs).
Crews-Dezurn and Cederroos have had a combined, 17 fights. Hammer is 26-1. In a division that only has 20 competitors (only 8 of which have won more than 5 fights - as per BoxRec, June 5, 2021), can a fighter become the true champion without facing the division’s most experienced, and arguably most talented fighter?
Our panelists, David Avila and Julian Haramboure, fully back Dezurn/Cederroos as a fight to fill the lineal vacancy, while Ireneusz Fryszkowski was more skeptical, pointing out the “vacant belts of Crews in the past vs vacant IBF belt of Elin.” Yuriko Miyata was also undecided, saying, “Good match-up, but I want to see the performance first.”
Rather than adhere to a strict “#1 vs #2” policy, it is usually better to take into consideration the wider picture when determining if a bout is worthy of filling a lineal vacancy. One set of ratings alone, should not exclusively crown a lineal champion. Last year’s Charlo/Rosario fight demonstrated this – the match-up wasn’t “1 Vs #2” in the TBRB’s ratings, so didn’t fill the vacancy under that organization, and it wasn’t an “undisputed” fight, however, Charlo was the #1 ranked 154lbs fighter with Ring/ESPN, and Rosario was the #1 ranked fighter with Boxing News/TBRB. Julian Williams (TBRB #2) had been KO’d by Jeison Rosario in his last bout, and had elected not to exercise his rematch clause, but because of the TBRB’s strict “#1 Vs #2” policy, it was essential for him to be involved in a TBRB championship filling fight. Charlo/Rosario, for three sanctioning body belts, was also for the Ring title, which increased public support for it. Jake Donovan, writing for Boxing Scene, reported that Charlo and Rosario were “contending for the lineal junior middleweight championship.” The 4th major sanctioning body belt (WBO) was (and still is) held by Patrick Teixeira, who only just scraped inside most independent top 10 lists (TBRB #9, Ring #10) – who needs to beat the 10th best fighter in the world to be the real divisional champion?
In a post-fight interview with the Showtime punditry panel, Charlo declared:
“I’m the linear champion of the light middleweight division. I hold the crown. I’m the king.”
Charlo Vs Rosario was the Ring/ESPN #1 Vs TBRB/Boxing News #1, at 154lbs. The consensus in boxing was that the fight crowned the true junior middleweight, lineal champion.
In truth, it is difficult to split Crews-Dezurn, Cederroos and Hammer, but with Hammer currently fighting as an amateur in 2021, aiming to qualify for the Olympics, and with no professional fights scheduled this year, she has temporarily made herself unavailable. In addition to this, although she may potentially soon return to the professional ranks, she has no strong claim to being the #1 in the weight class, and is not in possession of a major belt at 168lbs (such a belt would, at a minimum, signal an increased likelihood of her next bout being at super middleweight). In comparison, at junior lightweight, Maiva Hamadouche, has also been campaigning in the amateurs in a bid to qualify for Toyko, although unlike Hammer, Hamadouche does have a legitimate claim to the #1 spot in her weight class, and has a major belt - a lineal championship fight at 135lbs which excluded Maiva, would ring hollow.
Credit to Sweden’s unbeaten, Cederroos, and America’s Crews-Dezurn, for accepting the hardest viable challenge at 168lbs right now. “The Heavy Hitting Diva” (Crews-Dezurn), has racked up considerable experience for a fighter with just 9 fights (one “no decision”). Her high-pressure, all-action fighting style led to a memorable display against future P4P #1, Claressa Shields, on her debut (which Crews-Dezurn lost on points), and enabled to her to out-hustle Maricela Cornejo twice in two hard-fought 10 rounders. Both Franchon and Elin are big framed super middleweights - 33-year-old Crews-Dezurn, has a slight edge in reach (72” to 36-year-old, Elin’s 70”).
Elin Cederroos, 5’10.5”, likely goes into the clash with the edge in power, but she has never stopped anyone with the strength or durability of the 5’8” American. Franchon’s chin passed a stern test against hard punching, former heavyweight #1, Alejandra Jimenez, in a fight which was for the vacant lineal super middleweight championship, in January 2020. Mexican, Jimenez, was initially declared the winner via split decision, but the result was changed to a “no decision” after she failed a PED test.
The June 19th battle is set to be an exciting match-up on paper, one that can, and will, be viewed as a credible bout for the true world championship at super middleweight.
Adam McMeeking
@LinealBoxChamp
The best at 168lbs: Cederroos, Crews-Dezurn, and Hammer.