Lopez entered The Ring’s welterweight top 10 at No. 5 on Monday, less than 48 hours after his majority-decision defeat of Romero in their 12-round fight for Romero’s WBA belt Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Brooklyn-born, Las Vegas-based Lopez (23-2, 13 KOs) was ranked No. 3 at junior welterweight in The Ring’s previous ratings.

Devin Haney, who owns the WBO belt, is The Ring’s No. 1 contender for a vacant 147-pound championship. Former WBO champ Brian Norman Jr. is ranked No. 2, WBA interim champ Jack Catterall is No. 3 and former WBA champ Eimantas Stanionis is No. 4.

Ryan Garcia, who will defend his WBC belt against Conor Benn on September 12 at T-Mobile Arena, is rated No. 6 among The Ring’s welterweight contenders.

Romero (17-3, 13 KOs), who upset Garcia by unanimous decision in May 2025, was not ranked in The Ring’s top 10 before Lopez beat him due to inactivity. The Ring inserted Romero at No. 10 in its newest ratings.

Adding Lopez and Romero dropped Richardson Hitchins, previously No. 9, and IBF champ Liam Paro, who was No. 10, out of the top 10.

Lopez’s removal from the junior welterweight rankings enabled each of the seven contenders ranked from No. 4 through No. 10 to move up one position without having competed recently. Russian southpaw Arthur Biyarslanov (21-0, 17 KOs) also entered at No. 10 in the 140-pound division.

The only other noteworthy insertion into The Ring’s ratings based on recent results was George Liddard as its No. 10 middleweight.

England’s Liddard (15-0, 9 KOs) stopped Italian contender Dario Morello (26-2, 4 KOs) after the eighth round of their fight for the European 160-pound championship Saturday night at Copper Box Arena in London.

Liddard replaced Italy’s Etinosa Oliha (22-1, 10 KOs) in the 10th spot because Oliha lost to Ireland’s Aaron McKenna (21-0, 10 KOs) by unanimous decision in their 12-round fight for the then-vacant IBF belt August 8 at 3Arena in Dublin. McKenna is ranked third.

Felix Alvarado was also taken out of The Ring’s flyweight top 10 because he announced his retirement. Nicaragua’s Alvarado (42-5, 35 KOs), a former IBF junior flyweight champ, was ranked No. 5.

The five flyweights who were ranked from No. 6 through No. 10 each moved up one spot. Japan’s Sho Nogami (8-0, 4 KOs) entered at No. 10 in the 112-pound division.