However, it has been proven that this assimilation is mistaken, as it is mainly based on superficial resemblances, leaving the latter awaiting a more in-depth study to determine its relationships with other representatives of the group.

Moreover, studies published post-2018 prove that S. progressus belongs to a grouping of Russian gorgonopsians, placed alongside the genera Suchogorgon, Pravoslavlevia and Inostrancevia, due to some shared cranial characteristics.

The specific epithet progressus is incorrectly named due to its supposed morphological closeness to cynodonts, which have a large number of progressive and more mammal-like features than other gorgonopsians.

[2][10][8] In 1950, a relatively complete skeleton, discovered in the Usili Formation in Tanzania, cataloged GPIT/RE/7113, was described by the German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene as a representative of the species Scymnognathus parringtoni,[a] being named in honor of Francis Rex Parrington.

[7] However, this affiliation is formally rejected in 2018, as new classifications based on cranial anatomical traits show that derived gorgonopsians are separated into two clade of Russian and African origin, leaving GPIT/RE/7113 as an incertae sedis within the latter group.

In 1974, the Russian paleontologist Leonid Petrovich Tatarinov classified Sauroctonus within the family Gorgonopsidae, and in the subfamily Cynariopinae, alongside various African genera such as Cynariops, Scylacognathus or Scylacops.

[6] These repetitive classification changes have left Sauroctonus in an uncertain position among the gorgonopsians, with some seeing it as close to the African genera, while others consider it to belong to a lineage in its own right.

[8] It is from 2018 that paleontologists Christian Kammerer and Vladimir Masyutin definitively reclassify Sauroctonus in a group of Russian gorgonopsians, alongside the genera Inostrancevia, Pravoslavlevia and Suchogorgon, in particular for certain shared cranial characteristics, more precisely for close contact between the pterygoid and the vomer.

Among the gorgonopsians, Sauroctonus is found to have had a reduced jaw opening, unlike in the closely related Inostrancevia, indicating that it would not have been as specialized in hunting as the other representatives of the group.