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Anthony Joshua Is The Number One Heavyweight In The World According To BoxRec

Anthony Joshua Is The Number One Heavyweight In The World According To BoxRec

There's four British heavyweights in the top 10 but people will be surprised to find Tyson Fury behind Oleksandr Usyk.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Anthony Joshua's win over Andy Ruiz Jr has taken him to the top of BoxRec's top 25 heavyweight boxers, and he's joined by six more British heavyweights on the list.

On Saturday night AJ won back three official versions of the world heavyweight title when he avenged his June 1st loss to Ruiz, by out boxing the Mexican for the full 12 rounds.

The win catapults the 2012 Olympic champion back into the debate about who is the best heavyweight on the planet, with Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury in the conversation, and BoxRec have AJ as the number one.

Most interestingly is the fact that Fury doesn't even make it into the top three and is behind Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk.

The former unified cruiserweight world champion moved up in weight to the heavyweight division following his win over Tony Bellew in November 2018 and has so far only had one fight in his new weight class.

In October he beat American Chazz Witherspoon in America but despite only one fight he is the WBO number one contender because of the organisations rule that gives their champion a shot at the title in a higher weight division.

Usyk's win over Bellew earned him all the gold. Image: PA Images
Usyk's win over Bellew earned him all the gold. Image: PA Images

The 32-year-old has obviously carried his ranking points over from cruiserweight but Fury will get the chance to prove he's one of the top two heavyweights in the world when he fights Wilder in February.

It will be a rematch from their December 2018 bout which ended in a draw and will be as hotly anticipated as AJ's rematch this past weekend.

Fury came close to an upset a year ago, in only his third fight back after a two and a half year absence, and will be further encouraged by Luis Ortiz's performance in his own rematch with the Bronze Bomber last month.

The Cuban was ahead on the scorecards heading towards the end of the seventh round when Wilder landed a huge knockout punch, it proved the WBC champion is fallible but equally dangerous even when well behind.

Despite his loss Ruiz Jr rounds out the top five with Dillian Whyte the next Brit on the rankings in sixth, following his defeat of Mariusz Wach on the undercard on Saturday night.

Former AJ opponent Alexander Povetkin is next on the list followed by Kubrat Pulev, who is likely to be AJ's next opponent as the IBF mandatory challenger, with Ortiz and Brit Dereck Chisora rounding off the top 10.

British heavyweights Joe Joyce, Hughie Fury and David Price are also in the top 25, with upcomer Daniel Dubois not far behind in 27th.

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Topics: Heavyweight boxing, AJ, Tyson Fury, Luis Ortiz, Boxing News, Andy Ruiz Jr, Andy Ruiz, Anthony Joshua, Dillian Whyte, Oleksandr Usyk, Deontay Wilder, heavyweight champion