By Kenneth Friedman: Ring Magazine has come out with their new heavyweight rankings and they surprisingly have Tyson Fury rated #1 above world champions Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua. Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs) doesn’t have a world title belt. The former champion Fury has an invisible belt with his lineal heavyweight belt, but he hasn’t beaten ANY of the top 10 fighters on Ring Magazine’s list.
Fury, 31, is likely being given credit by Ring Magazine for his competitive fight with Wilder in December 2018. It was scored a 12 round draw by the judges, but many boxing fans thought Tyson should have had his hand raised.
You can make an argument that Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) deserves the #1 spot on Ring Magazine’s top 10 heavyweight list, since he’s beaten 4 of them:
- Andy Ruiz Jr. – 2019
- Dillian Whyte – 2015
- Alexander Povetkin – 2018
- Joseph Parker – 2018
The new Ring Magazine rankings for heavyweight:
1. Tyson Fury
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Anthony Joshua
4. Dillian Whyte
5. Luis Ortiz
6. Andy Ruiz Jr.
7. Alexander Povetkin
8. Joseph Parker
9. Adam Kownacki
10. Kubrat Pulev
Fury has ZERO wins over any of the top 10 heavyweights on this list, but he does have a draw against Wilder in 2018. Wilder has two victories over #5 Luis Ortiz. Dillian Whyte has a win over #8 Joseph Parker.
Just based on victories over the top fighters, Ring Magazine’s top 10 list should have these fighters in the top 3 spots:
- #1 Anthony Joshua
- #2 Deontay Wilder
- #3 Dillian Whyte
Fury hasn’t proven himself as deserving as the No.1 heavyweight in boxing, as he’s only beaten POOR fighters since making his comeback in 2018.
Since coming back from a 2 1/2 year layoff, Fury has beaten these fighters:
- Otto Wallin
- Sefer Serferi
- Francesco Pianeta
- Tom Schwarz
Those are tune-up heavyweights, and not elite level guys. The World Boxing Organization had Wallin and Schwarz rated high, but they’d done zero to be given that ranking.
Fury the lineal heavyweight champion
Although he’s the lineal heavyweight champion, but there’s no world title belt with designation. That’s something that he got from beating 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko at the tail end of his career back in 2015. A shot as Wladimir looked in that fight, you can’t say that Fury should be lineal champion.
Wladimir looked bad, and Fury didn’t look good either in spoiling his way to a very, very close victory. He was mostly scratching at the air with his slapping shots, and hanging over the ropes to keep from tanking head shots from Wladimir.
Beating Wladimir isn’t enough for Fury to be given the #1 ranking or it shouldn’t be enough. Wladimir was so far past his prime when he fought Fury, it wasn’t even interesting to watch. The hand-eye coordination that Wladimir possessed earlier in his career was completely gone by the time he fought Fury. It was like watching baseball great Willie Mays in his final game of his career, making an error in the outside on a ground ball. Wladimir had nothing left by the time he fought Fury.