By William Lloyd: Ring Magazine has come out with its latest heavyweight rankings. Surprisingly, Tyson Fury is ranked as the champion in the division ahead of IBF/WBA/WBO champ Anthony Joshua.
It’s a bit surprising that WBC champion Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs), with his one belt and 18 months of inactivity, is ranked higher than Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs).
It makes no sense when looking at just that part of the rankings, as Ring Magazine gives Fury a higher position despite being out of the ring for close to two years and having fewer belts than the more active Joshua.
By the time Fury, 32, does return to the ring on October 9th to defend his belt against former WBC champion Deontay Wilder, he’ll have been out of the ring for 20 months!
How does Ring Magzine keep an inactive champion at the top after that long of a period?
Should Fury be stripped of his titles?
Eddie Hearn recently argued that the World Boxing Council should step up and give Fury the ‘Emeritus champion in Recess’ tag due to his long period of inactivity.
Hearn wants the WBC to make interim champion Dillian Whyte the temporary WBC champion while Fury is out of the ring. If Fury can come back, he can challenge Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) for his old WBC title, assuming he beats Wilder whenever that fight happens.
Frankly, we don’t even know if Fury will fight Wilder on the October 9th rescheduled date, unfortunately. Fury’s father, John Fury, said last week in an interview that he’s having family problems right now.
Obviously, Fury’s situation is more critical than his boxing career, and you wouldn’t blame him if he did cancel the fight with Deontay.
With so much uncertainty about whether Fury will even take the fight with Wilder on October 9th, that’s even more reason for Joshua to be ranked above him in the Ring Magazine heavyweight rankings.
Having the inactive Fury as the Ring Magazine champion somehow makes the rankings seem cheaper in this writer’s view. It’s like keeping a Super Bowl team as the champion for two years without competing.
If the NFL did something like that in keeping a team champion for two solid years without them needing to compete, the fans would view it being a Super Bowl champion as valueless.
Ring Magazine heavyweight rankings:
Champion: Tyson Fury
1. Anthony Joshua
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Dillian Whyte
4. Joseph Parker
5. Andy Ruiz Jr
6. Luis Ortiz
7. Michael Hunter
8. Oscar Rivas
9. Joe Joyce
10. Oleksandr Usyk
Joe Joyce being ranked above Oleksandr Usyk in the Ring Magazine rankings makes little sense, given the huge difference in achievement between the two fighters.
Usyk is a former undisputed cruiserweight champion, and he’s viewed as being a tough out for Joshua in their fight next month on September 25th. Also, Usyk already beat Joyce in the World Series of Boxing eight years ago in a one-sided fight.