Ring Magazine came out with their updated heavyweight rankings after last Saturday’s ‘Day of Reckoning’ card, and it’s a bad one. The oddballs in the new rankings are Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, positioned at #1 & #2.
With the poor opposition the two have faced recently, they both should be stowed away at the bottom of the Ring Magazine rankings. Zhilei Zhang should be at the #1 spot, breathing down the neck of Oleksandr Usyk, a very shaky King after his fight with Daniel Dubois last August.
Updated Ring Magazine heavyweight rankings:
King: Oleksandr Usyk
1. Tyson Fury
2. Anthony Joshua
3. Zhilei Zhang
4. Joseph Parker
5. Filip Hrgovic
6. Frank Sanchez
7. Jared Anderson
8. Joe Joyce
9. Deontay Wilder
10. Agit Kabayel
Joshua’s Ascension: Misleading?
Anthony Joshua has been installed at #2 based on his win over Otto Wallin. AJ was pushed to the top after beating a mediocre heavyweight last Saturday. Wallin is a decent ham & egger, but he’s not the type of opponent that should lead to AJ being given a #2 ranking after beating him.
Joshua’s two precision wins were against 39-year-old Robert Helenius and Jermaine Franklin. These are not top-level heavyweights.
The list doesn’t reflect the current reality of the type of opposition that Joshua has been facing, as he’s being propped up by his promoter, Eddie Hearn, being fed tomato cans to keep his career from sinking into oblivion.
Fans don’t agree with Joshua being anywhere near the top 2 spot, as his record in his last five fights is 3-2, and if you exclude the three tune-up opponents his promoter Eddie Hearn fed him, his record is 0-2.
A fighter with a 3-2 record in their last five fights should NOT be at #2 on the Ring Magazine list. That’s just common sense. That’s like giving Joshua a high ranking based on failure. He failed his way to the top, making a mockery of Ring Magazine’s terrible rankings.
AJ hasn’t beaten a top-tier heavyweight since December 2019, when he defeated an out-of-shape 283-lb Andy Ruiz Jr. in their rematch.
Does Fury deserve to be #1?
The 35-year-old Tyson Fury is still rated #1 in the Ring Magazine after his poor performance against Franciso Ngannou last October in Saudi Arabia.
Fury clearly lost the fight in the eyes of the fans, but was given a controversial ten round split decision. In that fight, you could see that age has gotten to Fury, as he looked like a 50-year-old, getting knocked around the ring by Ngannou and unable to use his stand-up wrestling that he’d grown to depend on to win his fights.
With Fury unable to maiul, he was helpless and got out-punched in every round.