The new WBC heavyweight rankings have come out, the new Top-15, and it’s fair to say some eyebrows will be raised when a fan reads them. Tyson Fury is if course the WBC heavyweight champion, while the following guys make up the remainder of the rankings:
1: Deontay Wilder
2: Andy Ruiz
3: Frank Sanchez
4: Arslanbek Makhmudov
5: Anthony Joshua
6: Dillian Whyte
7: Martin Bakole
8: Zhan Kossobutsky
9: Otto Wallin
10: Joseph Parker
11: Jared Anderson
12: Luis Ortiz
13: Efe Ajagba
14: Agit Kabayel
15: Filip Hrgovic
So, what do you make of that lot? Fans may feel Wilder is undeserving of his number one position, the former WBC champ having beaten only Robert Helenius since losing back-to-back fights to Fury. Is Joshua, on the other hand, too low at number five? Joshua hasn’t won a fight in quite some time, so maybe you feel his ranking is accurate. As per the governing body rules, world champions from “rival” world rankings are not rated, so no Oleksandr Usyk, or Joe Joyce (the WBO interim champ), or Daniel Dubois (who holds a secondary version of the WBA heavyweight belt). Maybe you feel Zhilei Zhang deserves to be in the current WBC Top15?
Is Luis Ortiz, winless since January of 2022, worthy of his ranking? You could go on and on, but of course no set of rankings can please everyone. Still, Ortiz is not the only fighter ranked here despite not having won a fight in over a year. Maybe you would swap Ortiz with Zhang?
In the end, though, we fans just want to see the best possible heavyweight match ups get made, this regardless of where the fighter is ranked by a certain governing body.
Some heavyweight fights we want to see this year or next year:
Wilder-Joshua
Wilder-Joyce
Fury-Joyce (now that Fury-Usyk is seemingly dead for keeps)
Fury-Joshua
Usyk-Wilder
Usyk-Joyce
Whether we get to see these fights or not is totally up for grabs.