Anthony Joshua entered the World Boxing Council rankings at number six, more than enough to challenge Tyson Fury for the WBC heavyweight title.
World Boxing News explained after Fury offered Joshua the chance that his British rival would need a special waiver or a September qualifier to get the ban.
The latter has now taken place, leaving Joshua in position to be the voluntary option for Fury this winter.
Anthony Joshua’s WBC Ranking
Joshua needed to be in the Top 15 of the WBC ratings for September. Unsurprisingly, the WBC Ratings Committee has now been pleased after a second loss to Oleksandr Usyk.
The WBC has rated AJ sparingly over the past six years due to his ties to every other sanctioning body. The 2012 Olympic gold medalist has held or challenged the WBA, IBF and WBO versions since 2016.
The WBC has a policy of not classifying any fighter who competes for another organization. This scenario meant that Joshua could not be rated until now.
fury against joshua
However, his inclusion on the first try bodes well for a British super fight with Fury. If agreed, the battle will be the biggest top flight fight involving a Briton in two decades.
Deontay Wilder is still the number one contender. “The Bronze Bomber” remains above Andy Ruiz Jr. even though the former unified ruler won an eliminator against Luis Ortiz.
Frank Sanchez is third, with Wilder’s next opponent, Robert Helenius, in fourth. Arslanbek Makhmudov is fifth and Ortiz drops to eleven after Ruiz’s loss.
WBC Ratings – Heavyweight [September 2022]:
1 Deontay Wilder US2 Andy Ruiz Jr. . Mexico/USA3 Frank Sánchez Cuba CONTINENTAL AMERICA4 Robert Helenius Finland5 Arslanbek Makhmudov Russia/Canada NABF6 Anthony Joshua GB7 Dillian Whyte GB8 Otto Wallin Sweden9 /USA
WBC Voluntary Court
16 Agit Kabayel Germany17 Murat Gassiev Russia18 Jared Anderson USA19 Mahmoud Charr Libya20 Zhilei Zhang China21 Tony Yoka France22 Kubrat Pulev Bulgaria23 Bakhodir Jalolov Uzbekistan24 Vladyslav Sirenko Ukraine /OPBF31 Stephan Shaw USA32 Simon Kean Canada33 Jose Larduet Cuba INTL Silver34 Fabio Wardley GB35 Sergey Kuzmin Russia Za36 Oleksandr Ukraine /Germany37 Jerry Forrest US38 Peter Kadiru Germany39 James Kenzie Morrison US) USNB USNBC40 Demsey McKean Australia
WBN editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. He follows WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.
