Top 11 heavyweights since 2015

Or rather, definitely needed to have fought a couple of years ago.

Now is a better late than never job, with excuses locked and loaded.


Broad-brush Joshua has the deeper and less controversial resume, where Fury had marginally better performances against Usyk (though exaggerated, IMHO) and at times appeared capable of operating at a higher level.

I think they were roughly equivalent, I tend to favour depth, so I'd probably give Joshua the slight edge, but that might also be because I don't rate Wilder nearly as highly as many do and Fury's resume looks much better/worse depending on how you value that trilogy.

 

1 Usyk
2 Fury
3 Joshua
4 Wilder
5 Parker
6 Povetkin
7 Dubois
8 Ruiz
9 Kabayel
10 Whyte
11 Hrgovic

 

Oddly enough I still think Wilder sparks AJ out. That chin is cracked and AJ doesn't have great defense imo.

Was Wilder overrated? Yes. But he was always a very dangerous fighter because of that power. He put Fury down enough times to earn that respect from me.

Fury vs AJ head to head? Have to give the edge to Fury as he's a lot more versatile, but really don't like the direction his trainer took him recently.

 

Fury
Joshua
Dubois
Parker
Kabayel
Usyk
Wilder
Povetkin
Whyte
Chisora

 

Removing bias or standpoint, it is difficult to rank most of these guys fairly. Even by historical standards this generation has had its fair share of flash in the pan fighters or legit contenders who have massively fluctuated. Then there's a handful of guys who did their own thing and left it late to make their mark against legit competition.

#1 is hands down Usyk.

#2 - 3 is going to be Fury and Joshua. In terms of where they sit is where your preference and values lie as a fan. Joshua has the deeper resume and arguably the cleaner legacy, but he has the more damaging losses.
Fury has some standout victories and the comeback story, but held up the division for years.

Outside of the Top 3 its a real pick em list.

#4 - 7 There are 4 former champions to consider, and all relevant for a time.
Obviously there are question marks to how good Wilder was, but you simply cannot remove his awesome power and the fact he was the most lethal fighter in the Rankings in his pomp.
Parker has fluctuated and only now is he gaining the success and plaudits many tipped for him when he turned pro. His resume is deep, he has been relevant and exclusively Top 10 ranked for ten years - being active for the whole decade. Of all the fighters, he is the most open to revisionism depending on his next few fights I feel.
Dubois. Capable, devastating, has a defining victory and went on a solid run. However the baggage around him may effect his standing among some.
Ruiz is underrated but never proved himself the way he could. Dethroned Joshua at his height and that has merit, but he did little else. In this bracket, he cant be listed above DW, JP or DDD.

#8 - 11 is impossible to quantify.
Whyte was Top 5 ranked for a good 3 years. Joyce's star was brief but he was on a hell of a tear during the Pandemic years before his form fell off a cliff. His victories have aged very well for him.
Hrgovic has had moments.
I cant see a place for either Pulev and Miller, though both are Top 20.
Putting Povetkin in this list is charitable. His best years were before this period.
Zhang and Ortiz both floated on the fringes for years as the bogeymen nobody wanted. Ortiz had that aura about him but its impossible to know what his ceiling actually was. Zhang at least put a gauntlet down.
Then we have Chisora and Takam who were both serviceable fighters and had their successes but it is difficult to put them in the Top 10 with so many deserving contenders.
Kabayel is another one difficult to rank right now given the thinness of his resume over the first 8 years of this period. He is in a similar situation to Parker in terms of revisionism.

1. Usyk
2. Fury
3. Joshua
4. Parker
5. Wilder
6. Dubois
7. Whyte
8. Ruiz
9. Kabayel
10. Zhang
11. Joyce
*Honorable mention to Hrgovic and Chisora. It is difficult to leave them out.

When you strip it all back and look at the context of the Era, its not an easy list of fighters to rank!

 

To each their own... I'd give him a punchers chance, but there's levels to this and Wilder was far enough below Joshua that I don't think even styles would swing it.

He put down gassed Fury and unfit Fury in #1 and #3... Couldn't lay a glove the only time Fury turned up properly.

And Fury's been put down plenty, too, including by a 0-0 novice when in similar condition.

I don't really know if he's that much more versatile... Both have at times used different styles.
Fury's more aggressive "kronk" style I don't think massively suited him and while it upped his power a lot, he still wasn't a massive puncher - and with that style he was so much easier to hit... Which could be bad when you have a power puncher like Joshua.

The other thing is Fury relied on clinch and lean at times, which probably wouldn't work too well on a muscular lump like Joshua just as it didn't on Ngannou.

If anything I think Fury gets seen as a gestallt of all the best aspects of both his styles where Joshua is seen more by the limitations of his... And I don't think that's really fair - Fury's two styles negate each other moreso than Joshua's. Joshua's bigger problem was not being able to switch between them very well.


It'd be an interesting fight even now.

 

Fair, you make some sound points. It'd be a great fight even now, but I see Fury giving him the Wlad treatment while taking the odd shot/maybe a knockdown.

Maybe Turki is trying to get Fury to beat Usyk first before a unification bout.

 

That would realistically mean it never happens, then?

Hmm, it depends how Joshua approached it, also...

For me, if Fury goes tippy tappy he's not going to have the power to keep Joshua honest if he goes aggressive... But going "kronk" makes Fury very easy to hit with something bigger.

I generally think people overrate Fury a bit on here - he's been very good at times, but he's not a huge puncher regardless... A lot of people seem, at least to me, to both overrate his power in kronk style and make an assumption that he can be both tight, slick and difficult to hit yet have that power available - and I just don't think he ever did or ever could.


Joshua on the flip side gets underrated a bit - yes durability/recovery at times has let him down a bit, but I don't see that as something Fury is particularly well placed to exploit.


Fury's the better points fighter of the two, but would he have got through without getting knocked down (and he's been knocked down by much lesser men!) and would he be ahead enough on cards that it didn't matter?

It could honestly have gone either way, but I do think there's reason to ever so slightly favour Joshua.

 

"nearly" means nothing

 

No! He got a credit next year... from Foreman.

 

1. Usyk
2. Fury
3. Joshua
4. Parker
5. Povetkin
6. Ruiz
7. Dubois
8. Whyte
9. Wilder
10. Joyce
11. Kabayel

 

Arguably he did in the first fight. Luckily we had a good ref that day

 

Well done. Wilder to ninth place.