There have been guys on the list that have been injured or inactive for a lot longer as him. Maybe he can never box again, but that's still completely inconclusive. Champions from one sanctioning body are almost never ranked by the others. That's one reason why they can't enforce unification.
Well with Vitali seemingly retiring in Sept. vs Charr it will probably create a short term solution paper champ who will get beat once the cream of the crop prospects shape up or Wlad wants to unify In the immediate landscape it will probably be Stiverne or Arreola Id actually hope its Helenius vs one of them because he would win and then i think he would hold on to the title a for a while because i think he is a good fighter