Top 10 Heavyweight Boxers – May 2021 Rankings
Andy Ruiz Jr. moves up these Heavyweight rankings after his win over Chris Arreola
By admin | May 4, 2021
(Don’t forget to rank these Heavyweights at the end of the article for a chance to win a $50 Gift Card or the equivalent of that amount in your country)
Honorable Mentions
Before we get to the top ten, here are some honorable mentions.
Derek Chisora is a Zimbabwean-born British professional boxer, with a record of 32-11. He challenged Vitali Klitschko for the WBC heavyweight title in 2012 but came short. However, at the regional level, he has held multiple heavyweight titles, including the British and Commonwealth titles. Though he has lost his last two fights, which have taken him out of the top ten rankings, he still deserves an honorable mention.
Kubrat Pulev’s last fight was against Anthony Joshua, which was only his second loss. He has a record of 28 wins and 2 losses. He has notably won the European heavyweight title and the WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight title over the course of his career
Chris Arreola has challenged three times for the WBC heavyweight title but came up short. He lost his last fight to our number 5 pick Andy Ruiz but definitely deserves an honorable mention.
Robert Helenius has a very extensive record at heavyweight. He has 30 wins and 3 losses, and over the course of his career, he has notably won WBC Silver heavyweight title, IBF Inter-Continental heavyweight title, and the WBA Gold heavyweight title
Top 10 Heavyweight Rankings
10. Luis Ortiz
Luis Ortiz is one of the most experienced and consistent boxers in the heavyweight division. With a record of 32 wins and 2 losses, both of which came against Deontay Wilder, Luiz has been there done that.
In both his fights against Wilder, Ortiz was very competitive and could have even won if the fight had gone to the scorecards; however, it was just not meant to be.
Ortiz won the vacant WBA interim heavyweight title in 2015 and defended it against Bryant Jennings in what was one of the most incredible fights of Ortiz’s career.
9. Joe Joyce
Joe Joyce has been in the professional ranks for a very short time. He turned pro in 2017 but has had an incredible amateur career, winning the silver medal in the 2016 Olympics. He has an undefeated professional record, with 12 wins, 11 of which were by knockout.
Joyce has wins over the former world champion Bermane Stiverne and title contender Bryant Jennings, which are two of the most impressive names on his resume; however, his most impressive victory came in his most recent fight against Daniel Dubois, in which he won the British, Commonwealth, WBC Silver, WBO International, and vacant European heavyweight titles.
The fight was very competitive up till the ninth round and could have gone either way on the scorecards; however, Joyce cemented his victory by knocking out Dubois in the first minute of the 10th round.
Though his next fight hasn’t been confirmed yet, there is a lot of speculation that Joyce will be fighting Oleksandr Usyk next
8. Oleksandr Usyk
Originally from Ukraine, Oleksandr Usyk is an undefeated boxer who is fairly new to the heavyweight division but is easily one of the best.
For the majority of his career, Usyk fought at cruiserweight. He is also one of the few fighters to unify the four major boxing titles. He reigned as the undisputed WBA, WBA, WBC, and IBF cruiserweight champion of the world, and also won the vacant The Ring cruiserweight title, all of which he defended once against Tony Bellow, before vacating them and moving up to heavyweight.
In his last fight, Usyk defeated Derrek Chisora and became the WBO inter-continental heavyweight champion.
For his next fight, Usyk will likely face off against Joy Joyce WBO interim heavyweight champion. Usyk is actually mandatory for the WBO belt at heavyweight; however, the current WBO heavyweight champ is fighting against the WBC heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury.
7. Joseph Parker
With a record of 28-2, Joseph Parker is one of the most incredible boxers to come out of Newzealand. He also won the then-vacant WBO Heavyweight title in 2017 defeating Andy Ruiz Jr. He defended the title twice over the next year, before losing it to Anthony Joshua in 2018.
Joshua won that fight on points but Parker proved in Cardiff that night that he was an elite level boxer. Despite losing his next fight to Dillian Whtye, Parker has remained unbeaten since then and is desperate for another world-title shot.
Parker recently defeated his domestic rivals Junior Fa, and Last weekend, he fought against Derek Chisora for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight title and won Via a Unanimous decision. Parker’s next fight has not been announced yet.
6. Alexander Povetkin
Povetkin is the only fighter in the top five who hasn’t held a world title; however, he makes up for it by an incredible record, with wins over a lot of quality fighters. Alexander Povetkin has a record of 36 wins, 2 losses, and 1 draw. He also held the WBA interim Heavyweight title from 2011 to 2013. He won the belt from Ruslan Chagaev and successfully defended it four times.
In August 2020, Povetkin also won the WBC interim Heavyweight title against Dillian Whyte but lost it in the rematch last weekend.
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5. Andy Ruiz Jr.
In the sport of Boxing, making the most of your opportunities is essential. Andy Ruiz is the embodiment of this. Over the course of his career, Ruiz had fought only two world champions. In his first clash for the WBO heavyweight title, Ruis lost a majority decision to Joseph Parker, and it didn’t seem like Ruiz would get another title shot anytime soon.
However, when Anthony Joshua’s opponent Jarrell Miller failed a drug test, Ruiz took the fight on short notice and fought for the chance to become the undisputed world champion. Ruiz was a massive underdog in this fight but managed to pull off an upset, knocking out Joshua in the 7th round, and handing him his first loss.
However, Ruiz wasn’t able to drive the same performance in the immediate rematch against Joshua and lost via unanimous decision.
After two consecutive losses, Ruiz got back into the win column last weekend after defeating Chris Arreola Via a Unanimous decision.
4. Dillian Whyte
Dillian Whyte has been around in combat sports for a long while. The former kickboxer and mixed martial artist now has a professional boxing record of 28 wins and 2 losses.
Dillian Whyte became popular after his fight against Anthony Joshua. Though he got his first loss in that fight via knockout in the seventh round, Whyte stipend up his game after that, and secured wins over big names like Dereck Chisora, Robert Helenius, Lucas Browne, Joseph Parker, and Oscar Rivas.
Whyte won the vacant WBC interim heavyweight title in his fight against Oscar Rivas; however, in his first fight against Povetkin, he lost his title and was handed his second defeat.
Whyte got an immediate rematch against Povetkin, and avenged his loss, regaining the WBC interim heavyweight title as well.
3. Deontay Wilder
Wilder is arguably the most powerful boxer in the sport, out of his 42 victories, only one has come to the scorecards, as he has 41 KOs on his record. Wilder became the WBC Heavyweight champion in 2015, after defeating Bermane Stiverne. Wilder went on to defend the title nine times.
The most exciting fight in Wilder’s career came against Tyson Fury, the first fight ended in a controversial split-decision draw. However, in the rematch, Fury won by TKO in the seventh round, ending Wilder’s reign as the WBC heavyweight champion.
2. Anthony Joshua
Before 2019, there wouldn’t have been any doubt about Joshua being the highest-ranked heavyweight in the world. However, after his loss against Andy Ruiz, and Fury winning the WBC title, Joshua has to come down at number two.
Joshua has won over some of the best fighters in the division, including Dillian Whyte, Wladimir Klitschko, Charles Martin, Joseph Parker, and Alexander Povetkin.
In his last fight against Kubrat Pulev Joshua won via knockout in the 9th round and retained the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles
For his next fight, Joshua will probably fight Tyson Fury; however, the date and venue for that fight hasn’t been finalized yet.
1. Tyson Fury
On the top of the heavyweight division, sits the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury. The undefeated heavyweight has one of the most inspiring stories in all of the sports.
In 2015, Fury defeated Wladimir Klitschko and won the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring heavyweight titles to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. However, he had to put his career on hold because of struggles with depression, alcoholism, and drug abuse.
Fury’s biggest victory was perhaps against these problems, as after two years, he made a comeback to the sport, and picked up two impressive victories over Sefer Seferi and Francesco Pianeta before challenging Deontay Wilder.
The first fight against wilder ended in a controversial split decision draw; however, Fury didn’t wait for the immediate rematch and scored two more victories against Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin.
After that, Fury got the rematch against Wilder and won via an impressive knockout in the 7th round. Fury won the WBC and vacant The Ring heavyweight titles in that bout, and will probably be facing Anthony Joshua, for a chance at becoming the undisputed, heavyweight champion once again.
Final Thoughts
The heavyweight division has always been one of the most exciting divisions in the sport of boxing, and for a long time, it hasn’t been as talent stacked as it is right now. Here were my picks for the top ten heavyweights in the world. How do you rank these Heavyweights? Rank below to be added in the Power Rankings and to have a chance to win a gift card to LAZADA, Amazon, fanatics.com, Jumia, and more (Depends on your country). Sign up for our Newsletter for updates. Contest Ending May15th
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