1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Anthony Joshua
3. Tyson Fury
4. Zhilei Zhang
5. Filip Hrgovic
6. Joe Joyce
7. Joseph Parker
8. Martin Bakole
9. Daniel Dubois
10. Agit Kabayel
11. Frances Ngannou
12. Denontay Wilder
14. Frank Sanchez
15. Jared Anderson
Such a hard top 15 to rank. Usyk is the clear number 1, but is shaky considering some of the most knowledgable boxing fan friends I respect consider the Dubois low blow a legit body shot. Fury, who I would have previously seen as the clear number 1, has pissed about fighting shot fighters and a boxing debutant for the past two years and was lucky to get a win last time out against somebody on paper he should have beat with an arm behind his back.
Joshua boxed out of his skin in Usyk 2 and looked really good in losing, despite his mental meltdown post-fight, and has been active clawing his way back up slowly finally destroying Wallin with ease, a guy who gave Fury all he could handle and who had just beaten Gassiev, a solid cruiserweight, in his last fight. Wallin was no mug, and AJ beat him convincingly and well within the distance. It was a total mismatch in reality, but wasn't on paper.
Zhang beat the shit out of Joe Joyce, who I rated really highly and should've been Olympic gold in 2016. He also should have probably got the nod over Hrgovic, but that was about as close as a fight can be. A Rizla paper between the two.
Hrgovic is almost inseparable from Zhang. He has no urgency and seems disinterested, but I can't split him from the big Chinese. They need to rematch.
Joyce looked unstoppable until he walked face first into Zhang twice in a row, and got slept in the rematch. Maybe it's a case of styles make fights, maybe it's a case of Joyce suddenly getting old, maybe it's a case of Zhang, who looked Big Bang average until their first meeting joining forces with a top 'Strength and Conditioning coach' to suddenly become a total beast nearing 40. Regardless, Joyce's chin has been cracked. I'm reluctant to drop him low until we see how he does when he returns. But his defeat of Parker was so impressive I have to keep him high for now.
Parker hasn't looked good for a long time, but his domination of Wilder is hugely impressive. Wilder was always borderline retarded and a dogshit boxer but his touch of death made him an elite heavyweight. Maybe Wilder was shot or damaged after Fury, and was always a mental midget, but will remain a seriously dangerous heavyweight until retirement. Parker's performance against him was seriously impressive. He deserves his spot.
Bakole is a huge lump who everyone should be scared of and everyone will avoid. His loss to Hunter means little. A fatter Joe Joyce with lesser wins but without the stigma of being completely destroyed by Zhang. Noody will want to fight him. Respect to anybody within the top 10 that does.
Dubois has been in with the elite and arguably (although not in my book) might have stopped Usyk. He can't help himself with the low blows and punched Miller directly on the dick at least twice to my observation. Coming through big fat Miller showed everybody he has heart after all and, after winning almost every round, he could've coasted to points but got stuck in to get a stoppage of the big fat pudendum and for that he deserves total respect and a well deserved top 10 placement.
Kabayel beat Chisora ages ago and annihilated Big MaK, who plenty of people were hyping up. Fair fucks to him, Great performance for a guy who has been well under the radar for years. Lets see him in with another top ten guy and see if he deserves the ranking for real.
Ngannou took it to the 'champ' and made him look terrible. Let's see how he does against somebody else in the elite. but for now for the sake of fairness he needs to be ranked highly.
Wilder has that punch and was consensus top 5 at least until last night. Everyone can have a bad night at the office., Let's see how he performs next fight out before we drop him completely.
Don't really like Sanchez but he continues to perform OK. We await his true breakout performance, which I think he has in him.
I'll have Anderson in at 15 just because he's young and shows a lot of promise, and most of the 'next generation' have been humbled or exposed already. I think he's very good. Let's see if he can work his way into the top 10. I give him the benefit of the doubt. Fast and aggressive and unbeaten. I watch him with interest.
Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑24 Dec 2023, 16:34
Wow people still not putting Parker over Joyce?
Wilder was above Joyce when he was ranked.
Parker now on a 4 fight win streak since that loss and Joyce got stopped twice
i agree, just like we dont have jerry forrest next to zhang every time because they had a draw
Joyce beat Parker up and stopped him. It wasn't a lucky punch or anything. He f*cked him up. It's very hard to put him over Joyce for me. Parker looked great clowning Wilder, a guy with minimal boxing skills and legit KO power, but who has been proven to be unable to fight on the back foot. He fought on the back foot against Parker all night and voluntarily gave up the centre of the ring. He was awful last night.
jerry forrest did better against zhang than joyce did, far better. why didnt we ever have him up in these rankings?
using strict head to heads: zhang = forrest. zhang > joyce. joyce > parker. parker > wilder
so forrest > joyce, parker, and wilder??
getting back to back ktfo, while the guy you previously beat racks up 4 wins and a really good win among them, is the type of thing that can overide a head to head result. parker is in a very good place right now, joyce is not.
margaret thatcher wrote: ↑24 Dec 2023, 21:07
jerry forrest did better against zhang than joyce did, far better. why didnt we ever have him up in these rankings?
getting back to back ktfo, while the guy you previously beat racks up 4 wins and a really good win among them, is the type of thing that can overide a head to head result.
So lets throw Jerry Forrest in with the rest of the top 10, considering Zhang is right up there in the top 5 how. I'm sure he'll smash everybody, right?
He won't though, will he?
Like I said, ancient old Zhang's probably found a really good Chinese taco vendor. And you know I'm right.
of course he wont, which shows why it's ridiculous to just bound everyone to h2hs
joyce spent all of this year getting his face smashed in and ko'd
parker just dominated deontay wilder
that's the type of thing that can overtake 1 head to head result. just like zhang beating joyce pushed him further above the guy who held ZZ to a draw.
margaret thatcher wrote: ↑24 Dec 2023, 21:07
jerry forrest did better against zhang than joyce did, far better. why didnt we ever have him up in these rankings?
using strict head to heads: zhang = forrest. zhang > joyce. joyce > parker. parker > wilder
so forrest > joyce, parker, and wilder??
getting back to back ktfo, while the guy you previously beat racks up 4 wins and a really good win among them, is the type of thing that can overide a head to head result. parker is in a very good place right now, joyce is not.
I can see you're editing faster than I can type. I'm enjoying a nice glass of single malt, Mags. Merry Christmas. You evil old Tory witch
margaret thatcher wrote: ↑24 Dec 2023, 21:12
of course he wont, which shows why it's ridiculous to just bound everyone to h2hs
joyce spent all of this year getting his face smashed in and ko'd
parker just dominated deontay wilder
that's the type of thing that can overtake 1 head to head result. just like zhang beating joyce pushed him further above the guy who held ZZ to a draw.
Joyce beat Parker so conclusively in the first fight, that's why I haven't ranked him higher. If Joyce doesn't cheat in the rematch, and Parker gets on the gear, maybe Parker might get the win. But he lost clearly to Joe already.
And, for the record, I reckon Zhang had a bit of scientific help in both Joyce fights.
Oleksandr Usyk - 21(14) 0 0 - next fight: 17.02.2024 vs. 
Tyson Fury - 34(24) 0 1 - (#2)
Zhilei Zhang - 24(21) 1(0) 1 - next fight: TBA
Filip Hrgovic - 17(14) 0 0 - next fight: TBA
Otto Wallin - 26(14) 2(1) 0 - next fight: )TBA
Martin Bakole - 20(15) 1(1) 0 - next fight: TBA
Joseph Parker - 34(23) 3(1) 0 - next fight: TBA
Frank Sanchez - 24(17) 0 0 - next fight: TBA
Arslanbek Makhmudov - 18(17) 1(1) 0 - next fight: TBA
Efe Ajagba - 19(14) 1(0) 0 - next fight: TBA
Jared Anderson - 16(15) 0 0 - next fight: TBA
Francis Ngannou - 0 1(0) 0 - next fight: TBA
