Here are Boxingtalk's current heavyweight rankings, updated for the first four months of 2021. None of the top five boxers saw action, but there were some changes in the top ten:

 

1.  Tyson Fury (pictured): The clear and indisputable #1 heavyweight in the world after the punishment he dealt out to Deontay Wilder in February 2020. He's the WBC champion but Boxingtalk does not recognize Fury's lineal championship claim. Hopefully, the #1 spot gets settled with a long-talked-about super fight between Fury and Anthony Joshua.

 

2.  Anthony Joshua: The WBA super champion and WBO/ IBF/ IBO champion deserves a lot of credit for winning an immediate rematch vs. his lone conqueror Andy Ruiz. However, in light of his safety-first performance in the second Ruiz fight, it's difficult to rank him ahead of his countryman Fury. 

 

3.  Deontay Wilder: He was dominated by Tyson Fury, almost to the point of looking amateurish, but with his power, Wilder only has to be perfect for three seconds to knock anyone out. As bad as he looked, his body of work still has two wins over Luis Ortiz.  

 

4.  Oleksandr Usyk: The WBO mandatory contender, after a solid, but not spectacular win over Dereck Chisora is sitting tight and waiting to see how the Fury-Joshua negotiations shake out. If that fight doesn't happen, the Ukrainian Usyk likely gets Joshua next.

 

5.  Joe Joyce: Made a money move up from #17 with big win over Daniel Dubois. We considered him for the #3 spot, but Boxingtalk recognizes the World Series of Boxing as professional fights, and Joyce lost to Usyk there. Joyce and Usyk could rematch if the WBO title becomes vacant.

 

7. Andy Ruiz: The ex-unified champ answered some but not all questions in his recent win over Chris Arreola. He was in great shape and got a clear win, but he was also in big trouble early from Arreola, who is not exactly in his prime as a semi-active 40 year old.

 

8. Joseph Parker: Up from #11 on the strength of a clear win over Junior Fa and a disputed win over Dereck Chisora

 

9. Luis Ortiz: His last fight, a 45-second win over Alexander Flores was a joke.

 

10. Michael Hunter: Staying busy with a win over Shawn Laughery is good enough for the Hunter to leap frog Andy Ruiz. We'll see if an IBF eliminator vs. Filip Hrgovic actually happens.

 

11. Otto Wallin: Up from #17 based on his win over Dominic Breazeale. Also, Wallin's competitive loss to Fury recommends him well for this rating.

 

12. Filip Hrgovic: Croatian big man needs to step up his competition in order to crack the top ten. Could go against Michael Hunter in an IBF eliminator.

 

13. Tony Yoka: French Olympic champion has strung together some nice wins, destroying Johann Dauhaupas, then defeating Christian Hammer when Hammer was ranked at #22 by Boxingtalk, and most recently besting Joel Djeko.

 

14. Agit Kabayel: Lost out on a chance to fight Tyson Fury when Fury scuppered his December date. This ranking may be a bit high, but Kabayel holds a win over Chisora.

 

15. Dereck Chisora: He's stuck behind Kabayel due to a 2017 loss to him, but we'll move Chisora up one notch due to a very compeittive loss to Parker on May 1st. Chisora also showed well in an October loss to Oleksandr Usyk.

 

16. Charles Martin: Nothing planned for the ex-IBF champ, whose last fight was a February 2020 win over Gerald Washington. He was rumored to to face Deontay Wilder but seems to be in limbo since talk of Fury-Wilder III rekindled.

 

17. Frank Sanchez: Ex-Cuban national champ faces Nagy Aguilera on May 8th.

 

18. Robert Helenius: Finnish big man owes a rematch to Adam Kownacki who he stopped back in March, but PBC does not seem keen to put it on. 

 

19. Kubrat Pulev: Got his payday in a loss to Anthony Joshua. Would not be surprised if the Bulgarian banger calls it a career.

 

20. Carlos Takam: Inactive since July 2020, when he beat the useful Jerry Forrest on short notice to extend his winning streak to four. Last loss was in 2018 to Dereck Chisora. 

 

21. Daniel Dubois: Just 22 years of age, Dubois can still come back, but he took quite a beating in his loss to Joyce. He's booked to fight lightly regarded Bogdan Dinu in June.

 

22. Martin Bakole: Congolese big man had strong win over Sergey Kuzmin in December; inactive since.

 

23.  Hughie Fury: Has three losses vs. "the Killer Ps" (Parker, Pulev, Povetkin), but rebounded from the Povetkin loss by beating Pavel Sour followed by Mariusz Wach.

 

24. Alexander Povetkin: Drops from #4 to #24 after a poor showing in his rematch against Dillian Whyte. He very well may retire, but he did have the coronavirus before the Whyte rematch, so we'll give Povetkin some credit based on his long and successful career.

 

25.  Adam Kownacki: His rating took a big hit early in 2020, falling from near-top ten after losing to Robert Helenius. Wins over Charles Martin and Gerald Washington keep Kownacki somewhat relevant.

 

26-40: 26. Murat Gassiev, 27. Oscar Rivas [returned with a win in 2021], 28. Efe Ajagba, 29. Chris Arreola [enters ratings based on performance in loss to Andy Ruiz], 30. Trevor Bryan [enters ratings based on win over Bermane Stiverne], 31. Gerald Washington, 32. Alen Babic, 33. Arslanbek Makhmudov, 34. Bakhodor Jalolov; 35. Zhilei Zhang, 36. Fabio Wardley [up from #47 due to win over Eric Molina], 37. Zhan Kossobutskiy , 38. Stephan Shaw, 39. Justus Huni, 40. Andrey Fedosov [enters ratings based on win over #37 Mahammudrasul Majidov].

 

41-50: 41. Jerry Forrest [enters ratings based on draw with #35 Zhilei Zhang], 42. Jack Mulowayi [enters ratings based on win over #31 Apti Davtaev], 43. Christian Hammer, 44. Simon Kean,  45. Sergey Kuzmin, 46. Nathan Gorman, 47. Junior Fa, 48. Michael Polite Coffie  [enters ratings based on win over Darmani Rock], 49. Joel Djeko [enters ratings based on competitive loss to Tony Yoka], 50. Dominic Breazeale.

 

51-60: 51. Arslan Iallyev,  52. Viktor Vykhurst a/k/a Victor Faust, 53. Artur Szpilka, 54. Mariusz Wach, 55. Carlos Negron, 56. Ali Eren Demirezen, 57. Jared Anderson, 58. George Arias  59. Peter Milas, 60. Jose Larduet.  

 

OUT OF RATINGS: Apti Davtaev;  Mahammudrasul Majidov; Tom Schwarz;.

 

INELIGIBLE LIST: Jarrell Miller (PED issues), Bryant Jennings (inactive), Manuel Charr (inactive)