Tyson Fury leapfrogs Moses Itauma to No.1 world ranking after comeback fight win

Tyson Fury has reclaimed his No.1 spot with the WBC.

‘The Gypsy King’ was removed from the sanctioning body’s ratings due to inactivity, but has now re-entered the top 15 after ending a 16-month hiatus.

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Fury previously held the WBC heavyweight title between 2020 and 2024 before dropping it to Oleksandr Usyk in May 2024.

Seven months later, he failed to regain the green and gold strap in a rematch and would retire shortly thereafter for the umpteenth time.

Fury returned to the ring last month to outpoint Arslanbek Makhmudov and is now set to have one more warm-up fight before finally meeting long-time rival Anthony Joshua at the back end of the year.

The Mancunian bumped previous No.1 contender Lawrence Okolie down to No.2 in the rankings.

However, it remains unclear whether Okolie will be removed altogether following his recent positive test for the banned human growth hormone stimulant GHRP 2.

Precocious talent Moses Itauma fell one spot to No.3 as a result of Fury’s boost.

The WBC title picture at a glance

The WBC’s full title remains in Usyk’s possession and will controversially be on the line when the Ukrainian dukes it out with kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven on May 23 in Egypt.

Usyk also holds the WBA and IBF titles, while Fabio Wardley was elevated to WBO champion after the king of the heavyweights relinquished it last November.

In-form German Agit Kabayel is the WBC interim champion and has been mandated to compete for the world title after Usyk’s voluntary defence against Verhoeven.

“Kabayel was not available because he had a fight scheduled in January,” WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told Chris Mannix.

WBC heavyweight rankings

1. Tyson Fury
2. Lawrence Okolie
3. Moses Itauma
4. Anthony Joshua
5. Filip Hrgovic
6. Deontay Wilder
7. Efe Ajagba
8. Martin Bakole
9. Richard Torrez Jr
10. Richard Riakporhe
11. Andrii Novitskyi
12. Frank Sanchez
13. Bakhodir Jalolov
14. Guido Vianello
15. Labinot Xhoxhaj

“So [Usyk] requested a voluntary title defence, which is very customary.

“He was given that opportunity, and he must fight the interim champion next. That’s the ruling.”

If, for whatever reason, Usyk decides against fighting Kabayel, then he will be stripped.

A vacant world title fight would then be ordered between Kabayel and the highest-ranked available contender, which is currently Fury.

This would more than likely come to nothing as Fury has already signed to fight Joshua this year.

AJ will blow off the cobwebs against unknown Albanian Kristian Prenga on July 25.

Fury is looking to squeeze in another fight in the same month.

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