Tyson Fury’s first win since 2015 has earned him a spot back in the WBC’s heavyweight rankings.
The governing body released its rankings for the month of July and Fury was put in the heavyweight rankings at No. 7. When looking at the WBC rankings, an asterisk appears right next to Fury’s name. This indicates that although Fury is currently ranked in the top 15, he has yet to sign up for year-long VADA drug testing as part of the Clean Boxing Program, which is a requirement for all boxers ranked in the top 15. Fury has 90 days to sign up for the Clean Boxing Program or else he will be taken out of the rankings.
Fury wouldn’t be the first boxer taken out of the rankings for not signing up for year-long testing. In fact, many top boxers are not in the WBC rankings for that reason, including Canelo Alvarez for a very brief time. Alvarez was taken out of the rankings for a couple of months, but once negotiations for a rematch against middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin started to deepen, Alvarez signed up for the program and was recently put back into the WBC rankings.
Fury made his return to the ring last month after being out of the sport for more than two years following a lengthy drug suspension and extensive process to get reinstated. Fury defeated Sefer Seferi to get his first win since toppling Wladimir Klitschko to win the unified WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles at the end of 2015.
Some of the other notable changes in the rankings include Tyson’s cousin Hughie Fury being ranked No. 12 in the heavyweight rankings as well. Like Tyson, Hughie has an asterisk next to his name, meaning he will also have 90 days to sign up for year-round VADA testing as part of the Clean Boxing Program or else he will be taken out of the rankings.
Onto the middleweight rankings, Silver champion Martin Murray showed up in the WBC rankings at No. 2 after not being ranked before last month. Murray, who was supposed to challenge WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders in June, ended up fighting and defeating Roberto Garcia to win the Silver after Saunders went down with an injury weeks before he was set to fight Murray.
Still ranked at No. 1 in the middleweight rankings is interim champion Jermall Charlo, who will get the first crack at the WBC champion, which will be the winner of the Alvarez vs. Golovkin rematch taking place on September 15.
Former welterweight world champion Kell Brook was taken out of the WBC rankings at junior middleweight for not signing up for the Clean Boxing Program. Brook previously campaigned at welterweight where he was the IBF champion until last year and made his junior middleweight debut earlier this year.
