The man proclaimed by his fans as the second coming of Gennadiy Golovkin in the form of a heavyweight has made his move in the latest WBC Rankings.
Heavyweight GGG
Zhan Kossobutskiy, a Kazakh juggernaut with the power to match, is now rated in the top forty by the World Boxing Council.
At the recent 58th Convention, held electronically online, President Mauricio Sulaiman met with the WBC Ratings Board to thrash out the latest list.
The Top 15 remains essentially the same. The ratings release comes ahead of the biggest WBC-sanctioned bout since February.
Interim champion and former number one Dillian Whyte will put his strap on the line against number nine-ranked Alexander Povetkin.
Whyte is in line to meet reigning title-holder Tyson Fury or number one Deontay Wilder at some point over the next twelve months.
Wilder’s placed at the helm is unmoved for months despite a loss to Fury in their February rematch. Five years of title defenses before his dethroning are the primary reason for this.
The rest of the field then faces a long wait to challenge for the coveted green and gold belt. Possibly until 2022.
Oleksandr Usyk is focusing on his WBO title shot at Anthony Joshua. At the same time, Luis Ortiz is on the lookout for a clash with Andy Ruiz Jr.
Firstly, Ruiz will take on Chris Arreola to return to winning ways. That fight is set to be confirmed soon.
Oscar Rivas, Joseph Parker, Daniel Dubois. Plus, Filip Hrgovic and Michael Hunter make up the top ten.
Now at number 39, Kossobutskiy has begun to make inroads into an expected run at the world title over the next two years.
The amateur has a reputation gathering pace after protests at his rival Ivan Dychko initially being called ‘The Heavyweight GGG’ above him.
HEAVYWEIGHT – WBC TOP 40 (Aug 2020)
CHAMPION: Tyson Fury
Interim Champion: Dillian Whyte
1 Deontay Wilder (US)
2 Oleksandr Usyk (Ukraine)
3 Luis Ortiz (Cuba)
4 Andy Ruiz Jr. (Mexico/US)
5 Oscar Rivas (Colombia/Canada)
6 Joseph Parker (New Zealand)
7 Daniel Dubois (GB) SILVER/COMM/BBBofC
8 Filip Hrgovic (Croatia) INTL
9 Alexander Povetkin (Russia)
10 Michael Hunter (US)
11 Joe Joyce (GB)
12 Dereck Chisora (GB)
13 Charles Martin (US)
14 Efe Ajagba (Nigeria/US) * CBP/P
15 Agit Kabayel (Germany)
VOLUNTARY CUT-OFF
16 Carlos Takam (Cameroon)
17 Robert Helenius (Finland)
18 Adam Kownacki (US)
19 Frank Sanchez (Cuba) AMERICAS
20 Dominic Breazeale (US)
21 Hughie Fury (GB)
22 Arslanbek Makhmudov (Russia/Canada) NABF
23 Evgeny Romanov (Russia)
24 Martin Bakole (Congo/GB)
25 Otto Wallin (Sweden)
26 Simon Kean (Canada) INTL Silver
27 Bryant Jennings (US)
28 Sergey Kuzmin (Russia)
29 Tony Yoka (France)
30 Hussein Muhamed (Germany)
31 Junior Fa (New Zealand)
32 Marco Huck (GB)
33 Zhilei Zhang (China)
34 Nathan Gorman (GB)
35 Jermaine Franklin (US)
36 Lukasz Rozanski (Poland)
37 Gerald Washington (US)
38 Cassius Chaney (US)
39 Zhan Kossobutskiy (Kazakstan)
40 Demsey McKean (Australia)
UNRANKED
Anthony Joshua (GB) WBA Super
Manuel Charr (Germany) WBA Regular
Trevor Bryan (US) WBA Interim
Tyrone Spong (Sur) Legal
Kubrat Pulev (Bulgaria) NA
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