Anthony Joshua has risen two places in the latest Ring Magazine heavyweight rankings.
The Watford powerhouse hasn’t stepped foot in the ring since being flattened by Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in September.
However, he has moved up from No.7 to No.5 in the heavyweight top 10 following Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakole’s defeats last weekend on the Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol II undercard.
Zhang was stopped by a sickening body shot from Agit Kabayel in the sixth round of their WBC ‘interim’ heavyweight clash.
Meanwhile, Bakole got knocked out by a clubbing blow from Joseph Parker that caught him on the top of the head.
The Congolese heavyweight stepped in to replace Daniel Dubois on two days’ notice and embarked on a 3,800 mile trip from Congo to Saudi Arabia that required three connecting flights.
Bakole received significant praise from the boxing fraternity for taking the fight despite the seemingly insurmountable odds stacked against him, although the defeat did cost him dearly.
Not only did he lose the IBF final eliminator status for his upcoming clash with Efe Ajagba but he also dropped one place in the Ring Magazine rankings.
Bakole was placed No.6 in the previous ratings while Zhang was ranked No.4.
As a result of their recent setbacks, Bakole fell to No.7 and Zhang plummeted to No.6.
Kabayel rose from No.5 to No.4 after his career-best win, with AJ slotting in one position behind the German.
Parker and every other heavyweight remained in their original positions.
Ring Magazine heavyweight rankings
| Position | Boxer |
| Champion | Oleksandr Usyk |
| 1 | Tyson Fury |
| 2 | Daniel Dubois |
| 3 | Joseph Parker |
| 4 | Agit Kabayel (up 1) |
| 5 | Anthony Joshua (up 2) |
| 6 | Zhilei Zhang (down 2) |
| 7 | Martin Bakole (down 1) |
| 8 | Filip Hrgovic |
| 9 | Fabio Wardley |
| 10 | Efe Ajagba |
Oleksandr Usyk, the WBC, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion is recognised as champion by The Ring while Tyson Fury remains at No.1 despite seemingly being retired.
Fury was removed from all four major sanctioning body rankings last month when he took to social media to announce he was hanging up his gloves for a fourth time.
“Hi everybody, I’m going to make this short and sweet,” Fury said shortly after suffering a second consecutive defeat to Usyk.
“I’d like to announce my retirement from boxing, it has been a blast, I’ve loved every single minute of it and I’m going to end with this; Dick Turpin wore a mask.”
Dubois holds onto his No.2 spot, as does No.3 Parker while No.8 Filip Hrgovic, No.9 Fabio Wardley and No.10 Efe Ajagba complete the list.
There are minor changes to the Ring Magazine pound-for-pound rankings as well with Bivol and Beterbiev switching places at No.4 and No.5 after Bivol avenged his defeat to his fellow countryman last weekend to be crowned undisputed light heavyweight champion.
