Anthony Joshua lists Tyson Fury below Derek Chisora in his heavyweight rankings

04 March 2024 , 14:18

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Anthony Joshua lists Tyson Fury below Derek Chisora in his heavyweight rankings

Anthony Joshua's heavyweight rankings are in and he listed close friend Derek Chisora above bitter rival Tyson Fury.

Former two-time unified world champion Joshua is back in action on Friday night as he looks to secure himself an undisputed title fight by beating Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia. 'AJ' sat down with Queensbury Promotions to rank 23 heavyweights in five categories ranging from 'GOAT' to 'sparring partner'.

Joshua listed the likes of Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield and Wladimir Klitschko in his ‘greatest of all time’ category. Also joining those names were Lennox Lewis, Rocky Marciano and Mike Tyson. When asked about Chisora, 'AJ' said: "Talent or friendship?" before putting him in the top category.

Fury was listed in the ‘champion’ category alongside Frank Bruno, Joseph Parker, Oleksandr Usyk and Deontay Wilder. Joshua also put himself in this bracket. British tiao Daniel Dubois, David Haye and Dillian Whyte were ranked in ‘world level’ with Joshua’s opponent on Friday Ngannou also being in this bracket.

Joshua didn’t put any of the fighters listed in the last category but several names such as Fabio Wardley, Filip Hrovic and Joe Joyce were placed in the ‘mid level’ bracket. Joshua's high ranking for Chisora, who has never won a world title, is unsurprising as the pair are good friends with Chisora even signing for Joshua's management company 258 a few years back.

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"Chisora should not be up there," one fan wrote. "Only one I didn’t agree with was Chisora at GOAT level other than that the rest was accurate," a second comment read. "Some questionable choices on the world level & mid level rows," another user added. "Can't believe he put Chisora higher than Usyk," a final comment read.

Joshua won three fights last year following his back-to-back defeats to Usyk and the Brit is in great spirits going into his fight with Ngannou, who lost a controversial decision to Fury in his boxing debut just over four months ago. 'AJ' is refusing to count Ngannou out despite his lack of boxing experience and thinks the fight is one of the toughest challenges of his career.

Harry Davies