Tommy Fury will officially be ranked by the WBC after his victory over Jake Paul in the latter’s first fight against a ‘real boxer.’
It was announced beforehand by the WBC that Jake Paul would be world-ranked should he win. Slightly embarrassingly, Fury wasn’t mentioned in that initial statement – and fans will take from that what they will – but it was later confirmed the honour applied to him too.
It was just as well, because Fury outboxed Paul over eight rounds to win a split decision.
Despite this latest victory being fought at 185lb, and all of his eight previous wins being fought much closer to the light heavyweight limit of 175lb, Tommy Fury will be ranked in the top 40 cruiserweights (200lb) in the world.
Mauricio Sulaiman, the organisation’s president, confirmed this to the DAZN Boxing Show.
“Well the new ranking will come next week and, yes, he will be ranked.”
“The WBC has 40 fighters ranked per each division. And what I said personally was that the winner would be ranked, and I didn’t mention any number at all, any position at all. So, the rankings committee will meet over the beginning of the month and make the assessment.”
Asked what about a win over Jake Paul makes Fury worthy of a world ranking, Sulaiman said ‘he’s a fighter.’
“Tommy is undefeated and he has fought constantly. I’ve seen him fight several times. He’s a fighter, and I’m sure that there’s no question that he can be ranked in the WBC at all.”
The Brit is expected to land at the bottom end of the rankings, with an inactive fighter likely making way. What many fans have a problem with, however, is that Sulaiman promised this ranking before the committee met.
His fanfare surrounding it, essentially a press release, is out of the ordinary for someone making it into the WBC’s top 40, and only serves to support the idea people have that the sanctioning body are hitching their wagon to a gravy train.