Tommy Fury beat YouTuber Jake Paul in Saudi Arabia in his first eight-round contest and will now be ranked in the world’s cruiserweight top 40 by one of the major sanctioning bodies.
The rankings panel at the WBC kept their highly-documented promise that the winner of the Paul-Fury bout would enter their 200lb rankings, despite the fight being fought at a catchweight of 185lb and Fury weighing in closer to the light heavyweight limit of 175 for every fight his short career so far.
It is now being reported by TalkSPORT’s Michael Benson that Fury lands at number 39 in the latest rankings update.
The British fighter, who is half-brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, outboxed Paul over the distance in the first main event of his career, winning this ranking as well as a trophy belt provided by the WBC.
Fury is now set to rematch Paul, as the American had a clause in the contract to force the second fight if he lost. Talks have started for a summer showdown between the two rivals.
The 23-year-old was adamant that he would beat Paul at a canter, and has expressed dreams of taking a more traditional route in boxing after silencing Paul in this sideshow.
However, John Fury, his father and trainer, recently told Boxing Social that those plans were to be put on ice for now, claiming that ‘the conventional boxing is going to have to go on the back burner’ as long as events of this magnitude and financial gain are on the table.
This begs the questions of how relevant the WBC’s ranking really is for Fury, who has also been mentioned alongside crossover boxers like KSI – a man with even less experience than Paul.
The fighter at the top of the tree in the league table Fury has just entered is Badou Jack (28-3-3), who won the WBC’s Cruiserweight World title on the undercard in Saudi against former champ, Ilunga Makabu.