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It's happened. Thanks to Wladimir Klitschko's dominant win over former #2 Ruslan Chagaev—and some small culling of the fights database that nudged brother Vitali ahead of Nicolay Valuev—the Klitschko brothers are, for the first time, #1 and #2 in the SportsRatings Heavyweight Boxing Top 100.
Champion Wladimir is well ahead of his brother in points, which is understandable since Vitali has just two wins in the last four and a half years. In fact Wladimir has moved up to #15 in the All-Time list, surpassing George Foreman among others. In fairness, Foreman is not well-served by the All-Time system, which uses peak rating; Foreman's second career stage added nothing to his ranking by that measure.
In any case, Wladimir is making a good case for being an all-time great and a future hall-of-famer, despite being considered "dull" and "robotic" by many, and likely even the lesser fighter of the two brothers. But regardless of how he gets them, he keeps winning, and his fights are increasingly one-sided, even over the best competition he has to face.
| June Rank | Current Rank |
Fighter | Rating |
Rated Record | June Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | WLAD KLITSCHKO | 64.62 |
31-3-0 |
W9 #2 RUSLAN CHAGAEV |
| 3 | 2 | VITALI KLITSCHKO | 35.45 |
19-2-0 |
|
| 4 | 3 | NICOLAY VALUEV | 35.07 |
21-1-0 |
|
| 5 | 4 | ALEX POVETKIN | 31.94 |
12-0-0 |
|
| 2 | 5 | RUSLAN CHAGAEV | 29.72 |
11-1-0 |
L9 #1 WLAD KLITSCHKO |
| 6 | 6 | CHRIS ARREOLA | 26.50 |
12-0-0 |
|
| 7 | 7 | EDDIE CHAMBERS | 24.90 |
12-1-0 |
|
| 8 | 8 | DAVID TUA | 20.27 |
24-3-1 |
inactive 22 months. |
| 9 | 9 | ALEX DIMITRENKO | 19.92 |
12-0-0 |
|
| 11 | 10 | OLEG PLATOV | 18.92 |
6-0-0 |
Chagaev falls from #2 to #5 after the loss, the first of his professional career. Nicolay Valuev and Alexander Povetkin move up a notch each to #3 and #4. Valuev is still in a virtual dead heat with Vitali, and whoever fights and wins next will be the #2 fighter. Povetkin is due to fight Wladimir soon for the IBF belt in the mandatory title shot he won by beating Chris Byrd and Eddie Chambers a while back.
Speaking of Chambers, in a couple of days he fights #9 Alexander Dimitrenko in a WBO title eliminator which could put him in line to fight Wlad as well. A win would make him the #1 American prospect, which is now a tossup between he and #6 Chris Arreola. Dimitrenko is undefeated, and like Chambers is young, and like the Klitschkos is big. A win would put him just outside the top 5, too, and give him the title shot instead of Chambers.
In other movements this month, undefeated Denis Boytsov (25-0-0) jumps from #58 to #17 after beating previous #14 Taras Bidenko (now 26-3). Bidenko has lost only to Boytsov, #22 Vladimir Virchis, and #3 Valuev. Therefore he may bounce back strong, but he risks becoming something of a gatekeeper for better fighters. Boytsov is only 23 so the future for him looks bright, but like other current contenders Chambers and Chagaev he's not especially tall (6' 1") for the land of giants that is the heavyweight division today.
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