WBC president explained the decision to put Fury below Joshua in the top heavyweight rankings

Just over a month ago, Tyson Fury lost his WBC world championship belt. During the fight with Oleksandr Usyk, all the championship belts were at stake, and it was the Ukrainian who became the absolute world champion.

After that, expectedly Usyk took the first line in the ranking of the best heavyweights, and everyone expected that the second line would go to the Gypsy King. But the World Boxing Council (WBC) decided to give the second line to his compatriot Anthony Joshua, and put the former champion on the third line.

While talking to talkSPORT, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman explained this decision:

"Tyson Fury was the WBC heavyweight champion in the previous rankings and Anthony Joshua was the No. 1 contender in the WBC rankings for several months.

He [Anthony Joshua] had two fights with knockout wins [Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou] and the ranking committee put Tyson Fury in second place after his loss to Oleksandr Usyk.

Champions don't always drop to number one in the rankings."

Sulaiman also said that Joshua is not a mandatory challenger for the championship fight.

"At the moment we don't have a mandatory challenger.

The WBC has absolute authority to appoint a mandatory challenger when he wins an elimination fight or when he goes through the process and becomes a mandatory challenger.

At the moment we have sanctioned the first Fury-Usyk fight and the rematch. These are the two fights that were agreed upon at the last convention.

The WBC actively supports unified and undisputed champions, and we're not trying to find mandatory challengers just to have mandatory challengers.

A mandatory challenger has to be the highest level opponent a champion should have, and we've been very clear in that regard."

Recall that the rematch between Alexander Usik and Tyson Fury will take place on December 21. In case of victory of the Ukrainian he will secure the title of absolute champion, and in case of victory of the British fans will be waiting for the third megafight.