Divisional rankings: Heavyweight
— -- Check out my rankings within each division by clicking on the links below.
Who is the best fighter regardless of weight class? See ESPN's pound-for-pound rankings.
For a list of the current champions in all weight classes, click here.
Note: Results through June 20. In an effort to provide the most up-to-date rankings, ESPN.com's division-by-division boxing rankings will be updated every Tuesday.
More divisional rankings
Heavyweight - Cruiserweight - Light heavyweight - Super middleweight
Middleweight - Junior middleweight - Welterweight - Junior welterweight
Lightweight - Junior lightweight - Featherweight - Junior featherweight
Bantamweight - Junior bantamweight - Flyweight - Junior flyweight/Strawweight
HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (UNLIMITED)
2. Wladimir Klitschko (64-4)
During his 9½-year title reign -- second longest in heavyweight history -- Klitschko successfully defended the title 18 times, third most in division history. He had an 11½-year undefeated run and won 22 fights in a row. But then he defended against Fury and showed virtually nothing, perhaps growing old before our eyes at age 39. He landed an abysmal 52 of 231 punches (23 percent) in their Nov. 28 fight in Germany and lost a clear decision in a terrible fight to a guy who didn't do all that much more than Klitschko did. But a loss is a loss and Klitschko's historic reign came to an ignominious end. He will look to start another one as he decided to go for the immediate rematch that he had the contractual right to have.
Next: July 9 vs. Fury
3. Alexander Povetkin (30-1)
Russia's Povetkin, a former secondary titleholder, was due to challenge titleholder Deontay Wilder (36-0) in a mandatory bout on May 21 in Moscow. However, a week before the highly anticipated fight, Povetkin tested positive for the banned drug meldonium, and the fight was called off. Whether it will be rescheduled and whether Povetkin will remain the mandatory challenger remains to be seen, but what a bummer.
Next: TBA
4. Deontay Wilder (36-0)
Wilder has scored knockouts in all three of his title defenses, albeit against less-than-impressive challengers in Eric Molina, Johann Duhaupas and Artur Szpilka -- who he erased in the ninth round with one shot on Jan. 16. Wilder was supposed to make a mandatory defense against a legitimate opponent in Alexander Povetkin (30-1) on May 21 in Russia, but the bout was called off a week beforehand after Povetkin failed a random drug test. Whether the fight will be rescheduled remains to be seen. In the meantime, Wilder was allowed an optional defense, which will be against former two-time world title challenger Chris Arreola (36-4-1) on Fox in prime time.
Next: July 16 vs. Arreola.
5. Luis Ortiz (25-0)
A 6-foot-4, 240-pound southpaw with raw power, Ortiz, a Cuban defector with tons of amateur experience, claimed a vacant interim belt in October by blasting out no-hoper Matias Ariel Vidondo. That win did not prove much, but Ortiz made a massive statement in his next fight when he put on an extremely impressive display en route to a crowd-pleasing seventh-round knockout of former title challenger Bryant Jennings on Dec. 19 in an HBO-televised main event. Finding an opponent willing to face "The Real King Kong" was difficult, but veteran former two-time title challenger Tony Thompson accepted the assignment for the HBO main event on March 5 and got knocked down three times and knocked out in the sixth round for his trouble. Ortiz's next fight will be against Russian mandatory challenger Alexander Ustinov (33-1), whom he will meet in August or September.
Next: TBA vs. Ustinov
6. Kubrat Pulev (23-1)
Bulgaria's Pulev got a mandatory title shot against Wladimir Klitschko in November 2014 and got hammered. Klitschko abused him with left hooks, dropping him four times with that weapon in a brutal fifth-round knockout. Pulev has won his three fights since, including a split decision against Dereck Chisora on May 7 in a title eliminator that also netted him the vacant European title.
Next: TBA
7. Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1)
Stiverne's first title defense on Jan. 17 against mandatory challenger Deontay Wilder could not have gone worse, as he lost a wide unanimous decision and his title, then spent two nights in a Las Vegas hospital being treated for severe dehydration. He passed on a return bout for an interim title against Cuban puncher Luis Ortiz on Oct. 17 on the Gennady Golovkin-David Lemieux HBO PPV undercard and instead returned Nov. 14 in an untelevised bout in which he got knocked down in the first round but won a tight decision against journeyman Derric Rossy.
Next: TBA
8. Bryant Jennings (19-2)
Although Philadelphia's Jennings lost a lopsided decision to then-champion Klitschko on April 25, he had a couple of good moments in the bout and exceeded expectations by lasting the distance against an all-time great champion. Jennings returned on Dec. 19 to challenge Ortiz for his interim title in an HBO main event. It was a terrific action fight, but Jennings could not handle Ortiz's power. He repeatedly hurt Jennings until finally knocking him down and stopping him in the seventh round.
Next: TBA
9. Anthony Joshua (16-0)
In 2012, Joshua won the Olympic super heavyweight gold medal for Great Britain, and he has steamrolled his first 16 opponents, including scoring a two-knockdown, second-round knockout victory against paper titleholder Charles Martin on April 9 to win a belt. Joshua still needs experience against good opponents, but he has a chance to become one of boxing's biggest stars of this era. He'll make his first defense against 2012 U.S. Olympian Dominic Breazeale (17-0), a heavy underdog, in London.
Next: June 25 vs. Breazeale
10. Joseph Parker (19-0)
On May 21 in his native New Zealand, Parker won a unanimous decision against battle-tested contender Carlos Takam in a title eliminator to earn a shot at the winner of the June 25 bout between titlist Anthony Joshua and Dominic Breazeale. But, with the title opportunity not happening until late in 2016, Parker will stay busy by facing big puncher Solomon Haumono (24-2-2).
Next: July 21 vs. Haumono
