Johannesburg – South Africans might hold six titles among the conglomerate of international boxing associations, but none are rated as the legitimate number one by the authorative Ring Magazine.
However, the Ring rankings, which were announced on Wednesday and are widely considered the most respected and accurate of the myriad of permutations, include five South Africans among the top 10 in the various weight divisions.
The highest ranked South Africans are strawweight Nkosinathi Joyi and junior-featherweight Jeffrey Mathebula, who are in the third challenging position in the strawweight and junior-featherweight divisions respectively.
Moruti Mthalane is the fourth-placed challenger in the flyweight division, Tommy Oosthuizen is fifth challenger among the super-middleweights and Hekkie Budler is seventh in the srawweight division.
Mthalane is the IBF champion and Oosthuizen and Budler are the holders of IBO title belts.
But IBO champions Chris van Heerden (welterweight), Simpiwe Vetyeka (featheweight) and Gideon Buthelezi (junior-flyweight) are not considered by Ring to be good enough to be rated among the top 10 in their divisions.
In another anomaly, Ring also rates Joyi, who will be challenging Budler for the IBO title at Emperors Palace in June, higher than the champion.
Five of South Africa's touted world champions are recognised by the IBO, an organisation with a lesser stature internationally to that of 'the big four' alliance consisting of the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO. – Sapa