Anthony Joshua has three world titles, but is he the king of heavyweight division?

Anthony Joshua has his three title belts again. Whether he claimed the top of the heavyweight mountain is subject for debate.

In a two-week span, Joshua and Deontay Wilder made their respective arguments for heavyweight supremacy. Both had their arms raised in victory but with contrasting finishes.

While Wilder again solidified his knockout-punching pedigree with a seventh-round stoppage of Miami resident Luis Ortiz, Joshua was content on lasting the distance in his direct title-fight rematch against Andy Ruiz Jr. on Saturday in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

Joshua utilized boxing skills, avoided dangerous exchanges and frustrated a poorly conditioned Ruiz to win a lopsided unanimous decision. The victory helped Joshua avenge his seventh-round technical knockout loss to Ruiz on June 1.

Before his first bout with Ruiz, Joshua and Wilder shared knockout reputations and both were often linked to the fight fan’s dream of a unification bout between unbeaten heavyweight titleholders.

The loss to Ruiz deflated such hopes and weakened Joshua’s aura of invincibility. The question now is if Joshua has regained his luster by opting for the risk-averse performance in the rematch with Ruiz.

“If I box for the crowd or box for the people’s opinion, I might not have been victorious tonight,” Joshua said. “I trusted my own process and now I’m the champion. So I’m just going to follow my own instincts while I’m boxing.”

Joshua (23-1) landed repeatedly with a lead jab and timely placed rights to the head. Ruiz (33-2) unsuccessfully sought to cut ring distance and connect with the shots that dropped Joshua four times in the first bout.

All three judges validated Joshua’s performance with two scorecards of 118-110 and 119-109 on the third. Joshua reclaimed the World Boxing Association, World Boxing Organization and International Boxing Federation belts and ended Ruiz’s brief title reign.

“I can knock people out when I want to and I can box when I want to,” Joshua said. “Tonight was just about winning and trusting my process. I know I may have done more at times but sometimes simplicity is genius.”

Although he claimed he would be as motivated in the rematch as in his title-winning performance, Ruiz weighed 283 pounds, 15 more than in the first fight. Ruiz accepted responsibility for the weight disparity.

“I should have trained harder, I should have listened to my coaches more,” Ruiz said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have put on all this weight I did and I would have been faster and thrown more.”

Immediately after he became ex-champion, Ruiz began campaigning for a third bout. Although Joshua considered it a possibility among his future fights, he also plans on fulfilling mandatory title defenses.

“I fought a lot of great names on my record, and I’ve beaten some good names,” Joshua said. “And I’m looking forward to taking on more challenges, and Andy is still on that list because I think we make for some good music.”

And while Wilder, who holds the fourth major sanctioning body belt, emphasized the importance to unify the titles following his win over Ortiz, Joshua was not as urgent Saturday.

“We’ll see what happens, I’d love to unite the belts,” Joshua said. “I realize that chasing that fight wasn’t playing into my benefits.

“So I am going to let the par take its course. I have great people managing me, great team. And when the opportunity presents itself to become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, you know me by now. I’ll definitely step up and take the challenge.”

AROUND THE RING

▪ Late Saturday, Jermall Charlo retained his World Boxing Council middleweight title with a seventh-round TKO over Dennis Hogan at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) knocked Hogan down early in the seventh. Hogan (28-3-1) barely beat the 10-count but couldn’t shake off the knockdown’s effects, forcing referee Charlie Fitch to stop the bout at 28 seconds of the round.

▪ Miami resident Guillermo Rigondeaux will face Venezuela’s Liborio Solis for the vacant WBA bantamweight title Dec. 21 in Ontario, California.

A former super-bantamweight titleholder, Rigondeaux (19-1, 13 KOs) will move down to the 118-pound class for the bout against Solis (30-5-1, 14 KOs). The fight will be nationally televised on Fox.

COMING UP

Friday (9 p.m., DAZN): Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Brad Solomon, 12, welterweights.

Saturday (9 p.m., ESPN): Terence Crawford vs. Egidijus Kavaliauskas, 12, for Crawford’s WBO welterweight title; Richard Commey vs. Teofimo Lopez, 12, for Commey’s IBF lightweight title.