My thead on James Toney got me musing on this subject. Who's the worst heavyweight title holder of the past 25 years iyo? Let's limit it to the main big 4 WBC WBA WBO IBF
Charles Martin? He beat a bunch of nobodies to get his title shot, then won it when Glazkov injured his knee without getting hit. Other than that, his best win, by far, is Gerald Washington.
I would say he's up there. Nothing against the guy, but the fact that he is in the books as a "World" champion is yet another reminder of what a drag on the sport all these belts are. I barely watch anymore, and the 68 available belts (even more, counting Bridgerweight) have something to do with it.
Chares Martin... ok, Seldon and Bruno were weaker but that covers 30 years. Waluev, Ruiz and Byrd were also not real champions, it's hard for me to take Tyson Fury seriously who has the potential to be the best but his fights are a joke that should have been stopped by the WBC a long time ago and I have no idea why they allow it. Liachowicz, Brewster, Briggs... damn... too much
Maskaev, Stiverne and Charles Martin are the 3 that come to mind. Liakovich maybe? In the 21st century I generally have valued the WBA and WBOs arbitrary HW choices over those of the IBF and WBC.
I think it would be Charles Martin. Stiverne is pretty bad but he did have ok Amateur career and did beat Arreola when he was still somewhat relevant as a pro. He just let himself go after he won.
in general, Bruno was a better fighter, but paradoxically, when he was the champion, he was already broken, burnt out, and his attitude in the second fight with Tyson was terrible... so as champion, Bruno was a fake, and Martin also went to AJ with no desire to fight... both were better as contenders .
That's definitely a fair assessment. I think Seldon was decent as well, but both clearly folded badly in their world title defences.
Valuev had by far the worst skill level of all beltholders. But due to his enormous size and chin he should be ranked over some others. Charles Matrin, Bermane Stiverne, Sergei Liakhovich, Shannon Briggs, Oleg Maskaev all were competent boxers but certainly not on the level of 'world champion'. That means that during their 'reigns' were at least 5 guys who would've beaten them, and rather easily. I disagree with anyone who considers to include Byrd. He was a true world class operator in terms of skills. He also has far better wins than the aforementioned guys - Vitali, Tua, old Holyfield as well as few other respectable contenders. Surely he was small and featherfisted, but his skills and speed were real.
