This is becoming frustrating to the fans. No, not the undisputed Klitschko reign. No, not their way of fighting ( I found Wlad's last fight very entertaining), not even the fact that they are neither black nor british/american. what frustrates me the most is the way their opposition acts. For example: Alexander Povetkin : Brilliant amateur, won just about every tournament possible including the olympics. Went on to face ever improving opposition until he squeaked by Eddie Chambers. After that, his team fired a great trainer and hired a clown, and the former hopeful started *****-footing his way towards a meaningless trinket that is wba regular title. He has avoided all quality opposition like a politician avoids responsibility. When/IF Wlad finally gets him in the ring, the KO win on his resume will mean so much less because of how little Povetkin has done to make a name for himself since 2008, not to mention his declining physical ability. David Haye : Amazing agility, superb fire-power, youth and determination heavily sprinkled with killer instinct and ring intelligence. A potential ATG at cruiserweight, a clear-cut #3 in heavyweight today, he pulled a stinker against Valuev, beat the useless A-Farce in what looked like a set up fight, avoided fighting any young up n comers except Chisorra who at the moment already had 3 back to back losses against heavy hitting opposition. Haye could have rebounded from the loss to Wlad. He could have fought Boytsov, Povetkin, Solis, Adamek, Chambers, any of those, build up an exciting resume, make the rematch the most anticipated fight in heavyweight today but...He claims the 3-5 months he puts in training is too taxing on his 30 yr old body and he just does not want to do it... Adlanier Solis: Highly decorated amateur. Possibly one of the best boxers that ever graced the ring in heavyweight division. A fat, lazy slob who at a 6'1 frame managed to put on in the excess of 270 pounds, leading to his knee collapsing after a disorienting glancing blow to the temple. After that embarrassing fiasco he did not bother to get in shape, showed up looking like a tub of lard against his last opponent and seems to be content stagnating under the watching eye of his turkish-german Shepherd. What a colossal waste of talent this man is! Had he gotten himself in shape, had he fought 4-5 top notch guys, he could have been a very live opponent for either brother. Their match-up would be beyond exciting! But no Fidel Castro with a whip, no hard working Solis... These are just top 3 guys that came to mind. Honorable mentions go to David Price (fights a string of corpses with too long of a gap in between bouts), Tyson Fury (just recently redeemed himself with his short notice fight against Safetypin Johnson coming up), Boytsov (who by now has not fought a live opponent in 30 + fights), Wilder (24 ko's, not one meaningful name on the resume), Mitchel (why do you need such a long time in between fighting journeymen????), Sasha Dimitrienko (who fought bums for most of his career and eventually deteriorated to a point of no interest), Helenius (who got a gift against Chisora and came back a year later looking like all he did was drink beer and lay on the couch, against a tiny senior citizen) and the list goes on and on... My biggest gripe with these so called "professional boxers" is that fight 2-3 times a year against mediocre opposition until corrupt sanctioning bodies give them a high enough rank. After that, they seem content to just let K-bros knock out the guys above them in ranking, then go out in the ring for their payday and resort back to beating nobodies. The only boxers outside of Kbros who currently deserve respect are namely Adamek, Chambers and Chisora. If their path was repeated, if top boxers were FORCED to face each other, this division would be beyond exciting. So Stop hating on kbros and open your eyes, for he who has eyes shall see:twisted:
Perez/Chagaev and Fury/Johnson (assuming either comes off--I'm skeptical) are a good start. The winner of those fights should be 1 eliminator away from a shot at Wlad. I don't know how to fix the problem besides everyone getting over their egos and going over to a league/team structure for boxing, where matches are not just about money but are the result of a process. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfrYO0nvE9w[/ame]
Oh, I forgot Pulev, he had a live opponent in his last fight. Chagaev-Perez isn't as exciting as Chagaev is past prime and Perez isn't that good, but it is definitely the right way to go for boxers. I remember IBF tried to start a second mini-tourney to establish the next opponents for Wlad, but all the top names dropped out except for the always brave Adamek-Chambers duo. Although the winner of the first tourney, Povetkin, actually declined a fight with the champ. The solution would be so brutally simple though...prevent advancement in ranks if you do not improve your level of opposition. Do what boxrec does, grant an enormous amount of point for wins over top 15 opponents and actually DROP the rank for fighting mismatches.
What frustrates me is that the top 2 guys in the division get a pass on unifying the belts, are never pressured to fight each other and instead get all their accomplishments lumped together as if they are a tag team. That's the problem. Force them to fight or take their belts away.
