OK, beg pardon, it's the 2nd least compelling/relevant to p4p rankings/exciting to watch out of 17 divisions instead of the very least. :yep Still, it's further to that end of the spectrum than the most important (or "the only one that matters")
How so is the cruiserweight division not exciting to watch? Or can you only be p4p king if you're not boring to watch? And why does p4p matter more than absolute power? Why would it even matter at all? And is according to you an equally skilled and a relatively equally athletic hw worse p4p than his equal in for example the welterweight division? Middleweight had Hagler - Hearns The heavyweight Lyle - Foreman Both equally exciting fights, why should any division be less important than the other? I know the heavyweight division has never been truly stacked like some others, but it still has exciting men. The only division that's meaningless is the "junior minimumweight" division.
Because it to this day (dating back to its inception) remains one of the divisions most shallow of talent, for a host of reasons? (chiefly, people either choose to make LHW if they can do so comfortably, or move up to HW for bigger paydays and greater recognition) You're getting confused. I never suggested a corollary between them, only said that HW ranks among the lowest divisions in both areas. Actually, I mentioned three distinct areas. Compelling/Interesting - there usually isn't much drama or intrigue at HW, with it being so top-loaded most of the time. Relevant to the p4p rankings - usually there are a couple of heavyweights among the best in the sport pound for pound, but relative to most of the other 16 divisions its representation on such lists is historically quite small. Exciting - let's face it, cumbersome dudes weighing 200lbs or more tend not to be as entertaining as their lighter and more agile counterparts with less bulk to haul around and therefore generally higher stamina. Give me world class action anywhere between straw and light heavy over even the best CW & HW match-ups almost any day. No such thing. :? Minimum means minimum.
Certainly true, and personally can't rank HWs with non-Hw ATGs with their resumes because of the shallow talent pool. (Sorry English isn't native if this sounds like giberish) But the division still isn't less important than lets say Minimumweight which has a lot less people. And historically the area in and around welterweight - middleweight has been the most stacked and the rest including heavyweight lacked the talent. (If heavyweight isn't equal to all, then it's because 2 or 3 division stand above the rest)
Agree with IB. Only Cruiser seems more meaningless at the moment in terms of depth. Well, there is straw weight, but as soon as I looked up the term, this came up http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=371189
Not even at the moment, but for a long time. At least since Cruiser's inception. This also isn't about some agenda singling out the Klitschko brothers, which is surely an accusation some will levy without preemptive clarification. Lennox era, Tyson era, Holmes era...as far back as you want to go (to well before many of us on here were born) there's been a highly concentrated bottleneck of talent @ HW way out in front, and then a whole bunch of "blah" behind it.
Heavyweight isn't the most important, it's just the one that's given the most press attention to the general public (well, in the UK, anyway). Fighters at other weights have to work a lot harder and longer to get anywhere near the same amount of exposure, like Calzaghe or Froch...so many people have heard of David Price or Tyson Fury, but Froch and Calzaghe were unknowns when they had the same title at SMW. I remember it was really funny after David Haye beat Valuev, and all the TV presenters were saying 'So how does it feel to be champion of the world?' and he kept desperately trying to correct them that he'd had even more titles at CW. So no, HW isn't the most important division, its just the one that's most known, and that's probably why the Press always say 'Boxing is dead'...they don't know about the loads of other lively and competitive divisions.