Fighters that you thought would be world class!

From the UK? Definitely Price and definitely Mitchell.

 

Bit too soon to put the likes of price and Mitchell,not impossible that they can get a title and defend it a few times

 

Nothing is impossible, but Pricey seems incapable of taking decent punches, which is almost certain to rule the big fella out of world title contention.

As for Mitchell, it is far more plausible that he (at some point) grabs a portion of some world title.

 

The definition of world class and winning a world title should be quite separated here I reckon. Mitchell and Price won't be 'world class' despite their attributes.

 

:good

A fair and interesting point.

It is subjective (one fan's world class fighter may be another fan's tomato can) and it could be argued that any fighter who wins a bona fide world title is undoubtedly world class, though maybe not elite world class (ie, the undoubted best/top 3 or 4 in the world at that weight).

However, when one considers the number of divisions, and world titles on offer, and the skills of a good promoter, a world title belt (or at least a couple of challenges for such) could be achievable for many fighters who many would not consider to be world class. Case in point, David Price and Kevin Mitchell:

Price's lack of punch resistance will almost certainly rule him out of world title reckoning (though with the way the rankings can be manipulated it would not be impossible for him to get a totally undeserving shot at some point) but, based on what we have seen thus far, most would consider him unlikely to ever be seriously considered as world class.

As for Mitchell, he has fought for a world title twice, and won (and defended) two Intercontinental titles, so it could be argued that he is world class (though certainly a distance away from elite world class).

Perhaps we could use an independent ranking such as The Ring (or Boxrec) and use one their top 10 for each weight division as the definition of world class?

 

Kell Brook, oh wait... HAHAHAHA

 

How do you define 'bona fide' in this instance?

 

Not someone who turned out to be a hype job etc as he never ended up getting the chance, but I thought Darren Sutherland could have gone all the way to world level, massive shame how things turned out.

 

Didn't he have some sort of deep rooted viral problem?

Colin McMillan.

 

I would define any fighter who wins an outright version of a WBA, WBC, IBF or WBO title as having won a bona fide world title (and therefore, by definition must be considered world class, whether we like it or not).

For example:

Rigondeaux is WBA World SBW Champ...Scott Quigg (as much as I like Scotty) is not the WBA SBW Champion.

That is not to say that Scotty is not world class. in my opinion he is.

We all know that winning a world title does not mean that the fighter in question is necessarily one of the top 3/4 fighters on Earth at that weight (some have benefitted from superb match-making and fortuitous circumstances) and whilst I would love to return to what seems like a prehistoric era of one belt for each weight division, the above Organisations are the "Big 4".

 

Audley Harrison.
Olympic gold medalist, huge, southpaw, lights off power.............but an absolute disgrace of a professional fighter masquerading as a world title contender.

Didn't throw a punch v Haye, repeated the dose v Price, v Wilder.

Had loads of potential, turned out to be a laughing stock.

 

Chad Dawson - i thought the guy was gonna be a p4p elite fighter
Tony Bellew - I don't know why but I like his style of boxing

 

Dawson might have not proved to be elite (top 2/3) p4p, but he did often feature in many p4p top ten lists. He was a very successful LHW World Champ and he holds several wins over world class opposition..he was clearly world class.

What seemed to ruin Bad Chad was dropping to 168 (he is attempting to rebound at CWT) and the brutal Ward and Stevenson defeats are very fresh in the memory of many boxing fans.

On the other hand, Tony Bellew is a fascinating call!!:good

Some would argue the fact that Bellew fought in a genuine world Championship fight with Stevenson proves that Bomber was world class at LHW. And I do know many who considered Bellew world class at LHW. Me? I personally considered Tony to be slightly below genuine world class as a LHW, which speaks to the subjectivity of boxing fans.

That said, it may very well be that Tony Bellew proves to be genuine world class at CWT.

I to like Bellew's style, and if he would just tone down his pre-fight pantomime ritual!!! By all accounts, Tony is a smashing lad (and his respectful, knowledgeable and overall impressive performance as a boxing analyst on Sky recently certainly backs that up) but I guess in the Cleverly-vs-Bellew build up, Bomber will play the heel.

 

Bellew can box and bang a bit, don't think you can argue with that.

I think he'd have got more credit for showings where he's boxed well (sometimes on the back foot), choosing his shots etc if beforehand he hadn't banged on about being a warrior, how he'll do this and that, will die in the ring etc.

Saying all that, people expect fireworks to then ultimately feel 'let down' by the performance.. when in some cases it's actually been a disciplined, well thought out performance.

Bellew has a lot of assets.. he does have a boxing brain on him, fires out a good jab, solid right hand & he's shown when being pundit he does know his ****. Just sometimes before a fight, he needs to be more mindful about what he's saying.

Talking the talk and walking the walk as the saying goes.