Why is there suddenly no complaining about HW Division's Quality?

The more things change, the more they stay the same... They were saying this:

In the Nineties themselves only it was the golden era of the 70's and 80's they were referring to. I'll bet people in the 70's were slagging off Foreman, Frazier and Ali as pale shadows of the titans of the 40's and 50's and so on and so on...

What's good about the current era is that the domination of the Klitschko's has been broken, there's talent emerged from other areas of the world to make up for the relative decline in US HW boxing and there's some interesting style clashes as well as some personalities to go along with the actual boxing. I'm enjoying HW boxing at the moment more than I have since the..... Nah, I won't say it...

 

What are you yammering about
I for one am excited to watch
Dogdan Binu vs Nustin Dichols

 

I'm so easy to read, no wonder I suck at poker.

 

I believe there’s simply more excitement, and media coverage, and yes, these fighters get praised. But even very recently I’ve seen ex-pros acknowledge that today’s crop are not on the level of Wlad in his prime.

But sometimes boxing isn’t just about how good your top guy is, but how he matches up with those around him. Wlad was simply on another level, and it killed the division, which is in fact testament to him.

 

The division is deeper than during the Klit's reign IMO. And regardless of the reason (as acceptable as it is), we had a period where there were 2 fighters clearly above the rest of a poor field, who didn't fight one another.

The naughties were a depressing time to be a HW boxing fan.

 

I like the Klit brothers and will be the first to admit that their era was one of the worst, comparable to the early 80's, the early 60's, the 30's. When your big opponents are small, tubby, talentless Sam Peter, talented but chinny cruiser David Haye, should-be cruisers like Chageav and Ibragimov, and the reluctant warrior Alexander Povetkin, it just isn't a good era.

What this era has is a number of credible threats--big guys who can fight.

It is still not a great era, but it is decent, entertaining, and promises bigger things down the line.

 

Its because this division is competitive, people get carried away when a division is competitive. I dont think this era is all that talent wise but theres a mix of styles competing at the very top of it and its giving us so much food for thought. Wlad has been a dominant force in a weak era, that not his fault at all but he came through just at the end of a great era, dominated a weak one and come to retirement age at the start of another exciting one. But plenty of people fully appreciate what he has achieved in the sport.

 

Wlad didn't have a fan friendly style. Too often his matches saw him bully a smaller opponent with his jab and grab tactics until they were worn out and then only when it was super safe would he go for a knockout. I respect him tremendously but was often left bored when watching his fights. I'd also say in his prime had he had Joshua, Fury, Wilder, Parker, Whyte, Ortiz, Joyce, Miller and faded Pulev and Povetkin then we would of seen a lot better fights than the the ones we saw. The personalities of the above alone would make for better fights than Leapai, Pianta, Wach and co.

He was also incredibly boring outside the ring. This doesn't help. Well in Germany it might but everyone else saw him as a lifeless robot. Hard to root for and funnily enough too dull to root against. He seemed too gentle to pull off a terminator style angle and often looked a goof the rare times he looked like he was trying to sell a fight.

 

I respect your opinion, but keep in mind that we did have Povetkin and Pulev, who I believe are younger than Wlad. Plus we did have Wilder, but there was simply no way he was going to bad mouth Wlad, otherwise he would have been put to the sword. I simply found him to be a level above, safety first, fighter, but absolutely top level. Sure, having Joshua around during his prime would have been fun, but I feel it still would have led to a Wlad win. Same with Fury. I think it’s to easy to dismiss some of his opponents, as perhaps being below Ortiz and Parker level, but in truth I reckon even a faded Wlad ruins them, along with most of the division. But it might look boring, I’ll give you that.

 

The 1970s era didn't have better fighters than the eras since. It just had a lot of memorable fights getting made. The Klitschko's were great boxers who had few great fights, and the contenders tended to wait on title shots instead of fighting each other other. The division now isn't that strong at the top, but some good fights are happening.

 

I'm not saying Wlad wouldn't beat those guys, I was suggesting they would just make for more interesting fights. There are a variety of styles and personalities there and Povetkin aside in one of Wlad's most negative performances and the Haye debacle, none of Wlad defences really caught the imagination of the public.

Had he been bowling over the guys he was beating in a style I think he could of then I think history would of been kinder to him and the public would of found him a more appealing champion. Not much that could be done about him being a bit of a bore though.