The UK's best vs. The Soviet's Unions best at heavyweight. Okay, the UK had a 100-year advantage, as the old Soviet block rarely went professional until the 1990's but I think its a worthy debate topic. I seeded them #1 to #10. Team UK Lewis Fitzsimmons Bruno Joshua Fury Farr Cooper Haye Woodcock Co@kell Team USSR W Klitschko V Kltischko Povektin Ibragimov Chagaev Maskaev Valuev Liakhovich Usyk ( Replacement for Pulev ) Boystov
I hope the seeds are somewhat fair. As to who would win, I'd have to think about that. My initial thoughts are the UK depth is thin at spots #6-10. The USSR spots at #6-10 are in general better. #6 Farr vs Maskaev #7 Cooper vs Valuev #8 Haye vs Liakhovich #9 Woodcock vs Usyk #10 Co@kell vs Boystov I see this 4-1 in favor of the USSR crew, with Haye as gun shy as he was having the best chance to win. To get a draw, the UK Crew needs to win 4-1 in top seeds. Illusions aside, Fitz isn't beating Vitali, and some of the other fights could go either way.
I prefer the facts: Fury and Joshua beat W. Klitschko and the 37 years old fat Lewis beat Vitali Klitschko.Joshua beat Povetkin. Haye beat Valuev. W. klitschko beat Haye (very boring fight). This means UK-"USSR" 5:1.
Fury beat W Klitschko when he was 39, and Joshua barely beat W Klitschko at age 41, after a 1.5 year layoff. Joshua beat Povetkin at age 39 and had some trouble in the process doing it. How much credit can you really give someone for beating 39 and 41 year olds when they were in their prime? This has zero to do with picking boxing in a fantasy thread where you assume everyone is in their prime. If you best wins are over a 41 and 39 year old what does that say?
I like team UKs chances better than you do. I think that Farr would probably beat Maskaev, Haye would probably beat Lyakovich, and Cockell probably did enough to be favorite over Boystov!
That's crazy talk! Haye could win, the others are out matched, too small, didn't hit hard enough, lost too often.... I think its a reasonably close 10 vs 10 match up.
If you are going down them lines for team recognition, Hide was born in Nigeria. Akinwande probably should have a place.
Tommy Farr was pretty hard to beat in his prime. Everybody struggled with him. If the fight is held at the O2 arena where he can gat a fair shake, then I think that he takes Maskaev. Are you really comfortable picking Boytsov over somebody who was the #2 ranked contender, even if it wasn't in a very good era?
Tommy Farr fought in the worst decade of heavyweight boxing according to Ring Magazine. Maskeav would be too much for him, Boystov was a top ten guy ranked in his time too, he had a medical condition and had to retire. I'm picking Boystov over Co@kell, a #10 vs #10 matchup.