Top 10 cruiserweights

As mentioned 'Cruiserweight' is the name used by the UK for the then new division that is now known by most as 'Light Heavyweight'.

To this day the WBA does not recognize the term 'Cruiserweight', and for many years their division closest to the WBC version of 'Cruiserweight', the 'Junior Heavyweight' division, was set at 195lbs and under, compared to the WBC's, 190lbs or under for its 'Cruiserweight' division.

So 'officially' it can be argued the 'Cruiserweight' division is a division that has had limits ranging from 170lbs to 200lbs in an era starting in the early 20th century.

 

Haye is easily in there. Adamek, for **** sake.

 

Cunningham deserves to be in the top 5. Dude fought just about everyone when Crusier was strong (mid to late 2000s)

Wins over Guillermo Jones,Wlodarczyk(2x),Huck, and Ross.

 

Lets just agree to disagree on him. There are less deserving fighters who received title shots. Anyway, this is about the Cruiserweights, and he was a good champion.

 

Haye didn't have the longevity or the big wins to be rated top 10 in the Cruiserweights. His only big win was against a past prime Mormeck, and he almost got ko'd in that fight. Ademek would have beaten Haye at CW.

 

Yeah, I think I made a mistake in my top 10. Even though Steve lost to Ademek, I think Cunningham should be rated slightly higher.

 

:deal

 

Holyfield is #1... now let's figure out the rest

 

others that come to mind... just brainstorming for now-

Qawi
DeLeon
Ocasio
Cole
Norris
Czyz
Toney
Adamek
Cunningham
Bell
Mormeck
Haye

and a few others

 

I'd say mine looks like this

1. Oleksandr Usyk
2. Evander Holyfield
3. Juan Carlos Gomez
4. Tomasz Adamek
5. Marco Huck
6. Steve Cunningham
7. Mairis Briedis
8. Denis Lebedev
9. Murat Gassiev
10. O'Neil Bell
HMs - Haye, Mormeck, Jirov, Nelson & Wlodclarczyk.

Since the end of 2018, Usyk has put himself above Holyfield imo, based on résumé and dominance. Beating proven guys at CW clearly is imo more impressive than the win over Qawi. Both guys have good résumés and were dominant, but I think Usyk ticks both of these better.

Gomez at #3 is mostly based on how good he was, and his lengthy title run when he beat countless top contenders. Wins over Cole, Castro and El Toro are good as well. Huck and Adamek are swappable imo, but I went with Adamek over Huck based of Adamek getting the win over Cunningham, who had literally just beaten Huck. Huck's title reign and his own signature win over Lebedev could see him go above. Cunningham and Briedis is pretty close too imo. Steve has the résumé, but isn't as consistent, and Briedis doesn't have the résumé but is very consistent. I like Cunningham's signature wins here though, losses be dammed! Briedis has the edge over Lebedev based off the same logic. Briedis has the better wins here. Bell and Gassiev is a bit of interesting one. Gassiev's wins over Dorticos and past prime Lebedev & Wlodclarczyk are good, but are they as good as a prime Mormeck? I'll say yeah, and give it Gassiev based off depth but I'm completely torn and have swapped these 2 a few times.

The guys outside of the top 10 could probably argue a place in it but I haven't gone there. Guys like Haye, Mormeck, Jirov and Nelson don't have those signatures wins and in Haye's case, he doesn't have the longevity either.

Other guys like Qawi and Toney were awesome H2H and very interesting to talk about but really didn't do much at the weight.

 

1. Uysk
2. Holyfield
3. Huck
4. Gomez
5. Adamack
6. Qawi
7. Jirov
8.DeLeon
9. Briedis
10. Orlin Norris

 

This thread was started in 2012! To be honest I used to laugh at this division. Fat light heavies or too small to mix it above 190. Not anymore, they put on a good show.

 

1. Holyfield and Usyk
2. CLEAR DAYLIGHT
3-10. Everybody else