Poll - Who wins at Cruiserweight - Bivol or Opetaia?

There's loads of factors in whether a champ moving up stands a chance...

Is he large for his current weight?
Is he especially skilful?
Is the champ at the level above particularly good?
How many tuneups at the new weight will he take before fighting the champ?
Etc.

Bivol being already on the small side makes it less likely, especially if he wasn't going to fight a few others at the weight first... Obviously he has excellent skills and he's durable, and Jai is a solid and worthy rather than spectacular, ATG level champion (he's certainly no fraud).

It's not impossible, but it's still unlikely - I guess some will look at Usyk moving up, giving away more in size and weight and figure why not, but I don't think Bivol is quite as complete or quite as special as Usyk.

 

Obviously due to the huge difference in size Opetaia would be favourite.However who has he beat besides Briedis to make people dismiss Bivol so easily? Jai still has a lot to prove and yes he may turn out to be great, but i think at this stage Bivol wins on points

 

Haye has only lost to Carl Thompson in cruiserweight, and is Thompson mediocre in your opinion?

 

Carl was 40

 

So he wasn't a mediocre fighter but just an old man?

P.S. Hopkins became world light heavyweight champion (Ring Magazine) at 41 and world IBF champion at 48.....

 

Bivol is a true 175er, whereas Opetaia is likely a small heavyweight at 215 or so. There's probably 30 lbs between them when rehydrated. Opetaia is too big. Opetaia on points.

 

Hopkins is an anomaly. 40 yr old champs are rare

 

Boxers can be competitive even at 40, Erislandy Lara is 41 and is the world middleweight champion. Badou Jack is 42 and the WBC world cruiserweight champion.

So I don't see why Carl Thompson couldn't be at 40. Thompson, who you called mediocre, was the world cruiserweight champion for 2 years, is a 2-time European champion and according to ******* he is among the best 20 cruiserweights of all time. In my opinion Carl Thompson was not a mediocre boxer and I agree with Ring Magazine (and other media) that considers David Haye one of the best 5 cruiserweights of all time and in my opinion the Englishman would have defeated Bernard Hopkins, just as I think that weight categories exist for a reason and that, at the moment, with a 25-pound difference, and one being a light heavyweight and the other a cruiser, the one between Bivol and Opetaia is just a fantasy match.

 

But he wasn't a champ at 40

 

Yep if old man Beterbiev hurt him and had him running for his life imagine what the Big Uso Opetaia would do to him.

 

But he was competitive, in fact he beat Haye.

 

I don’t think Beterbiev can do any different, I did score the first fight for him and think he legitimately deserved the nod, but the second fight was pretty one sided.

Time waits for no man and Beterbiev can’t get his youthful stamina back. I’d rather see something else.