CST80's Picks For Best Heavyweight Prospects/Fringe World Contenders To Watch.

I haven't been doing hardly any Educate Yourselves threads lately, so I've fallen behind. So I figured I'd just hit you all with lump sum dump, of the Heavyweights that I think are worth keeping an eye on. Not including guys like Jalalov, Itauma or Torrez, they're no longer obscure and they already get plenty enough attention. Keep in mind, I tend to be uber circumspect when it comes to Heavyweights, aside from Usyk, I haven't been effusive in my praise of many of them. Because they're such an unpredictable sort, ho easily fall into bad habits, like falling in love with their power. So more than any other division, when transitioning to the pros, things can go awry quite easily. Especially in regards to weight and erosion of skills. This is in no particular order.

Bohdan Myronets

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Lazizbek Mullojonov

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Joshua Edwards

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Ali Feliz

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Jakhongir Zokirov

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Diego Lenzi

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Andrii Novytskyi

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David Surov

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Aleksi Dronov

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I actually contemplated adding the first two. But Jurk has a ton of bad habits, he has a tendency to fight too upright, doesn't protect his chin at all, because he thinks his reflexes are a lot better than they actually are. He also has a bad habit of trading with his chin up in the air, and gets clipped with counter hooks far too often. If he could work on those issues and get them ironed out, he could be a contender. Barriere I like, but there's something lacking with him, there's nothing dynamic about him, and he also feels like one of those guys when he steps up, is going to be far too cautious and end up giving away win after win. Suslenkov is skilled, but he's a little too spoiler happy for my liking, like a gropy Heavyweight Andre Ward, and that's never a good thing

 

Agree, although he might be better suited as a Cruiserweight, depending on if he can make the weight healthily. Which may be an issue because while he's only 6'2, he has a stocky frame. So he might be one of those guys caught in the hinterlands like Gassiev. Who would probably be better suited a Bridgerweight.

 

Agree, I was back and forth on whether I should include him at all, but like you implied, the strength and power are there, and with a good trainer to hone those aspects of his game, he could be beastly. His KO of Watts was as lovely as it was brutal.

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Not impressed with any of them really. Itauma is the best of that lot, but aside from his power, speed and an okay control of range, he's pretty middling. these are the two times he went the distance, while he kept gunning for the KO, you can see him running out of ideas as the matches progress. He seems to lack a plan B. He also got tagged a fair amount against Dovbyshchenko. So what happens when he gets in there with a tough journeyman like these two, with some skills and power, in a match that goes long? Now of course it seems like I'm being extra harsh on him, but for **** sake, he's being compared to Mike Tyson. When the fans set the standard that high, one has to judge him along those lines.

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Teremoana is a brutal KO waiting to happen, he's too wild, too ungainly too uncoordinated, too sloppy. He's going nowhere. The Pero brothers are ass, Lenier was being comprehensively beaten down by Vykhrist and lucked out with that rib shot. They both lose to much of the Top 20.

 

So... which of these guys do you all think shows promise?

I was tempted to throw Mourad Aliev on here as well, sure ... he just lost to Labinot Xhoxhaj. But clearly Xhoxhaj is better than most thought he was, and his style is as repulsive as they come, and could prove nightmarish to many a fighter. Put Aliev in with someone decent who isn't a disgusting spoiler, he could probably handle them with relative ease.