Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Heavyweight division

If Itauma dominates Hrgovic like no one before it'll probably suggest the next era will have better talent than Fury/Joshua/Wilder era

 

Sad that Usyk is gone? That clown took a year off to fight an untested 1–0 kickboxer in a gimmick fight. He's part of the reason Kabayel is still considered "untested." In my opinion, the heavyweight division is going to thrive without an champion who avoided the fights many fans wanted to see.

As for the quality of the champions, it's not the strongest lineup right now, but what do you expect when all the belts have been vacated? Compare this to previous eras when titles were vacated. We had Bermane Stiverne as champion in 2014, Charles Martin, the weakest heavyweight champion ever, in 2016, and Joseph Parker in 2016, who at the time was less proven and way worse than Kabayel or Dubois are today. So before saying this heavyweight era garbage, give it a year. Gassiev or Dubois could lose their belts, and fighters like Hrgovic, Itauma, or others could reshape the division.

 

it’s been decades since theres been more than one fighter actually fighting at elite level at hw. full of mediocrity for the most part. itauma is the only one i think might hit that level going forward. these promoters should invest in scouting athletes and training them for hw from the ground up. in 4 years you could train a gifted athlete to compete at the level most of these guys are fighting at. with the profit potential it would be a sound investment. it doesnt take a whole lot of skill to beat 95% of these guys.

 

Let's talk when they are all gone. As it stands now, the divison is flush, and in addition to Itauma-Hrgovic winner gets Sanchez, we are probably getting Usyk-Wilder, Joshua-Fury, Warldey-Dubois II, and Kabayel-somebody coming up. I'm not complaining.


The big problem in the future is that the only blue-chip talent out there under thirty is Itauma and Dubois. There are the good Russians like Surov and Dronov, but they are well in their infancy, and, as Russians, will struggle to find fights.

 

Dubois is a glass canon that quits, so he won't be fighting anyone with a pulse anytime soon. Kabayel looks good, but still untested, like you said, and too dangerous and low-value for anyone to want to fight him. Itauma also seems to be a glass canon with stamina issues, plus his handlers have a lot riding on him, so don't expect him to be fighting anyone that can punch anytime soon. We're in for a dark age.

 

Quite a few good heavyweights under age 30 now.

Teremoana Teremoana
Oleksandr Hrytsiv
Gurgen Hovhannisyan
Vartan Arutyunyan
Justis Huni
Moses Itauma
Dainier Pero (he's better than his older brother)
Aleksei Dronov
Lazizbek Mullojonov

And there's some others like Surov who are early in their pro careers.

I'd like to see these younger heavyweights take on some of the better established heavyweights, to shake up the division. Sadly, the promoters are slow to make good matchups. Someone like Teremoana is without a doubt ready for some better opposition.

 

How many of those guys are going to get backing? You can go down the list and name a dozen Russian and Uzbek fighters...but the issue is will Brits pay to see them fight?

 

Some would do well, Brits would watch them, if they were promoted properly.

Remember how the British fans were cheering Usyk when he fought Dubois the second time?

 

And yet even Usyk, a generational talent, is breaking up the division because he has made a fraction of Joshua and Fury.

 

Charles Martin was better than Stiverne.

 

If fury vs joshua does as many ppv buys as expected this will go on and repeat the next time, too.

May vs pac was the most successful ppv ever. Does anyone think that deters others from repeating that playbook? Joshua / hearn did exactly the same - fight weaker opponents than wilder and make a lot of money doing it, keeping the wilder fight for another day. Fury Joshua is a similar story.

I assume fury joshua would still be super lucrative. Way more than it should be considering they both are DONE from the looks of it.

If they do it, at the price they will offer it, there should be Like 10000 buys. But there probably will be a million and so this whole charade will repeat itself with the next sought after fight.

As much as i love supporting boxing, one should only support good fights. Unless one is happy with joshua vs pulev, old povetkin, brezeale, molina, whatever or fury vs schwarz, wallin, ngannou, old whyte, third chisora and so on, same with wilder.

If they make like ten times less than with a good fight, the economics will guide them towards good fights. The way it is now, it is way more lucrative to keep the zero and blow up some no-hopers

 

Say what you want about Dubois but to say he won't be fighting anyone with a pulse is a bit shortsighted

The guy has always been open to fighting anyone