3 heavyweights are getting what is considered shots at the "major" ABC titles this fall. In just a pure boredom induced statement of facts lets take a look at how little they had to do to get here. Samuel Peter: In October of 2008 Peter got pounded into quitting on his stool by Vitali Klitschko, following that performance up with a MD loss to Eddie Chambers. Since then he's had 3 consecutive victories. Ronald Bellamy (14-9-4), Gabe Brown (18-12-4), and Nagy Aguilera (15-2-0) and now after having not fought since March he gets a title shot, at what is considered to be the top heavyweight champ today. The only upside to Peter during all of this seems to have been his weight. He was in the mid 260's against Chambers. In his last fight he fought as light as he had since 2001/2002. Shannon Briggs: Looking through BoxRec trying to find if this guy has ever had a meaningful win that cannot be at least partially discredited. In 1996 he lost Darrol Wilson who was 15-0-2 a tthe time by KO. He has the MD win over Foreman, ive admittedly never seen that fight but everyone seems to question that decision. Then he lost every round in route to a Round 5 TKO loss to Lennox Lewis. In 1999 he had a draw against Francois Botha. In 2000 he lost to a 9-9 Sedrick Fields. In 2002 he lost to Jameel McCline. He did beat Ray Mercer but lets put that into perspective. In 2002 when Mercer lost to Wlad he was seen as completely shot, Briggs beat him 3 years AFTER that. He won the WBO title against Liakhovich but was losing on all 3 scorecards when he scored the 12th Round TKO. Then he basically lost every round against Ibragimov. Since then he's NC1 with Marcush McGhee and beaten Rafael Pedro, Domonique Alexander and Rob Calloway. Now getting a title shot. You do the math. Audley Harrison: The man lost a SD to Danny Williams (was avenged), a UD to Dominick Guinn and was KO-ed by Michael Sprott in the span of something like 5 fights. Had a couple fight comeback and then lost to Martin Rogan. Since then (December 2008) he's 4-0. 3 of those wins came on the same day apparently in the Prizefighter tourney against guys with very few fights and then this past april he got a rematch with Sprott and won by 12th Round TKO. And now getting a title shot against Haye.
That was more of the point. That there's really no one to fight. A weak division plus splintered championships makes for some horrible title fights.
We could have been seeing Wlad v Povetkin and Vitali v Valuev (better fights) but Atlas knows his boy isn't ready and Valuev got greedy.
Both Klitchkos are always offering fights to everybody and anybody, the only people ive ever known them to duck were each other. Constantly every time a better fight is negotiated their opponants back out for one reason or another. Ive never had any complaints about the people they fight. Im a Haye fan but cant say the same about him. I dont know whats keeping him away from the Klitchkos, i dont wana say hes scared but i dont know whats going on. I do know that theres many doubters of Haye and if he wants to shut them up and prove hes the man he can do better than the likes of Harrison, he should be looking to take on who the Klichkos have faced and try to do a better job on them than the brothers did. But then its financially smart to play it safe, not something im happy about cuz this is a sport and im my opinion self pride and competition should be the foremost important thing to try to achieve and you do that by proving your the best by facing the best, no fighting inferior figters to line your pockets.
The Klits have cleaned out the division. Everyone worth fighting has either been beaten by them, or is in hiding (haye). Speaking of haye, it's only fair to mention that if Harrison's title shot is ill-deserved........what did haye ever do to deserve one? Getting kfto by an ancient, local-level fighter like Carl Thompson? Once given the shot, haye spent the fight running around the ring and getting a gift decision against a circus freak who never deserved a belt in the first place. haye's one fight since then was against the half-dead, 38 year old Ruiz. Wow. The Kits may not be all-time greats, but they are the best of their era by a mile. haye is a carnival huckster.
You forgot the part where Harrison was behind by like 8 rounds on the score cards when he knocked Sprott out. As for the Klits, who else could they have fought?
Valuev:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl by the way nice AV dan-b, loved Tombstone! [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnwvZcb9EEM[/ame] by the way, who was the greatest gunfighter of all time? was it Wild Bill Hickok, John Wesley Hardin,Wyatt Earp, or Harry Tracey? I guess there are other names to chose from. Well it aint Valuev thats for sure!:hey
I'll go with Wyatt Earp. Btw, my comment wasn't meant to big Valuev up or anything - but him vs Vitali would have been better than Briggs. But, again, it's not Vitali's fault the situation has turned out this way.
The good thing is that the Klits are doing their job exposing the contenders Valuev, Haye and Povetkin for what they are: little bitches. 30 years ago the contenders would have been running and chasing the champ(s), making sure they get their title shot no matter on what contractual terms. They'd take their chance and try to knock out the king of the hill. Not so today. Today's generation is too lazy to work their way to the top and too afraid to risk their career because they might lose their next fight. If you don't want to fight and take a risk go work at McDonald's flipping burgers.
Exactly. When Lewis fought Holyfield he took half the money Evander did because Evander had two belts and Lewis just one. He knew winning would mean he could name his price for future fights. ****, even Mayweather fought eliminators and on undercards back in the day.