I don't like the Klits, mainly because of their nutthugging fans, BUT why is it their fault there are so many shitty contenders?
:thumbsup You know, as a total new one here you really think twice before posting! I agree with you! //C
For the people who obviously know very little about boxing, the hw division has always had less great fighters than the other divisions. Always! It's always been that way. Klitschkos are brilliant boxers. ****, these haters don't know ****. Vitali very rarely holds. The 70s era was a freak era, most of the time that's not how the hw division is, but most of these people are comparing it to that. :-( Not to mention even the greatness of the 70s era is totally exagerated
:blood What platet did you arrived from? Wlad versus Haye is the biggest fight in boxing today, spare Floyd versus Packman.
oh yeah before I forget... Klitschko fights are seen in 100-150 countries. Hbo pulled the plug on all hw boxing because Greenberg said no one was competitive against the bros and americans dont want to keep watching their fighters get busted up. Oh yeah, he also said they were great fighters :good now **** off. The brit press only gives a **** about boxing when they have a Brit fighter, I should know I ****ing live there. Cut the crap, boxing is global, it doesnt revolve around our little island. PS-Lennox surely wasnt a hellblazer in the ring, everyone called him boring. The Americans booed him after the Vitali fight, they wanted Vitali to beat him. lennox was very very very rarely involved in a war, but the same people who slam K2, praise him. Why? hmmmmmm cause they are British.
What has that got to do with anything? Completely besides the point. Fans will tolerate weak divisions as long as the fights are fun. The 1950's was considered a weak era for heavyweights yet there was a huge boom in popularity of boxing during that period, largely because of the heavyweight scene. Jack Dempsey never beat a genuinely great opponent yet he was the star in his era. The depth of the division isn't an issue because 95% of people who decide what makes a popular era, ie the non-fans, don't know anything about talent and don't give a **** about it either. They want to see good fights and vicious knockouts, and they got that with Marciano and Dempsey. They don't with the Klitschkos. That's the issue.
The quality of contenders is completely irrelevant. People are judged on what they do in their era. All they can do is fight the best around. Wlad has done that consistently since 05. Vitali hasn't but solis and adamek are a step in the right direction. The fights might not be fun, but it depends how you look at it. It's at the stage now where I think we should appreciate them whilst they're still active and taking on top opposition. It's no fluke that the biggest fight of the year involves wlad klitschko. At the end of the day he changed from a joke to the dominant force. He went from being slapped around by brewster and sanders to dominating the likes of peter, byrd, chagaev, ibragimov, peter. His second tier includes chambers, thompson and brock all top rated contenders. His win over rahman is not special but history will look favourably upon it I feel. Austin is nonsense but it was a mandatory so what can you do? He is next fighting haye, the third ranked heavyweight. The quality isn't important because we can't compare contenders like that. All we can do is ask "who did the champ face in his era" and the fact is wlad's resume is littered with top 5 contenders.
That's not exactly to do with him though, is it? Haye could fight Vitali and it'd be a bigger fight than anything else including Wlad, even Wlad vs. Adamek. Haye could fight Adamek and it'd be a bigger fight than any other possible bout involving either Wlad or Vitali. It's not Wlad who is attracting all this attention, it's Haye. He's the common denominator in all the biggest fights in the division. Why? Because he hits extremely hard, gives us entertaining fights the majority of the time, but, more importantly, knows how to sell a fight. Neither Wlad, Vitali or Adamek know how to sell a fight.
Wlad could fight vitali and it would be one of the biggest fights in history. Wlad - adamek would be on par with vitali - haye. For people who don't know how to sell fights, vitali and adamek seems pretty big. How can you say the popularity of wlad - haye is not exactly to do with wlad? Staggering.
So basically you're saying the thread title should be renamed to "The shitty HW contenders have killed HW boxing" :deal