Has the heavyweight division ever sucked as much as today?

No different to Holmes fighting Cobb IMO.

If Wlad fights Price, Fury, Pulev or Povetkin in the next year this will be forgotten about.

 

Heavyweights suck... who would of thought?

This is from 'The Ring' in 1994; an era of primed Holyfield, Lewis and Bowe; a soon out of jail Tyson; an unbeaten Heavyweight Champion (Moorer); Holmes still giving it some; Foreman a few months away from the 'Miracle'; and a supporting cast of peak or near peak McCall, Bruno, Morrison and Mercer; prospects Hide, Donald and Williams starting to make some noise and to finish it off, the 'New Face' the magazine profiled in that issue... Andrew Golota:

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Great article, TBooze. Thank you for posting it.

I'll also add that there is actually a website showing the top ten heavyweights ranked for every era, and I think even on a year by year basis. http://www.heavyweightaction.com/Decade%201950s.html Stats include height, weight, notable victories and defeats.

 

Some good posts in this thread.
Today's heavyweight division is probably no worse that most of the "golden eras" that people tend to look at with rose-tinted glasses.

I remember the 1980s and the 1990s.
Even the 1970s was thought of as "inferior" at the time.

The Anglophone sporting press - primarily the Americans - is extra-critical of the current era for obvious reasons.
Most of the American sports pundits criticizing current heavyweight boxing are becoming more and more irrelevant. they may as well tell us about what's happening in the world of cricket.

 

Today's contenders aren't worse than the 1900s,10s, 20s, 30s, 40s. I do think they worse than the 90s, 80s, 70s and 60s though just about

 

This era for heavys does suck...Jesus....the time of Sharkey...Carnera and Baer looks fantastic compared to this crop...has there been a worse title fight in recent years as the Klit-Haye farce? Total crap...

 

this is a straight up, quality post...whats the angle BE?:think

 

agreed, just have my doubts they'll fight him. kinda embarrassing when a champ like wlad has to consistently call out his opponents. Mr. T called out Rocky and said he'd **** his wife, not the other way around. And yet wlad has to hunt down povetkin and haye to get them in the ring...

 

Oh the divison has been worse. The talent level is ok, its just there are hall of fame skilled super heavies cleaning up on skilled smaller heavies, and not so skilled larger heavies.



If you were to match Povetkin, Arreola, Chambers, Adamek, Haye, Helenius and company with each other, you'll get a competitive match.

 

good point. when arreola and adamek fought, it wasn't too bad at all. I'd love to see haye adamek personally. if everyone weren't beating up bums or has beens and just waiting for their chance at the klitschkos, this division could be pretty solid.

the problem is the competition is gonna look like **** when the only opposition they face are:

1) journeyman (ie: sherman williams)
2) shot fighters (lamon brewster)
3)klitschkos (where they get destroyed)

if the top 10 faced each other, we'd seperate the quality from the frauds and hype jobs. the problem is, no one wants to fight and risk their "big shot" against the klits.

 

I don't think I've ever been around and heard people saying "Wow, the heavyweight division is AMAZING right now!"

The heavyweights are fine. Dominant champion, exciting contenders, and Povetkin is fun to watch when he actually fights somebody competent.

The prospects who are rapidly rising are of some quality, too, which is great, for Wlad's sake.

 

Its actually quite good now. Wach would dominate the eras of Jeffries, Johnson, Marciano and Holmes. And he is just a top ten guy today.

 

Give it a year. Wlad will slip a wee bit. Pulev picks up a couple of decent learning scalps. Price and Fury gain more experience (if they fight each other the winner probably has enough hype to waltz into a fight with Wlad) and if Wlad beats them all he's laughing in terms of legacy.

These aren't blobs, past prime or completely basic. They all offer different things. Wlad would beat Fury very easily, but Fury is game and beings size and activity. Would be guaranteed fun, which Wlad's detractors often bring up when his defences are being discussed. Pulev would be too undersized and get a Chagaev sized beating IMO. And Price is a seemingly bigger robot with a hammer of a right hand. Easy to hype and easy to sell to the British public IMO (with an introductory offer to sign up for BOXNation in the tabloids, just like Haye-Chisora)

Wlad shouldn't be short on opponents and they won't be short on hype. I think his reign is about to get interesting. I hope Vitali stays retired, Arreola and Adamek were scalps Wlad would've picked up more impressively IMO. He also beat Peter convincingly after his brother had beaten him to a pulp.

 

No way Wach fares well in Holmes' era. Witherspoon would've straight up battered him. Wach showed durability and a bit of a dig, but let's not forget his best win was a scrappy one over an always abysmal McBride.

Better than Firpo, for sure.

 

Wlad had the power and the precision Vitali 2.0 lacked.

Arreola and Adamek would have been finished conclusively in short order. I'm thinking under 8 rounds, and yes, I wish Wlad had those W's on his resume instead of a guy like Mormeck(People rag on Austin, but he was mando).

Still, if Wlad can hang on to the title for another two years, and beat a pair of names like Povetkin and Price, for example, I think it's gonna be tough to leave him outside the top 15. If he can go another 3-4(Much, much less probable) and he can beat ALL the guys you've listed, and win the rematch with Haye that will likely be inevitable, he's had a better career than some of the other second tier legends, imo, and deserves to edge into the top 10.