The best Cruiser Weight after Holyfield ?

Haye------------Lebedev

Mormeck>>>>>Ramirez
Maccarinelli ==Maccarinelli
Fragomeni<<<Kalenga
Gurov<<<<<<Alekseev
Williams<<<<Toney
Mock<<<<<<Jones
Rosetti<<<<<Cox (coming off the Braithwaite KO)
Kelly<<<<<< Kayode
Bonin<<<<<<Kolodziej
____________**Huck**


One could easily make the argument Lebedev is already a greater CW than Haye and had it not been for the Huck robbery would clearly be ahead of him already. If he beats Gassiev there is no argument.

 

1 - Holyfield
2 - Haye

H2H Haye would shatter Holyfields glass chin

 

Hilarious. Close to prime Lennox Lewis couldn't shatter past it Holy's "glass" chin, but Haye would lol.

 

Lennox had nothing on a Prime Haye.

Haye would make Lennox miss all night and then Haye would KO Lennox 'Glass Chin' Lewis. Vitali schooled Lewis he's no more than a chump.

 

Thanks a million for the great laughs. You are the laughman.

 

Ali
Haye
Wilder

 

hes dead, how can he be a legit CW?

 

Obviously Holyfied.

Next up is the debate, there are several candidates but none are very strong.

 

Holyfield
Adamek
Gomez
Haye
Lebedev
Toney
Jirov
Wlodarczyk
Cunningham
Huck

Top10 cruiserweights for me.

 

Haye

 

Are people judging based on how a fighter fared at heavyweight or what they achieved in the actual division?

 

Holyfield is the clear number 1 right, but why? He wasn't even champion for 2 years, defending the belt 5 times against the likes of Qawi, Tillman and DeLeon. Holyfield is regarded universally as the best cruiser ever because he unified the belts but more importantly because of what he did at heavyweight. He proved at heavyweight he was far better than expected when he was just a cruiser which let's be honest has never been a division that's been that deep in regards to talent.

So when looking at the number 2 you have to look at the others who have unified at cruiser like Holyfield. This would mean Haye, Mormeck, Lebedev and Bell who was the only other cruiser along with Evander to hold the WBC,WBA and IBF belts at the same time.

Bell's achievement of being undisputed like Holyfield stands out, but he only defended the title twice and lost the rematch with Mormeck and then lost to Adamek. He also never fought at heavyweight.

Mormeck unified the WBA, IBF and WBO belts and did previously hold the WBC belt and so was at one point the the clear number 1 cruiser in the world unlike so many others that never unified. He successfully defended a belt 4 times over 7 title fights, over a 5 year period. He has good wins over Hill, Braithwaite and Bell. Mormeck for me has clearly one of the best resume's in terms of who he beat.

Haye was the last to unify being WBA, WBC and WBO champion, winning the title from Mormeck and unifying against Maccarinelli. He only defended the belt once but like Holyfield what he did at heavyweight is what separates him from his peers at cruiser. He did win a title even if it was a paper one.

Lebedev is the current WBA Super and IBF champion. So he has one less belt than Mormeck and Haye had at one time. He also has a loss to Huck which he never avenged so you can't even say he's the best of his own era. Mormeck may have lost to Bell but he avenged it, proving his dominance.

For me Mormeck was the 2nd best 190lbs cruiser after Evander but Haye was the best 200lbs cruiser after Evander.

Now you have others like Adamek who was good but never unified, only defended the title twice and who's achievements at heavyweight were less than spectacular and definitely less than Haye's.

Toney's title win over Jirov was great but he never defended the belt and let's be honest he was likely roiding at this point.

Juan Carlos Gomez had a long reign with 10 defences but he never unified. He has some solid wins at heavy but never won a belt like Haye or Evander.

 

Brighton bomber, excellent post and good list.

 

I can't argue with Brighton Bomber, he's gave a good review and I agree with his picks.