Watching the Pitters Vs Richards fight he other night got me thinking about how the light heavyweight division, in recent years especially, seems to be in a bit of a limbo in terms of exposure or popularity. It never seems to have have draw of the middleweights/super middles, or even cruiserweight. That's the perception I have anyway, and it may not seem that way to others. It just feels like it could be the ideal weight in terms of excitement, you have a mix of the speed and movement of the middleweights with almost of the power of the big lads. The fight the other night was testament to this. Is it just a dearth of good boxers in that division, or that some fighters slim down/bulk up to fight in the more lucrative weights? I know there are ebbs and flows with some divisions as boxers retire etc, but it always seems somehow 'forgotten', if you catch my drift.
It became dominated by some good Eastern European fighters who the public didn't know and didn't really want to know. General sports fans might know Kovalev but Beterbiev, Gvozdyk and Bivol would still be complete unknowns. Then with the exception of Beterbiev and Gvovdyk fairly recently, none of those guys fought each other.
It’s a great division! you’ve got top guys like beterbiev and bivol and then others coming through like bolotniks. plenty of good British fighters in the division, we just need them to fight each other a bit more
Light heavyweight is great! Some really good fights there in the last few years and plenty of good matches to be made too.
It should be lighting up the World of Boxing with talents like Beterbiev and Bivol top of the tree and a whole raft of top flight contenders to challenge them. I remember back in the day when you had Andries, Clinton Woods and Nathan Cleverly at various times keeping the UK interest in the division and Andries and Woods especially were involved in some classic fights. I think when the likes of Callum Johnson (Finally!), Buatsi, Marcus Brown, Eleider Alvarez and Joe Smith Jnr. really start stepping on the gas, the division should start attracting a fair bit more attention. Maybe Canelo will fancy dipping his toe into the Shark infested waters one more time. The UK domestic scene has the potential to be on fire in 2021. Here's hoping....
I can't remember when Light Heavy got the respect it deserves. I guess, when I was very young, when we had John Conteh and Chris Finnegan the division got some love. On the World stage, Light Heavy has always been known as the Cinderella division with absolutely no good reason.
fans are fans. better to have idol from their own nation. Yarde might be more known than Buatsi because he had fought Kovalev in Russia. Ok, lad had lost this one, this does not reduces respect from me he had get for this.
it's one of the strongest divisions. The top two Beterbiev and Bivol are brilliant fighters but the American media want them to not be well known whilst hyping the Charlos and Devin Haney But Because yank light heavys can't compete with the best they don't care about it. The divisions where there is more yanks in the top 10 like Welterweight and Light Welterweight get more attention unfortunately.
Lewie Edmondson, Thomas Whittaker-Hart, Karol Itauma, Tommy Fury, Paul Mccullagh - some decent prospects coming up at light heavy domestically.
When Ben Whitakker turns pro you can add him to the list. Out of the ones you listed there, I don't see any of them surpassing British level apart from Itauma.
Lewis Edmonson is a very good prospect. Not seen Whittaker for a while, but I remember watching Oleksandr Khyzniak beat Whittaker from pillar to post and thinking Whittaker was poor but Ive heard hes improved lately. Khyzhniiak is a ****ing beast though p4p number 1 amateur.
