Heavyweight division - Has it ever been as boring?

I'll answer when we see a new blitz.

 

Fighters like Bruno and the others mentioned above would be major players in todays heavyweight landscape.

They had their flaws but were highly skilled compared to todays heavys and definetly came to the ring in way better shape then most of todays combatants.

I remember some classic bouts between the 2nd tier contenders in the 90's..

Ruddock Vs Morrison

Morrison Vs Mercer

Bruno Vs McCall

Obviously im biased but check out the Morrison Vs Hipp bout for action.

Kind of says alot when the blokes who werent major players of the division 10years plus ago could be easily top of the tree today.

The top 10-15 heavyweights throught the late 80's early to mid 90's were very entertaining and highly skilled.

Look at the **** we have to put up with now.I just cant see the next crop of exciting top prospects coming around for a long time.

 

It's so so boring. I don't think it's ever been this boring.

 

Some what ironically it gets boring when you have a periceived unbeatable monster ruling, be that Liston, Foreman or most recently Tyson.

 

The problem was Tyson was considered so awesome every fight was perceived as a mismatch and thus the hardcore lost interest. The good thing about that was the likes of Chavez, Whitaker, Carbajal, Gonzales and Nunn got big time attention in the trade mags.

 

Its not great, but its a decent era it just has no standouts but many fighters today would still make top10 contenders in most eras. It really is not quite as bad as some make out, lets examine:

1. Wlad - dominant champ, who may end up top15 in history and probably would make top20 if he retired today. With wins over contenders and fring contenders like Sam Peter, Byrd (twice), Brewster, Ibragimov, McCline, Botha, Mercer, Shufford, Williamson, Austin, Barret, Shulz.

2. Sam Peter - exciting HW with strength and size to worry any HW in history. Also has underrated speed and good power. Would make top10 in any era
3. Chagaev - All round very good with no hige weaknesses but not the athlete we usually like to see and not the best conditioned. His skills are top level
4. Povetkin - a little overrated but excellent stamina, pressure, decent skills, decent power. Probably make top10 in most eras. Won't beat Wlad
5. Valuev - 7-2, 330lbs, and not terrible skills make him very hard to deal with, probably better than Willard, not great but in what era is he not a top10 HW or thereabouts?
6. Tony Thompson - 6'5 fast southpaw. Has some holes in his game and doesnt have the greatest power but again he could cause many fighters all kind of problems
7. Ruiz - we all like to talk down Ruiz as we hate to watch him. BUT Ruiz is very effective because of his effective jab and he has excellent wins. The jab and grab would handle many a contender but ofcourse not an elite fighter
8. Byrd - not as good as he was but at his best is a remarkable boxer. Makes the top10 in any era
9. Maskeev - probably done but at his best had excellent power with decent skills and a very dangerous opponent. In his prime top10 in any era
10. Rahman/Tua - Rahman beat Lewis so enough said. Both beat many a contender but both are a bit past it

The future:

David Haye - undisputed cruser champ, massive power at cruser, dead at cruser and moving to HW where he is 220lbs and ripped, potential future champ

Arreola - still havent seen him, how good is he? A mexican HW could be interesting

Povetkin - will be round for years yet and is bound to be a player when Wlad retires

Boystov - very fast Tysonesque type fighter with 18KOs out of 20. Hasnt fought at a decent level yet. Now hes 22 and fighting journeyman Hawkins next whos been in with many big names so we'll see if his pwoer goes up a level

Dimitrenko - 6'7 Ukranian fighter in the mold of the klitchkos but not as good. Will probably get a title shot down the line but he isnt destined for greatness

 

Modern fighters are larger, yes, and perhaps this that means that they would be too big for older fighters, but man, take a gander at just the knockdown rounds from youtube reproduced by Marciano-Frazier in his thread on Walcott and Moore and knockdowns of top heavyweights---the fourth round of Ali-Cooper and the seventh round of Holmes-Snipes. Those fighters throw more punches in those single rounds than Wlad and Sultan threw in 12 last night. It is as if boxing suddenly transported itself in a time machine back a century or so to the pre-Dempsey era, but the old-timers were fighting slow-paced because the fights were scheduled for 20 or even more rounds.

 

i like tony thompson people havnt seen him fight but the guy is good.
he is a mixture of cotto and winky. in that he throws alot of body shots and stays pretty close to hsi target and methodically breaks his man down.
also has a defence of winky in that he keeps his hands very high and jabs fomr the southpaw stance.

i believe that most great heavies are skinnying down to cruiserwieght. back in the early 90's and 80's the cruiserwieght division was a ******* division of the light heavies and the heavy's and kinda filled the void so to speak.

but now after a while it has gained attention as a very strong division. and heavywieghts who can make the transition will do it and dorp 12 pounds to fight smaller guys.

also if these train to get to cruiser then they are helping there conditioning and strength. where as at heavy you can do jack for 6 months and come in worse for wear. look at peter or toney they are nto suppose to be that heavy yet the repativly come in 20 pounds above what they should.

why i think it was so exciting was becuase the 180lb+ were added to the mix like ellis,quarry,spinks,holyfield were all under 200 pounds. the 200 pound cut off point has made us find out that over 220 pound and 6'5 you are slow boring and predictable.

 

Vantage__West
quote-----"the 200 pound cut off point has made us find out that over 220 pounds and 6'5" you are slow, boring and predictable"

You hit the nail on the head.

 

yeah it was a bare bait comment

but im trying to say that anyone who can make crusier will go to it if they have the abilty and desire to train look at jeremy williams (it was that wasnt it) he was a decent if not amazing heavywieght went to cruiser and looked spectacular.

at heavy there is a reaosn NOT to train and thus cahs in boring fights as we saw last night in which wlad was prepared but iggy was not

 

Wlads not even top 30 yet, hes getting there but he still has alot more to prove and quite frankly, he hasnt beaten anyone very good.

 

are u kidding me? heres a dude who was knocked down twice and nearly lost to a 37 year old awful heavyweight jameel mccline. He also lost in the first fight to an obese 38 year old middleweight. I been saying it for years. Sam Peter is one of the most overated heavyweights out there, he would be nothing in other eras.

 

I was disappointed in the way Wlad took no risk - obviously the mental side effects of getting KO'd by a fast handed southpaw were still there - but this fight was an exception. Wlad vs Brewster I/II, Peter, Brock, etc were all good fights. Even the second Byrd fight was pretty good. He threw 60 punches a round in both Brewster fights, the same amount against several other fighters like McCline and Botha. It was a pity he didn't take more risk in going for the knockout, but Sultan's still is also a spoiler. He's always backpeddling.

I hope Peter vs Maskaev is any good. Wlad vs Sultan and Chagaev vs Skelton were class A stinkers.