I think the Heavyweight Division is now worse than ever.Wlad seems to have few if any legitimate challengers after Peter looked distinctly average Saturday night - ancient Holyfield will be fighting for a belt - Golota may get another shot - there are no decent young American heavyies except for the undersized Eddie Chambers - Chagaev looks good but its hard to be sure based on his victory over Valuev.Dimitrenko is being protected but may have the goods. The main hope of saving the division may lie with Povetkin and possibly Solis.Povetkin is being rushed along and so far has looked the part.Hopefully he can continue to improve and put a pulse back into this sorry division
Povetkin can hurry as much as he wants, as long as he doesnt run in to Wlad to fast.. ...Also, Calvin Brock was good, even though Ray Austin sucked complete ass, and Lamon Brewster, well Wlad needed to be redeemed.. Hehe..
The division looks pretty good to me with guys like Wlad, Chagaev and Ibragimov, and beatable but entertaining guys like Virchis, Maskaev, Holyfield, Peter, etc. The division isn't bad. The future looks much better with guys like Povetkin, Solis, etc.
I think the Heavyweight division has always been crap...The cruiseweights are the heavyweights that we think of when we think about the heaveyweight division. Skilled, Strong, in shape, boxer/punchers is what we think of as the ultimate champs known as heavyweights. The heavy's of today arent far ahead of butterbean type guys, theyre all fat, skill-less bums who use their fat asses and lovehandles to try squash you to death. Peter and McCline are the true examples of that. There should just be a Super-heavyweight division already, cause these guys look like they belong in a pie-eating contest instead of the ring.
If Povetkin beats Byrd and the Brock/chambers winner ( and i think he will ) he should at least be ready to give Wlad a stern challenge and maybe even beat him.No one really knows how good he is yet but who else is there.Other than Chagaev i can't see anyone else competing with Wlad
Yes two fights at the high level should be enough to put him in the title shot. But if the best prospect fails then HW division is in real truble ...
The top of the division, Wlad, is right up there with many champions in terms of talent. The problems is really that there has been no one guy to capture the type of fan base the way Holyfield, Ali, Tyson or even Lewis did. Wlad can't draw **** on PPV. Peter has potential but it is not looking good for him to ever reach that potential the type of condition he has been coming in. The only time he really looked physically fit was the second fight with Toney, and he did dominate a very difficult fighter in that one. Povetkin definitely has the potential. There are some others with talent and potential, but there is just nobody who has captured the mainstream attention that past HW's have.
chagaev is the goods, no question. his win vs valuev was very impressive. and he holds a clear win over ruiz........the only one to have clearly beaten ruiz since jones. thats as impressive as it gets. what more does one need. dimitrenko is overrated imo. virchis cant box, but he can knock anyone out.
Povetkin has defence issue's. Peter probably wins, even though Peter is looked at as **** now, which I am still giving him the benefit of the doubt.
I don't know why anyone is mentioning solis, have any of you watched him fight he is as fat and lazy as any opf the heavyweights you are calling bad.