What is your top ten? Please post and explain. Mine is 1. Wladimir 2. Vitali 3. Adamek 4. Haye 5. Helenius 6. Povetkin 7. Chambers 8. Arreola 9. Thompson 10. Solis I rate Wladimir slightly above Vitali. Adamek is far behind those 2. He is unbeaten at HW and is a former CW champion. Althought level of his opposition decreased lately, he fought in the ring his no3 position in the ranking and fights very, very often. His position will probably change after 10 September when hes facing Vitali. Next I would place David Haye. Similar to Adamek he was the champion at CW. He was also a belt holder at HW. His level of opposotion is similar to Adameks, but his last fight was a clear loss to Wladimir Klitschko. Since Haye was one of the most demanding opponents for Wladimir in many years I still have him in my top5. Then I rate Helenius just behind Haye. He is climbing in the ranking as he is beating the veterans. He hasnt fought a top10 opponent yet, so his abilities against elite fighters arent confirmed. As long as he keeps fighting and winning he should be around the middle top 10. Then I have Povetkin who is unbeaten and has good names on resume, but his activity lowers his ranks. Fortunately he is fighting Ruslan Chagaev in August and the winner of that fight deserves the place in top 5. Just behind him I rate Chambers, who lost to Povetkin and Wladimir, but has good names on the resume and will probably fight Thompson in an eliminator to Wlad's title. The winner of that fight deserves the place around top5 too. Then I have Arreola, who after losing to Vitali and Adamek has fought very often and beat a couple of decent fighters. He is also in better shape now. I think that he is a perspective fighter and a good contender. I have Thompson at #9. He has good skills and size, but doesnt fight too often and his level of opposition is mediocre. Top ten is closing by Odlanier Solis. He possibly possesses good skills, but wasnt tested against top opposition. His loss to Vitali was very strange, because he was doing pretty well, but lost in the first round due to the either injury or legitimate punch or both. Near top ten I rate fihgters like Pulev, Dimitrenko, Boytsov, Chisora and Fury. And the winner of Chisora-Fury may get no10 position in my rank.
Good list. Mine is 1) Wlad 2) Vitali 3) Adamek 4) Chambers 5) Haye 6) Thompson 7) Povetkin 8) Helenius 9) Chagaev 10) Dimitrenko -While I would fancy Haye against Adamek or Chambers, Haye hasn't accomplished enough to be rated ahead of those 2. -I may over-rate Thompson somewhat but his resume is pretty strong and he wasn't bad against Wladimir. He has a very good chance of upsetting Chambers. -Povetkin ought to be higher based on his record but he's been unimpressive for some time now. If he beats Chagaev he'll be #3. -Chagaev's accomplishments make him a reasonable choice for #3 but I have him bumped to #9 based because of inactivity. He beats Povetkin he's #3. -I'm reluctant to rate Helenius too highly based on beating some washed up champs. I could see him as high as #6, no higher. Should he beat Liakovitch impressively, perhaps #4. -I give Dimitrenko the nod over Solis in ratings based on accomplishments (Dimitrenko's resume gets him a high ranking on boxrec), but a healthy Solis would destroy Dimitrenko.
I think that HW isnt as bad is it was in recent years. We dont have Maskaevs, Rahmans, Ruizs and Valuevs being champions. All belts are in the Klitschkos hands, who are dominating the division. However Klitschkos arent getting any younger, especially Vitali. We have finally top10 guys fighting eachother (Povetkin and Chagaev, Chamvers and Thompson). We have also lower division champions moving up and doing well (Haye, Adamek). There are also a couple of good contenders (Chambers, Povetkin, Arreola, Solis, Dimitrenko, Thompson) and a bunch of prospects (Helenius, Pulev, Boytsov, Fury, Perez, Chisora). There are some talents too, who turned pro in the last 2-3 years and needs to be step up, as Wilder or Szpilka. Good reasoning I rate Helenius that high (#5), because boxers ranked around him (Chambers and Povetkin) are too inactvie. After Chamers-Thompson and Povetkin-Chagaev, I will put the winners above Helenius, so he will be around #7.
Solid list and reasoning, but personally, I'd put Solis higher than Arreola, as Arreola has been soundlly beaten, twice. I doubt I'd even have Arreola even in the top ten. His wins over the recent tomato can opponents carry little clout, with me. Good to see you have Haye still high, where he belongs. I have Haye still top four. And I'd also put Povetkin above Helenius. Povetkin is inactive, but he has a win over Chambers, who is a good opponent and hard to beat. Beating the then undefeated Chambers is more impressive than Robert's recent win over Peter, in my opinion. Not put alot of thought into it, but here is about what I'd say: 1. Wladimir 2. Vitali 3-4.. Adamek - Haye - tie 5. Povetkin 6. Chambers 7. Helenius 8-.Chagaev 9. Solis 10. Chisora
1. Wlad 2. Vitali 3. Povetkin 4 Thompson 5. Chambers 6. Adamek 7. Haye 8. SNV 9. Helenius 10. Arreola
Yes I completely agree that beating undefeated Chambers means more than beating a couple of has beens. However when I rate fighters I judge them from their recent performances, I usually go 1 year back and no more than two years back. Povetkin beat Chambers 3 and a half years ago, so this win doesnt count that much at the moment. It will count a lot, when summarizing the whole career. Yes he was soundly beaten, but he showed a lot of heart in those defeats and finally lost some pounds. The fight between these 2 would be pretty enterteining. I think that from the fighters ranked in top10-top15 in the division Arreola is the least skilled fighter. However he has other advantages (power, heart and chin). His punching technique is very bad and that may be the reason why he broke his hands when fighting Adamek.
