How will the heavyweight division become alive again in the eyes of some

Frazier was one dimensional. So was Foreman. So was Marciano. So was Tyson.

Of course they were American so nobody ever declared them to be one-dimensional and dared to criticize them. Some of them fought in incredibly weak eras, too. Especially Marciano. Yet few remember that now.

 

Klitschkos have very excellent skills, they are very talented fighters, they dominate because they are the best out there. Notice that Stiverne will not fight Vlad, nor will Wilder. They know that Vlad would kick their arses. Vlad did beat Wilder from one side of the ring to the other, knocked Wilder down, Wilder in totally outclassed against Vlad. Wilder has fought nobody, yet Wilder fans claim he is the best heavyweight in boxing history. LOL!

 

Even if Wladimir retires, the division will end up being far worse than people think/expect. You will see complete out of shape clowns with no skills whatsoever exchanged titles regularly on ESPN. Highly doubt the division will find hope, most big athletes head to other sports(NFL being one solid example) where it's safer and pays good.

 

I was extremely disappointed in Jennings/ Perez fight, it was a draw, but Jennings' referee took a point away so as to secure a win for Jennings, but in reality they both lost that fight, it was boring as hell....................Jennings nor Perez would have a chance against Klitschko, and I doubt they could beat Stiverne...............

 

Both Foreman and Frazier are Gold Medalists, sure they were one-dimensional as professionals but definitely had the skills and abilities to back it up. In addition to that, they fought at the top level in the most dangerous era Heavyweight boxing has ever seen. Tyson remains to be the youngest heavyweight champion in history with absolutely no one daring to come close even after a decade. Not to forget that Tyson unified immediately, wiped out the division and dominated it for 3 years. Marciano remains to be the only Heavyweight in history to go 49 fights without losing once, how many years has passed and no one broke that record?. Even trash like Valuev attempted to break that record by fighting absolute nobodies(which he required robberies against) and still failed.

You can say one-dimensional all you want and try to discredit these fighters but there's an obvious reason why no one even dared to come close to what these guys have accomplished in that ring. You can bring race into it all you want but America sure as hell didn't force the entire world to tune in like never before whenever Tyson, Ali, Frazier, Foreman and Marciano fought. People tuned in like never before because they wanted to be entertained by the special skills these fighters had to display.

 

like frazier, foreman, and holmes were in great shape. guys looked like whale blubber commercials. ali in the 70's did too.

 

best athlete in the past fifty years was jim brown. no hw boxer ever could match that size, strength, agility, and heart.

 

No doubt, Jim Brown would make a great heavyweight champion if all the top contenders were women. His wife-beating and girlfriend battering skills were second to none.

 

Medzhidov and Dychko turning pro. Bogdan Dinu beoming more active and moving into the picture with a fight against a name, Usyk making a point at Cruiser before moving up, Parker winning and moving up the ranks + a few others.

Would be good to see some new names trying to move up past some of the current crop, especially those HWs with *'s in front of their names. *Haye (full of crap), *Solis (out of shape) *Helenius (injured), *Boytsov (inactive to the point of everyone losing interest), *Wilder (still untested), *Fury (waited to make his move, and now waiting some more), *Ortiz (standing around doing nothing), etc.

 

:good

The division is a bit stagnant, but not lacking in talent as some may claim. Dinu just partnered up Stephan Larouche, and relocated to Montreal so hopefully his career will start to pick up... He's very talented and it was a shame to see him going to waste for so long. The more the Dinus of the HW division get good trainers and promoters behind them, the better it'll become.

 

There's just too much anti-American bias and idiocy here to bother with this.

Not to mention a lack of boxing knowledge. I care nothing of nationality when becoming a fan of fighters. My current favorite fighter is Golovkin and I am also a big fan of Kovalev.

This thread is nonsense, as are the replies and my retorts were not even addressed or debated properly.

If you believe this HW era is strong, you are deluded.

 

How is that any relevant?. David Haye looked exactly like you like them to look, remember his performances?. How about Shannon Briggs?, he's as jacked as you like them to be too. If you're a ***** then that's absolutely fine, just keep your ***** thoughts out of actual Boxing abilities.

 

Do you really you think if the same HW talent pool that exists today was all based out of America, born and bred etc that many wouldn't perceive the quality of the division differently?

 

That's pretty much it. Wlad is making more money than any HW used to, he's just ignored in the US. "Dead" and "ignored by a rapidly declining nation" are not the same thing.

Series of beautiful, highlight reel stoppages? Dead silence.
Boring fight? We hear about it for the rest of his career.

Maybe 1% of people who watch boxing are "real fans" or in any way participate in boxing themselves and have respect for all of the fighters.

Most are just fat drunk dudes doing USA chants, british football chants, cheering for the brotha, or whatever their bag is.

Even "hardcore" fans on ESB and the scene are mostly like that, so imagine the casuals?

 

That's always struck me as strange too. The main way people take down the modern HW division is by calling them out of shape.

I'm not saying historical HWs should have looked like Wladimir or Haye. I know those are exceptional genetics + modern nutrition & exercise. I'm talking about random HW contenders out there like Charr, Chisora or Peters.

At 240-260 lbs, those guys have the same or better physiques than fat little men like Frazier who were barely above 200. And it's not like he made up for his athletic mediocrity with dazzling technique. He was a caveman ("tough") brawler/swarmer and people loved him specifically for that. You could see his bombs coming from 2 miles away yet sometimes they still landed. People loved Gatti too.

When Ali actually made the modern HW limit (photos of him at 180 lbs don't count), he was simultaneously undersized and soft. He had fat rolls by the time he was Wlad's current age.

There are Arreolas out there but there were in Ali's time too (Buster Mathis, etc.) So that doesn't work either.

Ignoring the majority of "golden age" apologists (who are either jingoistic Americans, closet-black power types, or just guys want pats on the back from the aforementioned groups without knowing of their agendas), and addressing only the few people who think boxing was better back then for non-political reasons, in what way were they better?

Despite weighing much less, the fights almost appear to be in slow motion. Technique was something you occasionally "resorted to" rather than based your style off of.

We think cheating is a problem nowadays but imagine if a fighter pulled anything like Ali did against Cooper (being KO'd then at the bell being carried back to his corner, having his gloves cut open to wait for "replacements" while he snorted ammonium carbonate).

We think cards suck nowadays but even the lamest Al Haymon mismatch/exhibition card blows the "classics" cards out of the water.

The "level of competition" -- 190 pound men (who weren't dropping -- they walked around at 190 lbs, meaning they wouldn't even be big for the middle divisions nowadays) with 10+ losses fighting the heavyweight world champion. Forget being accepted by modern fans, this wouldn't be LEGAL in modern boxing.

The "Golden Age" sucked. It's propped up by a mixture of Ali's personality, nostalgia, people who don't even like boxing but know prizefighting is a good public venue for their political agendas, etc.