Is the current Heavyweight Division that bad?

Any era can be prety good if the right matches are made.

I also get the sneaky suspicion that we might just be tuning the corner in terms of the quality of our heavyweight contenders.

I expect 2010 and 2011 to see some intriguing matchups.

 

The decent fighters are not active enough, I would like to see Ibragimov, as well as Chagaev. Chambers is the best of the Americans and Thompson is not bad. Thing is there should be some interaction. Curious to see if Haye has the power to stop Ruiz, John is getting up there in age but still pretty durable and it would be a good statement from Haye if he can. There is a new batch that brings excitement, Povetkin ( Teddy's input ?) and Boystov, Pulev,Solis, as well as a few young Americans. There have always been spells of dryness but there is also pockets of prospects. Thing is the Heavyweights have to fight each other. Chambers is up against his hardest foe but his style can also present problems for Vlad and strategy will be an important part of the fight between Vlad and Chambers, this is a fight of interest. The Russians and Ukrainians have been a big factor since the 90's and I think had they had been allowed to turn pro earlier would have been a factor of some sort previous to now. I see many new faces on the rise and there will be 1 dominant Champion again and some super-fights in the future. I have seen gaps of dryness in every era I remember from the 60's the 70's to now. Heavyweight Boxing will be back. It will happen again.
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The division isn't too bad if we are talking about talent. There are some good heavyweights out there. I think Wlad and Vitali are top fighters in any era and would wipe the floor with 99% of the pre 60's heavyweights. The next level of heavyweights seem to be solid. Guys like Povetkin, Haye, Chambers, Chagaev, Peter, Arreola would all be top 10-15 contenders in most eras. The talent isn't the problem with todays division its the lack of quality matchmaking. There should be more fights between top fighters instead of one here and one there. If more top 10 guys were facing off then that would make the division more exciting and there would be more interest in those fighters when they did face one of the Klitsckos. The division has talent it just needs to make use of it.

 

It's bad, but it has been worse.

In fact, not to many years ago it was a lot worse. But now there seems to be some hope and a bit of a resurgence. We have Chambers coming along, and Haye and Adamek to give it some spark. A resurgence of old-school type heavyweights. Perhaps?

 

I feel like it's very slowly pulling out of it's funk. But the early half of this decade was rough. Name me another era where guys like Calvin Brock and Davarryl Williamson would be thought of as serious contenders.

 

ibragimov however went life and death with ray austin and IMO lost that fight..he was already exposed by the time he faced wlad

 

Good looking crop of contenders at the moment, next few years should be pretty interesting.


Denis Boystov is fast, sharp, and stong.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZHJT7KHbVw[/ame]

Povetkin is a tough workman.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdd5yWLYL1U[/ame]

Chambers is a decent cutie with quick hands.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztevqA4ZLnY[/ame]

Adamek is looking for a title shot.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHAU9fJGwS8[/ame]

Arreola is limited but tough, no match for Vitali or Wlad..but exciting and dangerous. Will probably lose to Adamek in a fun fight.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlwX2BHkMcA[/ame]


And of course, David Haye.....

 

If David Haye fought Eddie Chambers it might have many hallmarks of an old school fight.

 

In the past few years after Lennox retired, yes it has been bad. Do I think the division is improving? Yes. But there's still a lot of room for improvement.

For example I'd like to see contenders fight other contenders. The current practise is to build an undefeated record of little substance and throw the prospect to the wolves (the Klitschko brothers) for big money.

I have no criticism of Povetkin or Chambers, more so of Arreola and Kevin Johnson. Hopefully they won't rush Denis Boytsov who looks to be promising at the moment.

 

This has been my contention over the last few years rather than the kneejerk Bert "I can't pronounce names that aren't 'merican" Sugar attitude.

First of all, the two best HW's in the world won't fight each other. That's a strike. Secondly, heavyweight matchmaking in general is incredibly tame with a few exceptions (Chambers, Povetkin). No one wants their meal ticket to be devalued by a loss, a single loss. Compare that to years ago when a loss or five was part of the learning curve. I believe the talent is good but we rarely see it on full display.

 

Chambers was a top man when Povetkin beat him, and still is today. One win over a live contender and being undefeated usually is enough to warrant a titleshot - often less than that, even.

 

The morning after Mike Spinks had his first match with Holmes, he was asked about defending his new title against brother Leon. He jovially said that the last time the two of them had a sibling scrap. Leon got the better of it, so it might be time for payback.

During Joe Frazier's comeback bid in 1981, he was training with son Marvis, and got asked during an interview if he was willing to take on his own kid in a sanctioned bout. (This must have been between Marvis stopping Zouski in six and Joe's draw with Cummings.) Laughing, Joe said, "Sure, I'll take him on, but when I say, 'Fall!,' he's got to fall!"

I thought Bruce versus Don Curry would have been a lot of fun, what with the sibling angle and Bruce being a complete psycho.

Just think of some great sibling wars we've missed out on. Duane versus Rodney Bobick, Max versus Buddy Baer, Ray versus Roger Leonard, Muhammad versus Rahman Ali, Wilfred versus Frankie Benitez. Some of these may seem like mismatches, but when siblings are involved, all the stops can get pulled out. (Anybody who's experienced the joys of pounding on a brat brother with gloves before an audience knows what I'm talking about.)

 

I agree that has been the case in the past.......but I truly believe this era is the outlier in that it won't gain much in the eyes of the rose colored glasses of history.

I see big, slow, OLD, overweight, overly cautious, limited skillset fighters who rely on huge size instead of skill. And did I mention OLD? Remember when a 38 year old Larry Holmes was considered ancient? When have 37-38 year olds dominated the heavyweight division? That tells me that there is no new talent.

 

With the odd exception all era's of the Heavyweight division have sucked quality wise, and this era is no different.

The difference is all the way up to Lewis, no matter how good, bad or indifferent the era was, there was always at least one worldwide household name, that people had an opinion on.

The Klitschko's seem like nice people, but they do not seem to do many English interviews, and because of that are written off as boring, uncharismatic robots.

 

Yep, I have a younger brother. I experienced that. But only mom was in the audience, and she fired me up under a hail of left hooks before I was even finished pummeling ...her... precious ...baby.

"MA!! I didn't hear no bell! You're sposta be neutral!"

The woist thing about it is that she's all of 5'2 and used only one hand to reduce me to a cowering lump. She had a cigarette in her other hand --didn't even think enough of my skills to douse it.