Man, Usyk's cruiserweight division was good!

Yeah, there were no scrubs out of that bunch!

 

19 men have contended for the Bridgerweight title thus far and I think Mchunu is like 2nd or 3rd worst after Radchenko?

Two members of Usyks CW generation have had runs at HW in Gassiev and Hunter and they are borderline top 10 kind of guys. If we go back to the best LHW divisions HW credentaials thats nothing to write home about. Heck 1900s(the decade) had a MW division that was more successful at HW then Usyks CW.

You could argue Usyks CW era was the most successful at HW but CW in general does not have large amount of guys who could succeed at HW. A champion and 2 top 10-15 guys is not a high bar.

 

It's fascinating to see people trying to draw parallels between Usyks ability to step up and the potential for Opetaia to follow in his footsteps...

Arguably heavyweight will be weaker than the division Usyk blew apart - but then Usyk dominated a far better cruiserweight division as well.


Usyk is special, and it's borderline disrespectful to see people looking for the next Usyk as if anyone could do it...

The strength of the cruiser division he dealt with tells you why it was still possible for him to move up and be successful really quite quickly - guys moving up from weaker divisions will always need more time to adjust, if they're able to become competitive at all.

 

Agreed, similar to comparisons of Bud to Mayweather....and Im a huge bud fan....but it ain't there...

 

Yeah, the 2010's was the golden era for the division.

Some other fighters worth a mention: Yoan Pablo Hernandez, Ola Afolabi, Steve Cunningham, Victor Emilio Ramirez, Mateusz Masternak, Rakhim Chakhkiev, Firat Arslan and others.

 

It was pretty good, certainly the best cw bunch in history, pity about the trash at HW

 

Well when rating the strength of a division how its fighters do when changing weight classes is super important. How is how Usyk era Cruisers did at Heavweight and Bridger not incredibly relevant?

Of those 19 Bridger contenders Glowacki isn't in the top 10 either. You could argue to rate Mchunu higher than I rated him he beat Tischenko at CW and has a Chambers win at HW in 2013 which is a very nice win. Regardless neither him or Mchunu won the Bridger title and Bridger right now is currently the weakest any division in boxing has been in the modern era. Both are 1-1 against bridgerweight contenders(including Cruiser fights).

I don't have a problem with Hunter theres nothing wrong with Hunter, same with Gassiev. You're the one saying Usyks CW division was great. Hunter and Gassiev are the ambassadors for it at HW which unlike Bridger has the toughest larger fighters in boxing. Against official title contenders at HW not named Usyk the pair are a combined 1-1-1. There are currently 5 outstanding HW belts and Wardley v Huni is one of the least worthy matchups for a vacant belt ever(and you complain about Tucker v Douglas). Theres currently 3 open shots. I'm not sure Hunters going to get one but that happening does not change the overall character of my arguemnt. At his best Hunters a boderline top 10er and borderline top 10ers get title shots sometimes. Worse fighters have gotten HW title shots in this era then Hunter and Gassiev. 40 year old Povetkin got one after the Hunter draw.

Also the biggest reason Gassiev and Hunter have got into the top 10 and Hunter might receive a title shot is not their 1-1-1 agaisnt HW contenders or their HW record its cause Usyk is the undefeated lineal HW champ. Once Usyk became king going the distance with Usyk at CW all of sudden becomes treated as a HW feat and to a degree has become circular logic that seperates them from dozens of other HWs with similar HWs resumes. And I'm not saying thats wrong when rating dozens of guys with similar resumes, its not. But when rating the strentgh of Usyks CW competition it is because Usyks success is responsible for a large part of where Hunter and Gassiev are perceived in HW. If Breidis or Huck had went up and went on a little padded run they'd get in the top 10 without proving much of anything they hadn't already proven. Dis is life. Hunter got ranked 8th by Ring in 2020 when Povetkin won his interim belt but since then its mainly on the back of Usyk.

If we go in the opposite direction to LHW Bellew from LHW won a LHW belt in Usyks era and currently 2 175ers from Usyks era hold 3 of the CW belts. And Breidis who is still only 31 lost to Jai twice. Now Opetaias probably the 4th best CW ever and thats not something to be ashamed of by any means. But if Usyk's era at CW was so good someone why is someone from that era whose in their prime not ruling it?

Multiple LHWs from that era can get CW titles but what do CWs from that era have to show for campagning in weight classes to the north?
A)2 Bridgerweight title shots where they got destroyed
B)1-1-1 record against HW contenders and periodically being ranked 9th or 10th topping out at 8th.

 

Its not the only thing but its important. Cruiser is also a tweener division that struggles to attract fighters who could succeed at LHW/HW. MW is one of the most prestigious divisions in the sport.

You know I will admit when I was wrong. Several Polish fighters have fought for the Bridgweight title and Okolie beat Rozanski so I got him confused. My bad. He still lost to Okolie a Bridgerweight champ. Now Mchunu I did not make a mistake. That was a title fight and they changed it think after the fight. I added it to my records before that happened. Lineally its still a title fight as he was fighting a Bridgerweight champ at Bridgerweight and either way Mchunu got shut out.

Mchunu has a lot of losses but I can't deny the win colum is good.

I'm looking more for guys making noise at HW then winning belts though right now theres 5 belts. As the 2nd biggest division CWs trackrecord at HW pales next to LHW when that was the 2nd biggest division. Bridgerweights will be even worse but you're talking about that era of CW being good. And the way you rate that is by good its fighters being good in north weight classes and fighters from south weight classes struggling.


Okay I believe you about the injuries, I don't think either are bad I don't think they've proven much at HW then you'd expect a top Cruiser to do. I used to have Gassiev higher when I considered Wallin a real elite HW. Hes really suffered indirectly in my book because Wallin lost to AJ and Chisora.

When you rate an era highly in a division thats traditioanlly been part of HW it kinda does.

I'm going to again reiterate with Glowacki I made a mistake. McHunu I did not imagine it was reported and promoted as a title fight many times then changed.

 

It was the greatest cruiser weight division in history.
Another reason why Usyk is the GOAT.

 

Really was a great division, had been great from mid-2000s (Jirov, Gomez, early times of Haye, Cunningham, Huck, Diablo) up to late 2010s, though 2020s have been sort of the dark times, with failed LHWs winning titles and most prospects aside from Opetaia turning out to be busts.

And It's a shame that Grigory Drozd's career got cut short with injuries, could've made things much more interesting in the first WSSB.

 

Briedis floored him with an intentional elbow to the face and referee did a shyte job that night. It wasn't a great win by any stretch of imagination. One of the worst cases of refereeing ever.

Briedis might be a Top 3 cruiserweight of all time tho.