Maris Briedis Returning in March Possible move to Heavyweight

Bad move imo

 

Briedis vs Helenius ? great fight for sure!

 

At one point I was hoping that he moved up, but it would be hard to make an impact at his age. We are going to get Fury-Joshua, Usyk-Joyce, Wilder-Martin, and Povetkin-Whyte II. Where is Breidis realistically going to get in there are his age?

He would have a great legacy staying at crusier and winning title fights there for another 2-3 years, or, alternatively, he is yet another one that could make a good inaugural Bridegerweight champ.

Still, if he joins Usyk, Gassiev and Hunter with the big boys, I'll support him.

 

I’ve seen Usyk stans on twitter say he’d be a top heavyweight if he moved up. He’s even smaller than Usyk lol. Knocking out a chinny barely European level Charr doesn’t mean he’s gonna do well at heavyweight. Bad move in my opinion especially at his age. If his team thought he could do well at heavyweight they’d have moved him up years ago.

 

You consider Charr as chinny. I do not agree. He had been finished in distance only by younger versions of Klitshko and Povetkin than these A.J and Fury had in the ring.
And for Briedis to finish him took lesser number of punches than for Klitshko and Povetkin.
So yeah, if in good shape he doesn't beat less hard than some 34-35 y.o Povetkin version.
Charr isn't chinny at all, yeah, he is slow etc.

Yup and who might had gave him top fights? Usyk is Oly champ! from larger country than Briedis does come from: Ukraine. also was undisputed in CW division. Fights he had get HW: Whiterspoon and with Dereck.
Pulev is from larger country than Briedis and was A.J mandatory when he was 37 y.o and fight happened only when Pulev was 39 y.o.
I don't think that someone had allowed him to get top 5 level HW fights there.
Yeah, he had been ranked in HW top 10 after fight with Charr and moved back to CW.

Without WBSS tournament format he most likely didn't had even current IBF World Cruiser title and The Ring belt now.
Who needs to fight dangerous ( if in good shape ) beltless Briedis from small country?
Yeah, Briedis is so bad, Dorticos didn't with him nothing in the ring. Absolutely nothing and Dorticos isn't joke. He get his first World tittle when destroyed really hard punching guy on foreign soil and he won this via stoppage. Next time Dorticos get world tittle was when he destroyed undefeated Tabiti. Again this was win via stoppage.
With Briedis Dorticos did NOTHING.

Dorticos power is better than plenty of HW division slobs does have.

 

This. Good fight!

 

Depends from shape Briedis does have. Didn't looked that he had good shape in last WBSS tournament.
Looks he had been damaged before this last WBSS tournament started.
Now looked a bit recovered. He is 36 now too.
One thing he did had: he moved more smoothly and fast in HW not CW fights. Usyk, despite larger than Briedis is looking slowed down if compare with his WBSS versions. Maybe too some health problems, mileage under belt of course also matters a lot.

There I think it is good if he still continue to recover. Otherwise maybe better retire from fighting.
If in good shape then Briedis might be cool to watch.

 

Nobody ever had a single bad word to say about the guy (or his in-ring style) before the Głowacki bout, and now...

Jeez. You either die a hero, or you live long enough to elbow one measly Pole in the mandible become a villain.

 

I like the idea of finally getting Gassiev vs. Briedis; would have preferred it down at cruiser but we're never seeing Murat down there again so may as well have Mairis come on up. There's a very lucrative Usyk rematch awaiting the winner.

 

Breidis would be grossly undersized at HW.. It would be a bad decision if he wanted go where the big boys play.

 

I mean...he was hardly bullied around the ring by Usyk.

He would be on the shorter side for the modern division, yeah - but he's a very solidly built cruiser and has in the past fought quite well against heavyweights (and fellow cruisers that have campaigned at least semi-sucessfully at HW)... Charr, Huck, Pérez, Usyk himself..

 

Yea but hes not going to be fighting those guys in that Division. He'll most likely be fighting guys who are 5-6 inches Taller who are actual Heavyweights. Look at how Usyk recently just struggled against Chisora. Its a different ballgame at the Heavies. It would take very careful matchmaking from his promoters, for him to somehow have a succesful run as a HW.

 

Taller and heavier, but lower-tier quality for the most part. I'm not worried about his chances versus the likes of Breazeale, Wallin or Kownacki.

Remember that Goral Adamek only had a ½″ on Briedis and carved out a fairly respectable HW contender run for himself, during a marginally stronger era.