As a fan I feel we're in a very exciting time for heavyweight boxing. There are three young power punching heavyweight champions Joshua, Wilder and Parker to go along with a list of contenders and entertaining heavyweights, Ortiz, Ruiz, Whyte, Haye, Povetkin, Pulev, Stiverne, Jennings, Chisora, Browne, Briggs and Fury off the top of my head are all fighters I am following. A very competitive division unfortunately this year has been full of fights falling through and failed drug test. One can only hope will see more of the possible great match ups that could be made next year. Anyway what this thread here is focusing on is when it is all said and done will one or more of the heavyweights from this era prove to be great. By great I mean a top 15 heavyweight. I haven't mentioned Wlad because I already feel he has proven to be a top 15-10 heavyweight and could even be argued in the top 5 depending on how impressed you are by his near flawless reign as champ. For the record I rank him around 12th or 13th behind Bowe, his brother and Liston just simply on the fact that prime for prime head to head I'd have to take all three over him. Wlad to me has never had strong intangibles. I think Joshua,Wilder and Ortiz when its all said and done will prove to be the best heavyweights of this era. I think Joshua will have magnificent career and will be seen as the best heavyweight since Lennox Lewis. I think Joshua is going to beat Klitschko in April when they fight impressively probably scoring a mid round KO. Wilder I think will come back and continue to show improvement. Him and Joshua have done a good job of looking better everytime they come out both are clearly not yet finished products. I look for them to meet head to head at some point. I have a feeling Wilder and Povetkin is going to happen maybe next year and Wilder will win possibly setting up a mega fight with Joshua at some point Ortiz now I don't know what to expect but I think he will get a belt probably Parker's on HBO sometime next year. I feel Ortiz may right now be the best heavyweight in the world but I also feel he is up there in age. None the less I'm expecting to be effective till hes about 40. In that time It'll be interesting to see what he can get done. I wouldn't be surprised to see him capture the title then have a number of easy defenses and retire perhaps undefeated. If this happens people may only be able to speculate on how good he really was. Povetkin in my opinion has already had a very good career. Hes beaten a lot of solid fighters to go along with a few who are quite good. His last 4 wins have been very good and if he can go on and regain a title maybe beating Joshua, Wilder or Ortiz depending on how they're careers turn out would give him strong case for being considered amongst the top heavies, I don't see it happening though Last one I'm going to mention is Parker. He just captured his first title. I wasn't very impressed by his fight with Ruiz but who knows Ruiz might turn out to be a very tough out he took some real solid shots from Parker who could really crack. I don't really know what his future holds but I predict he may be losing his title next year (haven't been overly impressed) or he may wrack up easy defenses in New Zeland. Personally I'd pick Joshua, Wilder and Ortiz to all beat him. Oh yeah and I have to mention Tyson Fury. A lot of people don't give him credit but I think hes a clearly a very hard guy to beat for anyone. Hes got size and knows how to use it, great stamina for a big man and good legs. I would've been very interesting to see the rematch with Wlad and I was looking forward to it. I'm almost sure he will be back I don't know if he'll be better, worse or the same. If it is more of the same look for him to climb back up the ranks. Don't know if he can beat more active big men like Wilder or Joshua but it'll be interesting to see how they deal with his size and tricky style. What are you're thoughts on todays crop of heavies? will they produce any fighters who can be ranked with the greats? Do you think that any of them are potential PPV stars? Could Heavyweight boxing rise up to center of boxing again if things play out right?
Ranking greats don't mean how they actually match up purely in a real fight H2H. Todays top fighters would all dominate the past time top ones really particularly pre 70's. The strongest eras have been the 70;s and 90's. However the 80's produced more technical fighters than the 70's did. Its all perception. In all likelihood only Joshua is going to be considered the great Hw of this ERA. Fans today will brush off the other fighters if they don't become dominate champion but theres only room for ONE dominate champion per decade excluding the 70's because everyone had beat the other ..Norton/Ali/Frazier/Foreman/Young/and even Holmes is in there as a champion so ??........so again all eras had there share of good to great fighters of THEIR eras. How they match up with others is subjective. This era fighters are very good ,but boxing fans are just more unreasonable than other combat sports and for whatever reason fail to see that and make illogical arguments with other past time top guys who more often than not would lose. my personal list wouldn't win popularity contest but most ppl don't want the truth. 1920's Dempsey 1930's Louis 1940's Marciano 1950's Liston 1960's Ali 1970's Ali / Holmes 1980's Tyson 1990's Lewis 2000's W.Klitchko / V. Klitchko Present up for grabs no one is dominating yet but Joshua is in the lead. And I figure will emerge as the dominant HW and be for awhile.
Don't sleep on Ruiz, he has a lot of potential, really surprised me.......................he should fight Wilder right now...............but Wilder will not fight him or anybody else who can fight back.............
Talk of Parker vs Wilder on the same night as AJ vs Klit (we can dream) Ortiz must wonder what he has to do. Can see Andy and Pov having the same trouble getting a fight, but at least they now all have promoters who can get them fights. It's hard not to be pessimistic, but that Chisora Whyte fight got my juices flowing. I want to see competitive Heavy fights!
Povetkin. But age is catching up to him so he better get at least 1-2 good wins in before he retires.
Only one person can truly be great from every era. Last era it was Wladimir, this next ten years I think it will be Fury.
If you are talking in terms of who was dominant in a particular decade Marciano does not qualify for the 40's he had beaten no one of note and had just scraped by Lowry he wasn't even rated until 1950. Tami Mauriello was ranked number 2.in 42,2 in 43,2 in 44,2 in 45,1 in 46. Even Turkey Thompson was Number 6 in 41,3,in 43,8 in 45,8,in 47, 3 in 49. Again if judged on potential ,Marciano finished the decade 25-0-0.Who was his best scalp during the decade? Roland Lastarza was 37-0-0 and he had beaten Cesar Brion twice. Both turned pro in 47 so not enough solid achievements to push either of them to the front.You can only choose Marciano if you employ hindsight
It would be good if we could throw Hrgovic, Dychko + maybe Yoka, Nistor and a few others from the amateur ranks like Medzhidov etc. into the equation.
Whoever holds the belt and has wins over their adversary is a dominant era champion ,Lastarza lost to Marciano twice what you said makes no sense in terms of going by number of fights fought if they have a win over a certain fighter it should be added into the ranking . Tyson wiped out all 80's contenders that were there and was champion a short 3 years are you going to say he is not the best fighter of that era?You have to include both Liston and Marciano ,they both were the best fighters WHEN they fought .,even if you have to split the era up. Marciano would then override Liston inthe 50's and Ali dominated the 60's . I dont rate Patterson as a dominant era champion , and Liston has two wins on him, had they fought at any time i dont see Patterson winning,so liston was never actually a dominant era champion since he won in the early 60's ,he wouldn't be on the list actually but he was still better than Patterson and probably Marciano .
Like an alcoholic or drug addiction, his mental weakness will stay with him for life, if only hidden deep inside him. Even if he can get better temporarily. In my view, a champion with a weak mind and zero self esteem, zero ambition in life can never be a dominant champion for an entire era. He is unable to put in the obsessive discipline it takes. Which basically what being an ATG boils down to. Fury can't possibly be that guy unless they miraculously fully heal his mental weakness, which one would wish him but which is highly questionable.
You could be right. What people are forgetting about Tyson Fury is this. He was motivated to achieve great things from being a teenager. He was British amateur champion, he also wanted to be Olympic champion. He worked his ass off for years and with most boxing fans not believing in him he beat who I think is the greatest heavyweight champion of all time in Wladimir Klitschko. He was very motivated for years let's not forget that, and pretend it never happened. Maybe a break will be the best thing for him right now.
