I'm kind if sick of having this discussion and talking around in circles, so i thought I'd just rate where I thought each of these fighters recent opponents actually sat actually sat when they fought with all the power of hindsight and irrespective of their published rankings at the time. Starting with Parker who is the current top contender who gets a lot of praise and criticism for his recent wins. Simon Keane - top 50 Deontay Wilder - top 20 Zhilei Zhang - top 5 Martin Bakole - top 10 Agit Kabayel, who is the second top contender atm and also on a good win streak. Arslanbek Makhmudov - top 30 Frank Sanchez- top 20 Zhilei Zhang - top 5 Then i think its actually a bit of a tie between Chisora and Hrgovic if we go by recent wins. Gerald Washington - top 50 Joe Joyce - top 20 Otto Wallin - top 20 David Adeleye - top 20 And finally Itauma, the heir apparent Dempsey McKean - top 30 Mike Balogun - top 100 Dillan Whyte - top 30 What do you all think? Agree, disagree?
Not sure what the actual ranking was but I think Wilder was still in most folks top 10 - if not top 5 when Parker beat him. Outside of that I'd agree, and shows that Itauma needs a step-up to a current top 10 fighter. Context matters!
Demsey McKean was defo not top 30. Genuinely about top 75-100 at best. Whyte, I'd say then was still top 15-20.
Yeah I agree, but with hindsight most people seemed to have enough downgraded him to around the top 2p level after the Parker fight.
You reckon? I thought he was a bit better than that after hanging in there with Hrgovic for nearly 12 rounds.
1) Parker's opposition Keane : didn't follow the guy so I can't really say. Let's go with top 40. Wilder : top 10-15 but inactive. Zhang : top 5. Bakole : top 10 but out of shape. 2) Kabayel's opposition Makhmudov : top 20. Sanchez : top 10-15. Zhang : top 5-10. 3) Itauma's opposition. Wach : old washed-up former contender. McKean : top 30. Balogun : over top 50. Whyte : top 25-30. 4) Hrgovic's opposition. Joyce : top 20. Adeleye : top 20. 5) Chisora's opposition. Joyce : top 15. Wallin : top 20. So I pretty much agree with you.
Yeah, I just wanted to put it altogether so we could be a bit clearer on what the division looks like now with all the contenders starting to line up as Usyk looks close to dropping titles. Oh, I forgot Wardley though, he doesn't have the same hype as Itauma and hasn't had a top 10 win yet, but his wins over Adeleye, Clarke and Huni are all top 20 imo, with Huni being borderline top 10.
