The Heavyweight Landscape

Too much avoidance going on, it's ruining the heavyweight division.

The talent is there (Makmudov, Sirenko, Wallin, Sanchez, Hrgovic, Dychko, Kossobutskiy) but fighters are either inactive or fighting very soft opposition. Competitive heavyweight fights are few and far between.

Fighters like Cassius Chaney are getting old without ever stepping up.

 

It is currently the dullest division.
As previously said, too many inactive wannabes, in what is a very weak division.
It amazes me that it gets so much coverage.
The HW division has always been the flagship of boxing, I understand that.
Fury, Joshua, Usyk, Wilder, Whyte etc seem to happy to play a waiting game, fight infrequently, take their millions & repeat. Maybe it’s the money that is the root of it.

 

Heavyweight landscape

= Everyone scared to DEATH of Tyson Fury, putting on a front like they want to fight him.

Wilder was literally crying prior to the 1st bout. He was scared pantless for the 2nd bout & during.

AJ keeps crying about how Fury is so much more experienced than him.

& Whyte just has a big mouth, but when push comes to shove he'll get his head jabbed off WORSE THAN CHISORA. WORSE!

 

Honestly a very boring division. I love heavyweight fights and watch most of whats going on. Since years now everybody is just talking about the biggest fight fury vs joshua and thats about it. Entertaining Fights on the lower rankings just behind arent getting made and nobody fights regulary.
Every once in a while an entertaining fight gets made and thats about it.

 

If the Fury Wilder 3 card finally happens in October (fingers crossed) there are four heavyweight fights on that card that will help move the division along somewhat.

 

True...

 

It's a problem that starts at the top with the sanctioning bodies for me. Along with them giving way too much power to their favoured promoters. And supported by "independent" rankings.

Wilder fought frequently, but fighters like Whyte couldn't get a mandatory shot come hell or high water, and the WBC facilitated all this. So that made the WBC rankings pointless.

Then you had Joshua, who at least fought mandatories "regularly", but for a three belt champion he needed to be far more active. IBF, WBA and WBO all allowed him to work on his own schedule.

That includes the IBF who are generally considered "least worst" allowing the belt to be on the line in the Ruiz Jr. rematch, whereas they infamously stripped Fury.

Then you have Warren buying rankings with the WBO for his contenders and giving them soft touches and selling them as legitimate fights.

Hunter and Ortiz allowed to sit on their top 10 rankings fighting bums.

And then you have fighters like Hrgovic who has been waiting on the sidelines for seemingly years now, who can't seem to find anyone willing to fight him in an eliminator.

And to top it all off, the potential man of the division, Fury, has never defended a title.

The whole thing is a right **** show.

Yes and no, we shouldn't even need two of the fights on that card. The PBC are holding up the division because "the wrong man won" in two of their fights:
Wilder v Fury 3 - not needed (holding up WBC belt/undisputed)
Helanius v Kownacki 2 - not needed (holding up WBA eliminators)
Ajagba v Sanchez - interesting fight between two potential contenders
Anderson v ??? - he's still a prospect

 

The post above was right on.

I'm almost surprised that someone hasn't put forward a breakaway 'league' for the heavyweight division. A well run structure could expand into the mainstream. Recapture the interest of general sports fans.

When I was a kid everyone knew at least who was the world hw champion. As in pretty much everyone sports fan or not.

 

The Problem is unlike many years ago there are way to many Divisions and most are Corrupt only way it will be fixed is go back to 1 Champion each division watch the Fighters want to fight each other then.....I know this will never happen but gee the fights would happen more frequently of that I am positive.!!!

 

Don't expect the top marquee names to be fighting without big crowds and the associated lost revenue.
Not that everyone was taking risky fights anyway but C19 hasn't helped.

 

Everyone is parked up waiting to see what the top belt holders are doing and nothing is happening

Is this the first year ever where we will be into September and none of the top 3 have even had a fight?

Boxing is going to struggle to maintain fans interest if the big HW names are fighting so seldom.

This is a real crisis moment for the sport.

There is also a real issue now with pull outs. Does anyone honestly believe that Fury Wilder 3 actually happens on 9th October?

 

I agree.

The football (soccer) European super-league proposal was bad for the game there ... but if some very well financed entity came along and put in place a properly structured break-away competition for heavyweights alone, it could clear all this mess and attract a new breed of fans. Kerry Packer did this with cricket in the 1970s and it took off.

 

Problem is the best future talent are all Eastern Europeans in the division and nobody wants to promote them. Causing massive stagnation in the division. Wilder has been lingering around forever getting more exposure and hype then 10 of these guys and he can’t fight. Fury unfortunately has been a drag on the division too - he just always has some sort of personal or mental issues outside the ring and fights way less than he should and often gives us a crap opponent in between a good opponent.
A smart promoter should grab one of these top Eastern Euro guys and just start pushing them to the top. Lots of fights maybe change the last name like they did often in the 20s and see where the chips fall. Right now it’s a boring abysmal division.