The way this era played out has been pretty underwhelming considering the level of talent we were working with. For various reasons (layoffs, injuries, frustrating negotiations, etc) many people would agree some of the biggest HW stars haven't lived up to the expectations. Fury and Joshua both became 2x champs which sounds impressive, but then they both had unexpected losses to Usyk who was older than them and moved up from Cruiserweight. Wilder went life and death with Fury going 0-1-2, then was brutally KOd by Zhang and was schooled by Parker so now the ship has sailed for a potential clash with Joshua many wanted to see. Joshua also has the loss to the skilled but lazy Ruiz, and looked good dismantling Ngannou and Wallin, but not much else lately. Right now, we have -Fury vs Usyk rematch -Joshua vs Dubois Usyk beat Fury and both men seem to be declining athletically as they are pushing 40 and aren't as explosive/energetic as they used to be. People do not expect Fury to do something drastically different in the rematch, so how do we even get excited about this? Let's say Fury does win, Usyk will want revenge. It's now a trilogy of 2 declining older fighters who will probably both retire once the score has been settled and the belts are up for grabs leaving a void. It reminds me of the Ezzard Charles/Jersey Joe Walcott era where the two older shopworn fighters passed the belt back and forth. Then there's Joshua and Dubois who incidentally both lost to Usyk. Joshua went 0-2, and Dubois (aside from the questionable body shot), wasn't very competitive and honestly looked kind of pathetic against Usyk. If Usyk doesn't retire and beats Fury again, it'll be really hard to convince people Usyk rematching either man will even be worth watching. Dubois has looked impressive recently and seems to have found the fire within him, but can he really beat Joshua and Usyk in a rematch...?
I think the most defining thing about this era its always felt like the fandom was pulling teeth to get the champions to do anything.
Third best heavyweight decade ever. There is talent and it is fighting each other. Outside of the 70s and 90s, most heavyweight decades sucked. https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...-decade-in-heavyweight-boxing-history.725731/
One thing to bear in mind is that other eras didn't have a global pandemic to contend with, and whilst it does not completley excuse some fights not being made, it certainly didn't help
There are other match ups though Zhang vs Bakole Parker vs Kabayel etc. etc. I think this is a good era. Usyk/Fury/Joshua era is almost over. Usyk has already proven himself as the best.
