There has never been a weak era at heavyweight in the 20th century

Glad you shared.

 

I very much agree. Of course Chris Warren will pipe in any time soon and claim how weak the 40s and early 50s were with journeyman walcott, crude clubfighter marciano, slow robotic louis, and chinny middleweight charles....floyd patterson would have knocked all these men out....modern advancement in heavyweight boxing didn't start until April 27th 1956

 

Well I think we have two very good fighters in the Brothers Grimm, outside of them, I think the division stinks myself.Otherwise how come ,40 year olds like Maskaev are still in contention ? Retreads like Rahman ? the list is full of over the hill moderates like McLine,or unproven Eastern Europeans.When a man in his mid 40s , who has been shot for 8 years can go close with a version of the Champ [Valuev] we are in dire straits imo. I hope Haye can ressurect the division by putting some interest back in it.

 

Wait did I misread....did you say you think 2000-2009 there wasnt a weak era? I think during this time the division was at its weakest in history...and alot of big fights were not getting made.

 

The period of 1920 - 1930 was pretty weak in terms of heavyweights, in fact so weak that half of the heavyweight contenders were lightheavyweights.

 

I just looked at the current Heavyweight rankings-outside of the Klitschko's= Attrocious!

 

After 1996 it was weak. With excpetion of Lewis, and possibly Ike Ibeabuchi who was all speculation there was no great fighters. The title would have changed hands after each title fight if it hadnt been for Lennox Lewis.

 

He said twentieth century. I'd hardly call the year 2000 an "era"

 

Think god the fights of the 1990's happen in the 2000's.

Tyson Lewis ete lol.

 

Two very good ,but not great heavyweights does not constitute a division imo.

 

Yeah i think the century overall was very strong for heavyweights

 

Is that really all that different from what we have today? The only reason that half the contenders today are not under the heavy limit is because those fighting at heavy in recent years are either to old or too lazy to weigh under the limit.

If their age or training habits had been slightly different, we could have seen the following fighters ranked at heavy:

James Toney - Light Heavy (beat top contenders when old and overweight), Roy Jones Jr - Light Heavy (beat top contender at heavy but then was given much harder fights by light heavy fighters. Where does this leave those fighters in the ranking system), Cruiserweight - Evander Holyfield - Eventually weightlifted into a small heavy but he also was one of if not the best of his generation. Chris Byrd- light heavy/cruiser. Admittedly he bulked into a small heavyweight, but he could have easily been that little bit lighter and simillarly successful. Interesting to note that he lost the first time that he fought a light heavyweight. Michael Moorer - Light heavy the former light heavy reached the top of the tree, without the additional weight, there is no doubt that he would have still been a force. David Haye - The current standout no 1 contender is a former Cruiserweight world champion.