There really is only a top 6 right now. Wladdy- hard to argue with this, and I am not going to bother to spell it out. Peter- regardless of what you think of his skill set and training habits, he went through 3 guys in 4 fight- Toney, Mcline and MAskaev- to get his belt. You have to respect that, and his loss to Wladdy also adds to his mystique because of the knockdowns. Valuev- yeah, I know. But he's a two time WBA champ who fights often against perenial contender types. No one great win, but a lot of little good ones in donald, Ruiz, Barret, Levin, Bidenko, Mcline, Beck, Bergeron, Lykovich. Chagaev- His win against Valuev does it, along with Sprott, Skelton, Ruiz and Virchis. After Wladdy, has the second best resume. Just needs to get more active. Gomez- Big win recently agasint Virchis, and also has those nice victories over McCall and Samil Sam Povetkin- Beat a fellow legit contender in Chambers. Throw in the wins against Byrd and Donald, and he deserves his Spot. And that is it. No one else deserves a top ten. Sultan, Brewster, Cambers and Thompson all have fine resumes, but need to get back in the winning column agaisnt someone at least semi real. When is the last time you saw Ruiz or Toney cleanly win an important fight? Arreola- I like the man, but beating talent free Chaz Witherspoon proves NOTHING. Barret and Bidenko both got recent good wins, but nothing special. Vitali- has not fought yet. It is ridiculous to rank him. Maskaev and Rahmen- need to retire. Solis, Boytsov and Dimentrenko- beat someone who is for real first. Haye- lets see how the fight with Baret goes The man has exactly one heavyweight win against a marginal guy, he's not the heir apparent yet. If I has to round out the top ten, I would put Chambers, Sultan, Thompson, and Dimentrenko. But the bottom line is that after the upper six, there is a Huge drop off. POST SCRIPT: Briggs is a joke at this point.
while there should be a top 10 i agree those outside your top 6 should have to beat someone inside it to jump above them currently. if haye beats barret that should not jump him above. vitali will jump in if he wins as i expect him to do. toney should fight a european dimetrenko needs to **** or get off the pot soon still time for boystov to learn and develop. arreola is a wild card , but needs wins over somebody to break through. chambers the best american heavy IMO draws fly`s but i feel he could legitamatley be ranked 7.
The legs help two. I remember reading that when Hearns rematched Leonard, he trained the legs hard knowing that his chin was a problem. That is why sugar ray couldn't put him down. It is also why former kick boxers- Vitali, Povetkin, Dorsey, Warring etc, ussually have great beards.
I agree, there are 6 top dogs out there today, with a possibility of increasing that number to 8 if Vitali and Haye win. Thompson, Chambers, Brewster and Sultan will be knocking on the door if they get a good win next. Then there is new blood Dimitrenko and Arreola who will be making a strong case if they also win their november fights. Briggs, Toney, Ruiz, Liakhovich, Rahman, Golota, Tua, Virchis, Maskaev, Barret, Meehan, McCall, are more of gatekeepers at this point.
