Looking at potential fights in the hw division got me wondering how good is this era of heavyweights ? I'm 30 so the era Bruno Lewis don't remember a was but young who else was about. Was there domestic scene as conpetitive as it is now. Realistic off top my head we have(no particular order of ability ) Joshua Fury Haye Price Chisora Allen Joyce Dubois Technically bellew aswell A lot decent domestic fights or euro level guys and could say aj fury and suppose haye all world class and Dubois has potential to be world class. Prob others can't think of but actual decent competition domesticly
I think your being a bit hasty with Dubious, you have to show more than power and you have to be tested though he is better than the aforementioned Bruno was at this age and stage of his career and that era was shabby, before Lewis came a long who was awful vs Bruno all you had was Horace Notice and Gary Mason alongside Frank and yes that is not that competitive.
The early to mid 90s on paper were very strong: Lewis Bruno Mason Akinwande Hide and then a tier below were Welch Derek Williams Francis Oyebola Mitchell However, even though fighters may technically be active around the same time, it doesn't necessarily mean they form an "era". Careers take different trajectories and stars often don't align for fights between them to be viable. For example, Mason effectively retired after losing to Lewis, and Bruno was on the shelf most of the time that Mason was world rated. Akinwande and Hide took different routes to world level, and Hide never established himself as a realistic opponent for Lewis or Bruno. Akinwande had a good run and then ruined any chance of marketability over here with the debacle against Lewis. The guys in the second tier were not quite good enough to mix with the first, as evidenced by Williams against Lewis and Welch against Akinwande. Looking at the current crop, I imagine a similar scenario will develop. Haye and Fury have big question marks over their future careers, and Chisora and Price have probably entered the stage where they are likely to be names on a record (harsher assessment on Chisora to be fair). Regardless of how he goes from here, Joshua will probably spend the rest of his career at box-office level which obviously restricts the amount of viable domestic opponents. Joyce will probably be in the mix soon enough, but if and when Dubois gets there half of the other guys could be retired. The "domestic scene" to be fair hasn't really co-existed with world-level since Bugner beat Richard Dunn. Since that point, it's been commonplace for fighters with world-level aspirations to skip the domestic scene and take an alternative route, or at least just use it as a brief steppingstone. Bruno, Haye and Akinwande never fought for the British title; Hide and Joshua won it but never defended it. Fury and Price together held the title over a 4 year period without ever fighting each other.
Joshua T. Fury Haye H. Fury Whyte Bellew Chisora Joyce Dubois Price Gorman The division is stacked with talent both world, european and domestic level. Its exciting how stacked it is, I certainly dont think we have ever had it so good.
Bowe said the opponent that hit him the hardest was Hide that was the night he proved he was ready for Brunowho was not on Bowe`s level.
You have Joshua who is head and shoulders above everyone, quite possibly in the world. After that, we’re relying on a ballooned up Manc with bipolar to make it back to make the division more interesting. There is a massive drop off in quality after them. It’s what the Wales football manager must feel like once he’s picked Bale & Ramsey. Hughie can box but is too negative and doesn’t mix it enough. Whyte is technically poor, as is Chisora. Joyce is alright but he couldn’t open a jam jar with that left hand. Dubois has had 9 rounds of pro boxing. Price folds like a deckchair. Allen is domestic level. Bellew is a fat cruiserweight and Haye’s body as the durability of a biscuit. Apart from that, it’s a great division
The point I was making was about the fight being commercially viable, rather than their relative abilities in the ring. If the Hong Kong card had gone ahead in 1994, and Hide and Bruno had got past Morrison and Mercer, there may have been clamour for them to fight. That's some big "ifs", and even then Bruno would still have likely fought McCall instead for the chance of a recognised belt and move to the front of the Tyson sweepstakes. Bowe selected Hide as he was his only real option to get a belt as leverage for a fight with Tyson. Otherwise, Hide was an inactive non-factor at the top of the division through the course of the mid 90s, despite on paper being a two-time titlist. There was never any significant demand for him to fight any of the other champions during his title reigns, or for him to fight any of the other big names who didn't hold a belt. He operated on the periphery of the heavyweight scene, fighting once a year in relative obscurity until he was thrown in with Vitali. With regards to Bruno against Hide in the ring, Herbie was an extremely fast, dangerous puncher, and a very good finisher as well. On the flipside he was physically weak for the division, and his punch resistance was an enormous liability against large heavyweights like Bowe and Klitschko, who didn't even need to land cleanly to roll Hide over. There would have been a chance that Hide lands something on Bruno early, but for all the flak he takes for his chin, Frank stood up to plenty of hard punches from big-punching heavyweights before succumbing. He also managed to have success and land something meaty against everyone he fought - Tyson, Lewis, Spoon, Bonecrusher and McCall. The chances are that Hide doesn't take him out early, and the first time Bruno connects big the fight is probably over.