This has been the best year for the Heavyweight division in a long time.

This year has been absolutely fantastic for the Heavyweight division. Usyk vs Fury for undisputed and numerous upsets in Dubois vs Joshua, Chisora vs Joyce, Parker vs Zhang, Dubois vs Hrgovic, Kabayel vs Sanchez, Bakole vs Anderson and to a lesser extent Zhang vs Wilder. Not to mention late 2023 upsets like Wilder vs Parker, Dubois vs Miller, Kabayel vs Makhnudov from the Day of Reckoning.

It feels like the division has progressed immensily. Fights have happened, numerous hype jobs have been exposed, and multiple questions have been answered. More progress has been made in the last 12 months than just about the entirety of the post Wlad reign era.

This is what happens when fighters are active and fight the best.

 

It's certainly proving to be a better era than previously thought due to all the fights finally happening. It definitely feels like most of that progress has been either from this year or last year, though. 2015-2022 really just felt like the Fury, Wilder and AJ show until Usyk showed up late.