TOP 5 HW

me too.

 

This was a while ago... And yet... It's probably still right.

I don't like putting Zhang there - his resume is massively lacking in depth, he's only fought 3 fighters inside the top 200 and only beaten 1 of those...
Being competitive with the others is normally the mark of a gatekeeper or fringe contender.

If anything, this just shows how incredibly weak the division is right now.

I mean, seriously, who else am I meant to put there?
Hrgovic who has only fought Zhang (before he was proven relevant) and eked out a razor tight decision? Nah, he's got even bigger depth problems.
Joyce was massively overhyped and although his resume is much deeper, it's not clear whether he'll bounce back or not yet.

God heavyweight is a wasteland - and we thought it was bad 5 years ago!

 

You could probably swap Zhang out with Hrgovic if you wanted to.

 

With how thin Hrgovic resume is by comparison? Absolutely not.

Zhang's been competitive with Parker (and very competitive with Hrgovic) and beaten Joyce - that's more proven than beating Zhang and then not having even dared fight anyone else at around that level...
And it's not like Hrgovic knew Zhang was serious when he agreed to fight him, either - Zhang hadn't fought anyone serious before.

At least Zhang is making good fights and being competitive.

 

1. Winner of Fury/Usyk
2. Loser of Fury/Usyk
3. Joshua
4. Parker
5. Zhang

I wouldn't object to someone putting Hrgovic in there.

 

Hrgovic beat Zhang and that in itself counts for a lot. Granted the fight was darn close which is why I said 'probably'.

 

It counts for something, yes... But it was razor close and it's the only serious fight he's ever had - it's just way too small a sample size for me to be confident that it wasn't just a styles thing.

 

Think it's also to do with the fact that Fury has had 1 fight in the last 2 years against a debuting boxer and only won by split decision.