SO this takes into account only fights from that timeframe and only fights at cruiserweight. Nothing that happens outside those two frameworks counts for anything. I got - 10 - Ola Afolabi 09 - Krzysztof Wlodarczyk 08 - Yuniel Dorticos 07 - Krzysztof Glowacki 06 - Mairis Briedis 05 - Yoan Pablo Hernandez 04 - Denis Lebedev 03 - Marco Huck 02 - Murat Gassiev 01 - Oleksander Usyk First of all: depth. Ten very good fighters, all capable of troubling each other and if that was a division all at one time it would be insane. Good decade for the cruisers. How would you re-arrange them? Anybody you would swap out?
01 - Oleksander Usyk 02 - Guillermo Jones 03 - Denis Lebedev 04 - Murat Gassiev 05 - Steve Cunningham 06 - Mairis Briedis 07 - Firat Arslan 08 - Michael Hunter 09 - Grigory Drozd 10 - Marco Huck I base myself on the best moment of each fighter and 1 vs 1 more than summary
Very good decade for the division indeed. Diablo is too low for my liking, I’d also swap Drozd in for Afolabi, whose win over Masternak aged very well.
#10. Krzysztof Wlodarczyk #9. Grigory Drozd #8. Krzysztof Glowacki #7. Yuniel Dorticos #6. Yoan Pablo Hernandez #5. Denis Lebedev #4. Marco Huck #3. Murat Gassiev #2. Mairis Briedis #1. Oleksander Usyk Or something like that...
Good list. I would rank Huck no lower than #2. He had a helluva run at the weight. Gassiev seems too high. He picked off a couple past-prime names, but he was only a player at the weight for about 18 months in the entire decade. He's been inactive now longer than he was actually a factor in the division.
Jones @ #2? Na, That Lebedev win* is tainted big time. I think he's only had a handful of fights over the last 10 years too, & at a fairly poor level mostly.. if you're getting MD wins over C level nobodies like Garrett Wilson (who'd lost 5 of his last 8) in that time period then you definitely don't deserve a ranking that high..
I'd swap Huck and Lebedev around. I'd move YPH right down the list, but that's because I feel so many of his best wins are blinded by smoke and mirrors. Love the inclusion of Ola at number 10.
Jones as a cruiser is a totally underrated fighter, although his best version was in the decade of 2000-2010, the version that he fought against Lebedev, Brudov or almost in 2009 against Arslan is still a tremendous fighter. He was a very complete fighter with a mix of good boxing skills, speed, long arms, height and punch,he was very difficult to beat He had two closed decisions in which for me he was harmed in both against Nelson and Cunningham,also destroyed Braithwaithe and Davis when they were both top 5 top 10 in the category. It's true that he was never a very active fighter
I've just updated the annual rankings archive on boxrec and this was one of the divisions and decades I did. Might prove useful for those wanting to look at ranking shifts etc.
Top 5 all-time Cruiserweight talent for sure. Highly skilled and tough. The scandals shouldn’t taint how talented this guy was. I just really wish he would have fought more top Cruisers. Toney or Jirov vs. Jones would have been awesome.
I would raise Wlod a few spots from OP list. With the timeframe, Huck loses his quality 2009. Deserves #2 or 3. Briedis overrated here (not necessarily too much by the OP list, would have to really really think about it). Keep in mind the Dorticos fight does not qualify here. Quick thought, def would not put him above Wlod.
Decent list, although I disagree with a few of the placements. Here's mine.... I expanded by a few though. 01 - Oleksander Usyk 02 - Denis Lebedev 03 - Mairis Briedis 04 - Marco Huck 05 - Murat Gassiev 06 - Grigory Drozd 07 - Krzysztof Włodarczyk 08 - Ilunga Makabu 09 - Yuniel Dorticos 10 - Thabiso Mchunu 11 - Ola Afolabi 12 - Krzysztof Głowacki 13 - Yoan Pablo Hernandez 14 - Firat Arslan 15 - Mateusz Masternak
