Which former heavyweight champ could Jai Opetaia have beaten?

To be fair many thought Huck was robbed vs Povetkin for the lesser regarded regular version.

 

WBA (regular) nothing more than an interim belt. A sanctioning body can't have two world title belts.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming Dubois Joshua fight? Have you put out any YouTube videos on it? I forgot the name of your channel. Can you remind me? I enjoyed your coverage of the Fury Usyk stuff.

 

Good enough to destroy Wladimir Klitschko he was 6'4 with incredibly quick hands and a deadly left hand that could KO alot of Heavyweights.

 

Me, too.

Still, a cruiserweight title isn't exactly the launch pad to a heavyweight championship that some fans today just assume it will be.

Out of the 44-year history of the cruiserweight division, only three out of 75 champs managed to pull it off. Those are long odds.

 

Yes and an entertaining win it was. I liked Corrie Sanders, but let's not overrate him. Opetaia is a dedicated athlete and is highly skilled as a boxer. Next you'll be telling me that Lamon Brewster would beat Opetaia.

 

Cheers mate I've took a break off it. Obviously Joshua's a heavy favorite, rightfully so but I think Dubois has shown clear improvement in all of his last 6 fights. He's younger than all of the other top heavyweights.

While Joshua has "rebuilt" himself to some extent, at least in terms of his image and confidence, people are forgetting he looked poor vs. Franklin and Helenius.

Wallin was tailor made for Joshua and not top 20. N'Gannou was just hyped up from a fight Fury didn't even prepare for properly at all.

Dubois has been in with the much tougher competition lately and if he can get some momentum early I think Joshua will fall apart.

 

I'm not overrating him he destroyed Wladimir Klitschko which is a fact he was also dangerous Heavyweight Southpaw with very quick hands and KO power in his left hand which is also a fact

You're basing Opetai beating Rahman having 0 fights at Heavyweight when Rahman has had 3 very notable performances against the likes of Tua, Sanders, Lewis, 1 of them being an ATG in Lennox Lewis.

 

I don't rate Opetaia's chances at heavyweight at all. He'd have some success but I doubt he'd beat any of the top 10.

 

Puritty and Brewster also destroyed him. Neither were very good.

Yes, I know what I'm looking at. If you don't, then that's not my problem.

 

Tommy Burns?

 

Heavyweights were far smaller in earlier eras which makes moving up and becoming champ far easier. Lots of these guys would probably beat a 6'0 194 pound Walcott

 

Sanders could fight at cruiserweight today with rehydration so heavyweight fights aren't really needed given theres no size difference

 

"Lots?" No.

"Lots" of them couldn't beat each other, let alone Jersey Joe Walcott.

And if you have to go back 70+ years looking for heavyweight champions Jai Opetai could "maybe" beat for the title ... the answer is probably none.

Opetaia is a good fighter. Projecting him to knock off this Hall of Famer or that one for the heavyweight championship is a leap.

Being Cruiserweight champ doesn't mean you're good enough to be heavyweight champ, let alone beat all-timers. Basically, 72 of the 75 cruiserweight champs in history learned that.

 

No he could not Sanders was always 220+ pounds during his career.

 

Sanders was 220+ Heavyweight with some of the quickest hand speed in history and a lethal left hand with had KO power. Clearly you don't know what you're looking at if you can't see those attributes in Sanders.

Puritty was a durable journeyman that pretty much went the distance with every notable Heavyweight he fought and even got a draw against Morrison after dropping him twice. Puritty suffered a few stoppages very early in his career but then was never stopped in his entire career only on a cut by Vitali. Wladimir was green and punched himself out against a durable opponent after being well ahead on points that's not being "destroyed".

Brewster again was a very durable opponent and Wladimir pounded him all around the ring until he gassed, Brewster was a solid belt holder with good durability as i said.

Sanders absolutely destroyed Wladimir with ease in just 2 rounds flooring him 4 times so it is an impressive win due to how easily and early Sanders did it.