Will the next era of heavyweights be the weakest since the early 1980s

Maybe but as long as the fights are getting made it can still be fun. And if a lot of fights are getting made that will be fertile soil for a young star to rise up like Mike Tyson.

At least fights are getting made now.

 

I think the Klitschko era was the weakest

 

Doesn't look good does it. The class of 2016 have proven to be a bust with Yoka, Joyce and Hrgovic all falling well short and none of them getting a title. Jalalov is a part time pro and is just wasting any potential fighting total nobodies and Torrez Jr didn't look convincing against Vianello.

Parker still has a few years left in him, Dubois is still only 27 so has several years left in him. If these are the new left standing after the top guys retire, that's not great. The left overs from the previous era being the top fighters while the next gen fail to reach even that level would be a dire state for the division.

 

I blame Croatian mainly. He let a lot of people down, including Croatia.
Mainly I'm angry he didn't get rid of Dubious for us, then KO AJ himself.
Things are so bad now people are saying Parker is a really good HW and Usyk's manager was predicting he would beat Dubious.
I think Usyk's manager was so busy avoiding helping his wounded countrymen and their families to party in London that he has forgotten how Joyce KO'd Parker. But Joyce also KO'd Dubious.
That reminds me how Joyce was the next big thing and Booth was talking him up and it was all going great, he was a demolition man and then just ran into a bad matchup with a big fat old Chinese man. Styles make fights though. And big fat Chinese people are Joyce's weakness. Also old shot journeymen like Chisora.

 

I see it almost the opposite think it will be the best era of the 21st century. The eras depth is artifical because the divisions backlogged but if less than half the prospects hit we've still got outselves a very nice top 20 here.

 

We are already in a horrible era, it will only get worse

 

On the American side, it's been a while since we've seen a special talent. They tried hard and did at one point, fool the world with hyping Wilder up to be a great. But I knew he was fools gold the moment he faced Ortiz in the first fight and they didn't stop the bout after Ortiz was beating on him for 53 seconds straight in round 9. Then they tried to make Anderson the next great American HW, but we saw that he was too wet behind the ears on the big stage in his last fight. I mean he is young so who knows if he will bounce back and learn from it. We'll see.

Personally, I like Richard Torrez Jr. He's a bit green but his foundation is solid. Hopefully he can build himself into to something worth talking about for a couple generations.

I don't really need to see an "ATG" for me to enjoy the sport. Just skilled and competitive bouts consistently. Greats will show themselves amongst their peers. We gotta stop looking for every athlete to be 'The Next........whoever'.

 

The Klitschko era was just as bad as the 80's I think. Itauma isn't an ATG talent, not yet anyway, but he's got the most potential out of the current crop. If Jalolov wasn't obsessed with going back to the Olympics every 4 years to knock out amateurs then he'd be pretty exciting as well, but yeah, it's not going to be a great division in a year or two.

 

You forgot Tubbs who was one of the most talented!

You are right that those guys has some real talent, but in all fairness, it was a very weak era, because most of them were one-hit wonders who flamed out due to drugs and/or obesity, and because Homes didn't push the issue with the WBA champs or his own #1 contenders.

 

Only time will tell

The guys coming up are:

Opetaia
Gadzhimagomedov
Torrez
Jalaolov
Teremoana JR
Hovhanisian
Suslenkov
Dronov
Ituama
Aliev

Add that to the guy who are going to be prime for a few more years:

Dubois
Kabeyal
Parker
Wardley

There are some good fights there...these guys just have to step up and take the torch.

 

Honestly I like this new era. Fighter's aren't scared of facing each other as the stigma of losing the 0 isn't important anymore.

 

They just have to build up their profiles, rivalries, storylines and develop their talent. We have potential with the guys coming through atm, the only thing is the lack of Americans, which will cause less support from Americans.

There is always a bit of a down period after an era like this as the current guys sacked up all the money and attention in the division, but now that they are retiring it will give space for the young guys to come up.