Your HW top 10 on 1/1/2010

Audley would have to pull out of the fight, citing bruised knees from banging the underside of the table, whilst trying to do a runner from the presser!

I would give Haye 4 rounds to KO Audley - the A farce is a pretty fast runner!

 

My (mostly wild) prediction for January 2010:


C: Wladimir Klitschko - Towards the end of 2009, he finally fights the #2 guy at the time, JC Gomez, to unify belts and become lineal champ.
1. Alexander Povetkin - Close loss to Klitschko is his only black mark, and comes back to beat a couple more solid top-10 fighters.
2. David Haye - Has been clearing out the top 20 for about a year and a half now, but still hasn't gotten a title shot due to a backlog of mandatories and political bull****.
3. Juan Carlos Gomez - After Vitali gets injured yet again, Gomez gets his shot against Sam Peter and outpoints him with relative ease. At the end of 2009, he gets spectacularly KOed by Wladimir in a boring fight where he was outboxing Wlad most of the way. The fact that he was winning at the time of the KO lands him this high. Hourglass is quickly running out though, as he's now 38.
4. Nicolai Valuev - Beats Chagaev in the rematch, and has matched up against cupcakes and faded journeymen ever since, partly because his promoters are protecting him, and partly because nobody wants to face him. Is the underdog for his upcoming mandatory with David Haye.
5. Odlanier Solis - Top prospect in the heavies, and is Wlad's next mandatory. Has beaten several top 20 guys, but has yet to face someone in the top 10.
6. Sam Peter - On the comeback train after being beaten by Gomez, and is still getting decent-sized fights based on his name alone.
7. Alexander Dimitrenko - Still undefeated, and has improved, but his chin looks like a glaring weakness, and thus his management keeps him out of fights against punchers. Now a Euro-level attraction, his management is satisfied with not pushing hard for a title because they suspect he'd get beaten by most of the top guys.
8. Chris Arreola - Undefeated against a steady stream of journeymen and gatekeeper fighters, but still hasn't stepped up to the next level of opponent.
9. Francesco Pianeta - Been beating solid journeymen for a couple of years now; while he's young, ends up being in a similar situation to Tony Thompson now - nobody wants to fight him because he's an awkward southpaw, but nobody wants to watch him either because he's an awkward southpaw.
10. Denis Bostyov - Finally stepped up to beat faded champ Sultan Ibragamov and throw himself into the HW mix.

Out: Ruslan Chagaev (beaten by Valuev, then beaten by Ruiz in a rematch on US soil); Vitali (gets injured before he can ever make a comeback, and dedicates time to politics); Maskaev - retired; Thompson - beaten by Wlad, back to fighting journeymen; Ibragamov - was a mirage to begin with, beaten by Povetkin, then Bostyov.

I'm sure there will actually be more current guys in the top 10 then, but one can hope that the new blood cycles in quickly, as crappy as the division has been for the past 3 or 4 years.

 

Bump. I'm curious on people's thoughts on this, other than Fraudley nuthuggers.

 

you really are Audley aren't you?

 

C: Wladimir Klitschko
1. Odlanier Solis
2. Alexander Povetkin
3. David Haye
4. Nicolay Valuev
5. Ruslan Chagaev
6. Samuel Peter
7. Denis Boytsov
8. Alexander Dimitrenko
9. Eddie Chambers
10. Juan Carlos Gomez