Jirov/Gomez.

[Rover]

A cracker of a unification that never happened. Who takes it?
I'd take Gomez by decision.

[Bobbyptsd]

A cracker of a unification that never happened. Who takes it?
I'd take Gomez by decision.

I agree, Gomez was a monster at CW. Big, fast, strong, powerful, could take pretty much anything and could box. Some people forget that now with what happened to him since at HW.

Jirov was tough as nails, but was somewhat one-dimensional. He was basically a pressure fighter. He brought a hell of a lot of pressure, but still. I can't see what he would have brought that would have been enough to overcome Gomez.Jirov made a great fight with Toney, but that was largely because they didn't move a lot and just traded. I can't see Gomez giving him the same opportunity.

If Gomez had stuck around CW a bit longer, a Gomez-Toney fight there around the time of Jirov could also have been great.

[Rover]

A cracker of a unification that never happened. Who takes it?
I'd take Gomez by decision.

I agree, Gomez was a monster at CW. Big, fast, strong, powerful, could take pretty much anything and could box. Some people forget that now with what happened to him since at HW.

Jirov was tough as nails, but was somewhat one-dimensional. He was basically a pressure fighter. He brought a hell of a lot of pressure, but still. I can't see what he would have brought that would have been enough to overcome Gomez.Jirov made a great fight with Toney, but that was largely because they didn't move a lot and just traded. I can't see Gomez giving him the same opportunity.

If Gomez had stuck around CW a bit longer, a Gomez-Toney fight there around the time of Jirov could also have been great.

Toney moved up to heavy to fight Holy and got progressively fatter, so cruiser was done for him after Jirov.

[Bobbyptsd]

A cracker of a unification that never happened. Who takes it?
I'd take Gomez by decision.

I agree, Gomez was a monster at CW. Big, fast, strong, powerful, could take pretty much anything and could box. Some people forget that now with what happened to him since at HW.

Jirov was tough as nails, but was somewhat one-dimensional. He was basically a pressure fighter. He brought a hell of a lot of pressure, but still. I can't see what he would have brought that would have been enough to overcome Gomez.Jirov made a great fight with Toney, but that was largely because they didn't move a lot and just traded. I can't see Gomez giving him the same opportunity.

If Gomez had stuck around CW a bit longer, a Gomez-Toney fight there around the time of Jirov could also have been great.

Toney moved up to heavy to fight Holy and got progressively fatter, so cruiser was done for him after Jirov.

Yeah, but I meant if he(Gomez) had stayed at CW and Toney fought him either instead of Jirov, or just kept himself in a bit better shape and fought him at some point shortly after.

I know it wouldn't have made a lot of sense, as Toney a much bigger fight with Holy lined up and didn't have to make 190 anymore, but it would have been a great fight imo.

[Rover]

Yeah, it would've, but (1) Toney wanted more money; & (2) he wanted more food.:)

[Seamus]

The Cruiserweight division has just had so damn much potential.

I'd take Gomez by decision by about 4 pts.

[giacomino]

Gomez for me too. Jirov was more fun to watch, IMO, but Gomez was a more talented boxer.

[zorndeslammes]

If I were to list the 10 most overrated fighters of the early 2000s, Vasilly Jirov would be way up that list. Wins over Dale Brown, King Arthur and Motomotora were what they were (not bad for the division, but really not great marquee wins or anything either, lets be serious), and then the decline gets pretty rapid. You've got a lot of journeymen there in his "prime" or guys that just didn't really pan out. He moved to heavyweight and fought Mesi, basically destroyed Joe's career with rabbit punches, and promptly dominates Michael Moorer until he gets knocked out. After the Moorer fight, his career descends to palookaville with the draw against Orlin Norris and a war against Luke Munsen. So I look at that talk about "potential" and I see a guy who was given multiple opportunties to make something of it and really didn't. It isn't wasted potential, its potential tested and deemed inadequate.

Gomez was a better boxer than Jirov technically, he was rangier, he may even have actually been the harder puncher (Jirov has the higher KO ratio, but also was much more offensive). He certainly aged much better. No one will be bowled over by his record of opposition as a cruiserweight, but as an out of shape heavyweight who barely cared about training and loved cocaine, he did decently for himself. Unlike Jirov, that's a guy who completely squandered his potential with management and promotional nonsense, poor work ethic, etc etc etc. Best vs. Best of each man, I don't think Jirov has a chance in hades. Bad style for a face forward pressure fighter with a middling record of being able to absorb heavy artillery from the B-level.