Why the HW division sucks

[jujigatame]

Fury - Hasn't fought in 15 months, no fight on horizon

Wlad - Hasn't fought in 15 months

AJ - Hasn't fought a compelling opponent for 10 months

Wilder - Hasn't fought a compelling opponent for 13 months

Pulev - Hasn't fought a compelling opponent for either 9 months or 27 months, depending on how you feel about Chisora

Povetkin - Inactive for a year, then pissed hot and is unlikely to fight again soon, no compelling opponent for over 2 years

Martin - Hasn't fought in 10 months, no fight on horizon

Glazkov - Hasn't fought in 13 months, no fight on horizon

[jujigatame]

We are seriously at a point where Christian Hammer is a top-10 HW. Good lord.

[ValMar]

This year could be much better. I can not wait April.

[TheGingerBomber]

Yeah there's no argument to it sucking in the last year and a bit, but hopefully this year it'll reach its potential.
I know these aren't certainties but there's stuff on my he horizon regarding certain fights like;

Klitschko vs AJ
Briggs vs Oquendo
Ortiz vs Miller
Wilder vs Washington
Breazeale vs Ugonoh
Parker vs Fury
Mansour vs Kaufman


And though they're not all great fights with great fighters, they'll hopefully sort the division out by eliminating these cherry padded record fuckers.

Hammer vs Price and Kabayel vs Hubeaux are a decent start to the year, just need to hope things go well.

[Joe Boxer]

The first boxing magazine I ever bought (1991) had photos and little biographies of the then-current top heavies. They were also ranked according to skill and star power, and discussion of who could fill Tyson's shoes as the face of the sport.

Evander Holyfield
Riddick Bowe
Lennox Lewis
Michael Moorer
George Foreman
Razor Ruddock
Ray Mercer*
Tommy Morrison

Lots of interesting characters there. I'm not saying they were all better than today's fighters, but that list produced some great match-ups.
And Evander! Geez, he fought everyone except Ruddock and Morrison.

Sorry, this should be in BOTP I'm sure.


*Mercer's was memorable because it said "At press time Mercer is scheduled to beat up on 37-year-old Larry Holmes; the Merciless One gets no extra points for that." LOL

[Oiky]

Certainly could be in a better state..

[TheGingerBomber]

Comparing it to the 90's makes me wanna cry, brilliant names and brilliant fights, wish I was around for it.

[littlepug]

look at the Rings top ten heavies for most of the 90s and it was always rammed full of top names and good fighters that pretty much all crossed swords, god I miss the 90s....

[Bard of Boxrec]

We are seriously at a point where Christian Hammer is a top-10 HW. Good lord.

But...But... LOOK HOW TALL AND HEAVY THEY ALL ARE

[Freedom2013]

We are seriously at a point where Christian Hammer is a top-10 HW. Good lord.

What do you have against Christian Hammer?

[Bard of Boxrec]

We are seriously at a point where Christian Hammer is a top-10 HW. Good lord.

What do you have against Christian Hammer?

Pretty sure it's a comment about how dire the division is that Hammer is considered among the top 10?

[jujigatame]

Klitschko vs AJ
Briggs vs Oquendo
Ortiz vs Miller
Wilder vs Washington
Breazeale vs Ugonoh
Parker vs Fury
Mansour vs Kaufman

Even looking at those fights that are on the horizon, how many are between 2 top 10 fighters? Or even 2 top 20 fighters? Wlad/AJ is the only one.

[jujigatame]

We are seriously at a point where Christian Hammer is a top-10 HW. Good lord.

What do you have against Christian Hammer?

Nothing. He's a perfectly decent fighter. But if there aren't 10 better HWs in the world ... it's an extraordinarily thin division.

[TheGingerBomber]

Klitschko vs AJ
Briggs vs Oquendo
Ortiz vs Miller
Wilder vs Washington
Breazeale vs Ugonoh
Parker vs Fury
Mansour vs Kaufman

Even looking at those fights that are on the horizon, how many are between 2 top 10 fighters? Or even 2 top 20 fighters? Wlad/AJ is the only one.

That's why I said these fights will eliminate the weak lad.

[asdfjkl]

There are just quite a few lower ranked guys that simply can't get a good opponent, like Briggs, Spong, name them. If Duhaupas, Scott, Stiverne and Hammer can get them, it's logic they receive high ranks over time.

[Kalan]

The first boxing magazine I ever bought (1991) had photos and little biographies of the then-current top heavies. They were also ranked according to skill and star power, and discussion of who could fill Tyson's shoes as the face of the sport.

Evander Holyfield
Riddick Bowe
Lennox Lewis
Michael Moorer
George Foreman
Razor Ruddock
Ray Mercer*
Tommy Morrison

Lots of interesting characters there. I'm not saying they were all better than today's fighters, but that list produced some great match-ups.
And Evander! Geez, he fought everyone except Ruddock and Morrison.

Sorry, this should be in BOTP I'm sure.


*Mercer's was memorable because it said "At press time Mercer is scheduled to beat up on 37-year-old Larry Holmes; the Merciless One gets no extra points for that." LOL

Holmes was 42 when he boxed Mercer's ass off... Holyfield's only other fight in 1990, beside a ridiculously fat Douglas, was Seamus McDonagh.. Bowe fought 7 fights in 1991, none of them compelling.. None of Lewis's 1991 opponents were dangerous or had a chance in Hell.. All of Moorer's 1991 opponents were terrible.. In 1991 Foreman lost to Holyfield and beat a Football reject.. Ruddock spent the year fighting Tyson in tedious affairs. You might get the idea that Ruddock was easy to hit and hard to stop from those fights -- until he fought Lewis... Mercer knocked out Damiani and Morrison, both overrated with puffed up records... Morrison's only important fight in '91 was a KO loss to Mercer where he ran out of gas in 4 rounds.

[littlepug]

The first boxing magazine I ever bought (1991) had photos and little biographies of the then-current top heavies. They were also ranked according to skill and star power, and discussion of who could fill Tyson's shoes as the face of the sport.

Evander Holyfield
Riddick Bowe
Lennox Lewis
Michael Moorer
George Foreman
Razor Ruddock
Ray Mercer*
Tommy Morrison

Lots of interesting characters there. I'm not saying they were all better than today's fighters, but that list produced some great match-ups.
And Evander! Geez, he fought everyone except Ruddock and Morrison.

Sorry, this should be in BOTP I'm sure.


*Mercer's was memorable because it said "At press time Mercer is scheduled to beat up on 37-year-old Larry Holmes; the Merciless One gets no extra points for that." LOL

Holmes was 42 when he boxed Mercer's ass off... Holyfield's only other fight in 1990, beside a ridiculously fat Douglas, was Seamus McDonagh.. Bowe fought 7 fights in 1991, none of them compelling.. None of Lewis's 1991 opponents were dangerous or had a chance in Hell.. All of Moorer's 1991 opponents were terrible.. In 1991 Foreman lost to Holyfield and beat a Football reject.. Ruddock spent the year fighting Tyson in tedious affairs. You might get the idea that Ruddock was easy to hit and hard to stop from those fights -- until he fought Lewis... Mercer knocked out Damiani and Morrison, both overrated with puffed up records... Morrison's only important fight in '91 was a KO loss to Mercer where he ran out of gas in 4 rounds.

91- Tyson v Ruddock 1 and 2, holyfield v foreman, lewis v mason, mercer v morrison and moorer v stewart, that's probably better than any year for the past 15 !

[jujigatame]

There are just quite a few lower ranked guys that simply can't get a good opponent, like Briggs, Spong, name them. If Duhaupas, Scott, Stiverne and Hammer can get them, it's logic they receive high ranks over time.

You really think the fact that Shannon Briggs can't get a high level fight is why the HW division sucks?

[asdfjkl]

There are just quite a few lower ranked guys that simply can't get a good opponent, like Briggs, Spong, name them. If Duhaupas, Scott, Stiverne and Hammer can get them, it's logic they receive high ranks over time.

You really think the fact that Shannon Briggs can't get a high level fight is why the HW division sucks?

For me it's also because they simply don't fight often enough, guys like AJ will most likely never fight the amount of fights boxers in the past did. With the current rate I doubt he will even make half the amount of.

[jujigatame]

Inactivity is a huge problem. And then you also have "practical inactivity" which is what Wilder, Povetkin, and Pulev have been up to. They've fought, just not against quality opponents, so they may as well be inactive. Even AJ is guilty of this. Sure he's defended his title twice, but it's been a full year between him winning the title and him defending it against someone with even half a chance of beating him.

[Kalan]

Boxers didn't defend their titles a lot in the past either ... Little has changed...

Patterson fought Ingo once a year for 3 years... Ali didn't have a fight for well over a year after winning the title... Marciano had how many title defenses in 3 yrs??? Six defenses and 5 challengers... To determine Rocky's successor when he retired -- it was an old Light Heavyweight versus a 182-pound youngster..

And how many times did Willard defend the title in 4 years??? ... Once??? ... Dempsey went 3 years without a single Title Defense. He didn't want to fight Tunney, but the money was so big it was an impossible fight to ignore. Sonny Liston had a total of 3 rounds of fight action in 3 years when he entered the ring to defend against Cassius Clay. Obviously they were shortened rounds at that ... One of the reasons Heavyweight Title Defenses have been so hard to get done throughout Boxing History, is Champions love to hold onto titles.. Why did Ali ignore Larry Holmes and fight Leon Spinks??? ... Holmes was the "Invisible Man" and Ali knew he could easily get away with it.

NOBODY wants to get their ass kicked and lose a title... That's the historical reason why great match-ups are so hard to make... Until Boxing builds some kind of structure that forces World Champions to fight logical opponents within a reasonable time frame -- this is going to be Boxing's main problem.. Almost every other professional sport has some logical system to determine who is matched with who.. If you're injured??? You're out of the running.

[Tony1244]

Fury - Hasn't fought in 15 months, no fight on horizon

Wlad - Hasn't fought in 15 months

AJ - Hasn't fought a compelling opponent for 10 months

Wilder - Hasn't fought a compelling opponent for 13 months

Pulev - Hasn't fought a compelling opponent for either 9 months or 27 months, depending on how you feel about Chisora

Povetkin - Inactive for a year, then pissed hot and is unlikely to fight again soon, no compelling opponent for over 2 years

Martin - Hasn't fought in 10 months, no fight on horizon

Glazkov - Hasn't fought in 13 months, no fight on horizon

Exactly

They just don't fight.

Imagine if the all of the above guys had even 2 fights a year with someone else on the above list. It would be kick ass.

[Kalan]

I don't think this is unusual for the Heavyweight Division or any division.. Boxing is structured so that champions are kept away from compelling opponents -- and by that I mean risky opponents.. Too many boxers love titles and hate risky fights.

But you gotta love the Welterweights right now. Keith Thurman vs Danny Garcia coming up.. Then Errol Spence vs Kell Brook is probable.. The only questions are; are Amir Khan, Manny Pacquiao, or Tim Bradley ever going to fight a 147-pounder who can hit -- and has Marcos Maidana fought his last?