crusader wrote:Rob3_142 wrote:
Well Klitschko is currently omitted from the top 20 due to inactivity, so although I appreciate your list, it's pretty irrelevant. Bellew will no longer be the heavyweight in the top 20 with the best win after April 29, as either Joshua or Klitchsko will have surpassed that. But as it stands, there is little argument.
Depends on who you consider to be in the top 20. I'll give you that he clearly has a stronger P4P resume than nearly all the champs and contenders, including AJ, Wilder, and Parker, but Povetkin fought recently, is suspended only by the WBC, and can still fight if he wants. I'd say he has a good case for having a stronger record than Bellew..
Further, I wouldn't consider Bellew's win on Saturday to be the best win any top 20 HWs have (you simply used 'win' in your post above, so it seems like you're referring to Haye, though I may be wrong). He was down 4-1 and losing ground in the fight when Haye bounced back awkwardly and ruptured his Achilles, essentially becoming a one-legged fighter who dozens of HWs and several CWs would probably beat; I don't think Bellew getting to that point was some amazing feat either, though he took the shots better than I expected. I'll take wins like Ortiz KOing Jennings, Wilder routing Stiverne, Pulev dominating Chisora, and Povetkin flattening Takam over Bellew stopping a crippled Haye.
I wouldn't include Klistchko in my top 20 only because of inactivity, which wasn't really his fault, but like I said, that will be rectified by end of April. I would also personally omit Povetkin from the top 20 because of the failed drug tests, however I recognise that he is not currently serving a widespread ban, and of course there is argument that he currently trumps Bellew's CV.
I agree that Haye was well up on the cards leading up to the injury, but the fight was 12 rounds not 6. It's clear that Haye had not done enough of the right conditioning work to allow him to sustain the levels he was in the fight, or even establish the correct tactics for the fight. Not only did he suffer a serious achilles rupture, but was showing clear signs of fatigue. Had the injury not occurred then I would have backed Haye to come away with the win, although it would have been interesting to see what pace Haye was able to operate in the second half of the fight. I was referring to Bellew's win over Haye, and how that probably overrides the majority of fighters in the top 20, if not all. Let's not forget here, and by the way I was one of them, that 90% of people said Haye would blow Bellew away in rounds 1-3. The injury occurred in the 6th. I'm not sure what the excuse was in the first half of the fight, or that people were convinced that Haye was only going to get better as the fight went on when it was established that he didn't have the engine for 12 rounds.
I would consider Haye to be a much bigger scalp than Jennings, Stiverne, Chisora, or Takam. None of the mentioned guys here have any real reputable wins on their CV.
