Kubrat Pulev vs Kevin Johnson?

[punchoutsb]

There's nothing wrong with the Heavyweight division...

There's an incredible dearth of up-coming talent in the heavyweight division, and most of the "top" Heavies are petrified of a challenge.

There are a few exceptions to this, but for the most part the HW division is pretty abysmal right now. Hopefully Dychko and Hrgovic can bring some excitement to the prospect ranks and Joshua/Klitschko/Fury/Parker can teach the rest of the division what it means to actually accept a challenging bout.

Well I already said about the reluctance of fighters to take on a real challenge, but I can't accept we are short on talent in the Hwt division. Just in England we've got Nick Webb, Nathan Gorman, Daniel Dubois, Tom Aspinall on the way up then there's Conn Sheehan and Sean Turner just across the Irish Sea.

Further afield there are (to name a few just off the top my head) Junior Fa, Trey Lippe Morrison, Oscar Rivas, Tony Yoko, Sergei Kuzmin, Bogdan Dinu, LaRon Mitchell, Willis Meehan, Agit Kabayel, Tyrone Spong, Cassius Chaney, Tom Schwarz, Otto Wallin ... loads more, the list is a long one.

Granted not all of these are going to crash the upper reaches of the rankings but it's going to be entertaining watching their progress.

No matter how weak or strong an era is there will always be undefeated up and comers...but are any of the names on your list supposed to be impressive? I like a lot of the fighters you listed, but none of them are exactly what I would call long on talent. Just because we've got some undefeated names right now doesn't mean the division is talented. Remember at one point we had Larry O, Tom Little, Tom Dallas, Dorian Darch etc etc etc. That's how boxing works, and right now the HW is about as bad as I've seen it. It only takes one or two prospects though to change the landscape. If Yoka, Dychko, and Hrgovic jump in soon a lot will change.

[Syntax Error]

Embarrassing people defending him. He's meant to be a top 5-10 heavyweight! Can we see Kevin McBride vs AJ next? Or Helenius vs Rodrick Bowe?

Who he?

[candyslim]

There's an incredible dearth of up-coming talent in the heavyweight division, and most of the "top" Heavies are petrified of a challenge.

There are a few exceptions to this, but for the most part the HW division is pretty abysmal right now. Hopefully Dychko and Hrgovic can bring some excitement to the prospect ranks and Joshua/Klitschko/Fury/Parker can teach the rest of the division what it means to actually accept a challenging bout.

Well I already said about the reluctance of fighters to take on a real challenge, but I can't accept we are short on talent in the Hwt division. Just in England we've got Nick Webb, Nathan Gorman, Daniel Dubois, Tom Aspinall on the way up then there's Conn Sheehan and Sean Turner just across the Irish Sea.

Further afield there are (to name a few just off the top my head) Junior Fa, Trey Lippe Morrison, Oscar Rivas, Tony Yoko, Sergei Kuzmin, Bogdan Dinu, LaRon Mitchell, Willis Meehan, Agit Kabayel, Tyrone Spong, Cassius Chaney, Tom Schwarz, Otto Wallin ... loads more, the list is a long one.

Granted not all of these are going to crash the upper reaches of the rankings but it's going to be entertaining watching their progress.

No matter how weak or strong an era is there will always be undefeated up and comers...but are any of the names on your list supposed to be impressive? I like a lot of the fighters you listed, but none of them are exactly what I would call long on talent. Just because we've got some undefeated names right now doesn't mean the division is talented. Remember at one point we had Larry O, Tom Little, Tom Dallas, Dorian Darch etc etc etc. That's how boxing works, and right now the HW is about as bad as I've seen it. It only takes one or two prospects though to change the landscape. If Yoka, Dychko, and Hrgovic jump in soon a lot will change.

You may well be right about that but I don't really care. I would much rather watch a 50/50 match between two guys that might never amount to much than watch a decent fighter outclassed by a predictably better one.

[punchoutsb]

You may well be right about that but I don't really care. I would much rather watch a 50/50 match between two guys that might never amount to much than watch a decent fighter outclassed by a predictably better one.

As would I, but that was never in question was it?

[TheGingerBomber]

Embarrassing people defending him. He's meant to be a top 5-10 heavyweight! Can we see Kevin McBride vs AJ next? Or Helenius vs Rodrick Bowe?

Who he?

Welease Woderick

[stayinshape]

I thought Johnson is quit with boxing.....
He had a good jab, but only had a good jab in heavyweight boxing isn't enough to come forward.

Both didn't had these kind of one-punch-knockout punch which is important today in Heavyweight.

Johnson goes 12 Round with Vitali i thought great chin....then comes Joshua and stone chin turns to glass.

Pulev shows in his Klitschko Lesson that his chin isn't the hardest too

I think it's a good Fight....Johnson must prove that his comeback makes sense....Pulev must prove that the klitschko Fight only was a "i had only a bad day" Fight.

[jujigatame]

It is absolutely not a good fight. KJ will lose every round and the only question is whether he will last the full distance. Even when he was in his prime 5 years ago, his biggest win was Alex Leapai. He has no chance to win, betting outlets probably won't offer odds and if they do Pulev will be like a -10000 favorite.

[candyslim]

You may well be right about that but I don't really care. I would much rather watch a 50/50 match between two guys that might never amount to much than watch a decent fighter outclassed by a predictably better one.

As would I, but that was never in question was it?

No, the question was about the state of the Hwt division. I cannot remember a time when there were so many unbeaten prospects around (possibly because of their apparent reluctance to face a real test) and at this stage it's difficult to evaluate their individual potential. There will come a time when if these fighters are serious they will have to move up in class and face a fellow prospect, or a contender or a gate-keeper type opponent. The winners will enhance their reputations and move up as is the way of boxing. You and I may then regard them with a little more respect. The recent graduates - Joshua, Parker, Ruiz, Miller, Fury, Whyte, Martin, Breazeale, Browne, Washington range between decent and potentially excellent. The recently beaten prospects like Ugonoh, Granat, Latimore, Nofire etc might still have a future in the division having learned valuable lessons in defeat.

If it's quality you're looking for then Klitschko, Wilder, Joshua, Parker, Ortiz, Povetkin, and possibly Fury before long, in the top ten looks stronger to me than at any time since last century.

You've then got the aforementioned "graduates" and those coming up behind vying to displace the likes of Povetkin, Pulev, Stiverne, Bryant, Szpilka, Chagaev, Takam, Scott, Duhaupas, Glazkov, etc as contenders / fringe contenders.

There are literally thousands of potentially fascinating match ups to be made and that is why I consider the heavyweight division to be extremely healthy at the moment. In fact it's buzzing!

[punchoutsb]

You may well be right about that but I don't really care. I would much rather watch a 50/50 match between two guys that might never amount to much than watch a decent fighter outclassed by a predictably better one.

As would I, but that was never in question was it?

No, the question was about the state of the Hwt division. I cannot remember a time when there were so many unbeaten prospects around (possibly because of their apparent reluctance to face a real test) and at this stage it's difficult to evaluate their individual potential. There will come a time when if these fighters are serious they will have to move up in class and face a fellow prospect, or a contender or a gate-keeper type opponent. The winners will enhance their reputations and move up as is the way of boxing. You and I may then regard them with a little more respect. The recent graduates - Joshua, Parker, Ruiz, Miller, Fury, Whyte, Martin, Breazeale, Browne, Washington range between decent and potentially excellent. The recently beaten prospects like Ugonoh, Granat, Latimore, Nofire etc might still have a future in the division having learned valuable lessons in defeat.

If it's quality you're looking for then Klitschko, Wilder, Joshua, Parker, Ortiz, Povetkin, and possibly Fury before long, in the top ten looks stronger to me than at any time since last century.

You've then got the aforementioned "graduates" and those coming up behind vying to displace the likes of Povetkin, Pulev, Stiverne, Bryant, Szpilka, Chagaev, Takam, Scott, Duhaupas, Glazkov, etc as contenders / fringe contenders.

There are literally thousands of potentially fascinating match ups to be made and that is why I consider the heavyweight division to be extremely healthy at the moment. In fact it's buzzing!

I'm sorry but when you're naming guys like Gerald Washington and John Wesley Nofire to show the division is healthy you're actually showing the opposite to be true. Boxing is a huge sport, and there are always hundreds upon hundreds of undefeated prospects. There are many compelling matchups that could happen if any of these guys would be willing to test themselves, but again compelling matchups and a strong division are not always the same thing. I'm a huge heavyweight boxing fan and I get enjoyment out of watching fights, but the current crop is terribly weak aside from three or four bright spots.

[candyslim]

Well those two guys I mentioned are hardly la crème de la crème but they have their minor parts to play. I look back to when Ali and Frazier were ruling the roost and the top ten was very strong but you looked a little deeper and there wasn't much to impress ... Al "Goulds" Jones and Jeff Merritt from memory were the only guys in the top 50 I was getting excited about and they both never made it. Then you had the likes of Ron Stander who had nothing to offer but courage and a granite chin, and Terry Daniels rich-kid dilettante, Tony Doyle, Jose Roman, Manuel Urtain ... oh dear.

My point is that even the Ali, Frazier, Foreman era was not short of dross so when was this golden age that you're thinking about?

A top ten of Klitschko, Wilder, Joshua, Parker, (Fury?), Ortiz, Povetkin, Pulev, Ruiz, (+ Whyte, Browne, Stiverne, Breazeale etc...) I've known it a helluva lot worse !

[Loki]

I thought Johnson is quit with boxing.....
He had a good jab, but only had a good jab in heavyweight boxing isn't enough to come forward.

Both didn't had these kind of one-punch-knockout punch which is important today in Heavyweight.

Johnson goes 12 Round with Vitali i thought great chin....then comes Joshua and stone chin turns to glass.

Pulev shows in his Klitschko Lesson that his chin isn't the hardest too

I think it's a good Fight....Johnson must prove that his comeback makes sense....Pulev must prove that the klitschko Fight only was a "i had only a bad day" Fight.

I take it English isn't your first language?