Tony Bellew working with the WBC to potentially create a new "super cruiserweight" division!

[Enlightened-One]

"Tony Bellew wants Deontay Wilder vs Oleksandr Usyk for vacant title in new ‘super-cruiserweight’ division for small heavyweights"

Tony Bellew has stated that he is in favour of creating a new ‘super-cruiserweight’ division in boxing.

At the WBC convention last month, the former cruiserweight world champion was placed in charge of a new committee to investigate Don Majeski’s proposal to form a new weight class between cruiserweight and heavyweight.

He told talkSPORT Fight Night: “I am a fighter who fought obviously at light-heavyweight.

“I boiled down to that weight category and then jumped up immediately and went to cruiserweight.

“I’ve done it, so I understand how tough the weight jump is.

“The difference in all the other weight categories is minimal – 4lbs, 3lbs, sometimes 6lbs.

“The weight jump from light-heavyweight to cruiserweight is from 175lbs to 200lbs – that’s 25lbs.

“That’s just too much, I get what Don Majeski’s saying because in the current game at heavyweight the big boys are too big and the smaller heavyweights are not able to compete with the bigger boys.

“As great as some of them are – the likes of Oleksandr Usyk – it’s looked at now that he’s not gonna be able to compete with the monsters.

“Not because of his boxing ability, purely because of his size…

“Here’s where my thinking goes with the WBC, and I’ve said this to Mauricio Sulaiman the WBC president.

“I actually like the divisions going from 175lbs up to 190lbs [instead of 200lbs].

“That will make it a bit better for the guys who are struggling at light-heavyweight, but are not monster cruiserweights.

“Then, if I had my way, I would go from 190lbs to 220lbs. You’re looking at the ‘small heavyweights’.

“I would’ve fallen into that category quite comfortably, Oleksandr Usyk falls into that category quite comfortably.

“Deontay Wilder falls into that category quite comfortably, David Haye falls into that category quite comfortably.”

When this idea was initially floated by the WBC a couple of years ago, their thought was to make a new ‘super-heavyweight’ division.

This was slammed by fans who insisted that the iconic heavyweight division must remain boxing’s greatest prize.

Bellew agreed: “You can’t mess around, you can’t have a ‘super-heavyweight’ in boxing.

“There’s one heavyweight division, that’s all there should ever be, you can’t go messing around with the names of them.

“People say, ‘Well, what would you call it?’

“I would say you go to cruiserweight [at 190lbs] and maybe ‘super-cruiserweight’ [at 220lbs].

“Something of that ilk. You can’t ever have a ‘super-heavyweight’ division, it’s not reasonable, it’s ridiculous.

“This weight class we’re looking to bring in is the perfect thing and if I had complete control of something like this, the first match-up I would look to do would be Deontay Wilder vs Oleksandr Usyk for the belt.

“It’s an amazing fight, the division would be relevant immediately with a fight of that magnitude.”

Thoughts?

[Enlightened-One]

Within the last decade, the following world heavyweight titles were fought for:

• WBC = 19 times
• WBA Super = 16 times
• WBA Regular = 14 times
• IBF = 21 times
• WBO = 17 times

I appreciate the fact that some of these bouts were unified title fights, where the champion held multiple versions of the world title.

Only two men have emerged victorious in the bouts listed above weighing 220lbs or less:

• David Haye = once (nine years and ten months ago against Audley Harrison for the WBA Regular title)
• Deontay Wilder = three times (in his WBC title fights against Luis Ortiz and Bermane Stiverne)

In terms of the participants of the above bouts (excl. draws & no contests), the average weights of the:

• Winners = 242½ lbs
• Losers = 240lbs

And within the last decade, no man has ever successfully competed in WBA Super, WBO & IBF world title fights weighing 220lbs or less.

[Enlightened-One]

My previous post in this thread illustrated the statistics for the last decade, but the same principle applies if we extended the timescale to include the last twenty years:

The following list represents the weights of the winners/champions of the world heavyweight title fights (including the WBA variants) that occurred within the last twenty years:

• WBA = 50 title fights; 3 winners weighing less than 220lbs
• WBC = 38 title fights; 4 winners weighing less than 220lbs
• IBF = 40 title fights; 5 winners weighing less than 220lbs
• WBO = 30 title fights; 1 winner weighing less than 220lbs

Here are the mathematical average weights for the winners/champions of all those title fights (rounded to the nearest pound):

• WBA = 247lbs
• WBC = 240lbs
• IBF = 242lbs
• WBO = 242lbs

Here are the champions (weighing less than 220lbs) that emerged victorious (or drew) in the title fights mentioned above:

• David Haye
• Roy Jones Jr
• Deontay Wilder
• Chris Byrd
• Sultan Ibragimov

And just a gentle reminder to summarise the content of my previous post in this thread:

David Haye (once) and Deontay Wilder (three times) are the only fighters that successfully competed in world heavyweight title fights within the last decade weighing less than 220lbs.

[Controversial]

I think something needs to be done, leave the HW division name but maybe a SCW division would be a good idea. The weight jump is huge and as much as people say size and weight doesn't matter the fact is the larger guys tend to dominate the division, that's not a coincidence. Holyfield was the best 'small' HW in the later years but he was an exceptional fighter, an exception more than the rule. There will always be exceptions and one offs of course.

[Enlightened-One]

I think something needs to be done, leave the HW division name but maybe a SCW division would be a good idea. The weight jump is huge and as much as people say size and weight doesn't matter the fact is the larger guys tend to dominate the division, that's not a coincidence. Holyfield was the best 'small' HW in the later years but he was an exceptional fighter, an exception more than the rule. There will always be exceptions and one offs of course.

I agree with everything you say, but I'd like to highlight a few points...

If you excluded anomalously big opponents from the equation (i.e. James ‘Buster’ Douglas, George Foreman and Riddick Bowe), Holyfield’s victories in world heavyweight title bouts came against men typically weighing 223lbs, with Evander's own mathematical average weight being 214lbs.

So Holyfield might have beaten heavier men than himself in several world heavyweight championship bouts, but it's important to note that the vast majority of them were “small” in comparison to today’s heavyweights.

Also, during the course of the nine world title fights where Evander Holyfield failed to emerge victorious, the average weight of his opposition was 238lbs.

[Controversial]

I think something needs to be done, leave the HW division name but maybe a SCW division would be a good idea. The weight jump is huge and as much as people say size and weight doesn't matter the fact is the larger guys tend to dominate the division, that's not a coincidence. Holyfield was the best 'small' HW in the later years but he was an exceptional fighter, an exception more than the rule. There will always be exceptions and one offs of course.

I agree with everything you say, but I'd like to highlight a few points...

If you excluded anomalously big opponents from the equation (i.e. James ‘Buster’ Douglas, George Foreman and Riddick Bowe), Holyfield’s victories in world heavyweight title bouts came against men typically weighing 223lbs, with Evander's own mathematical average weight being 214lbs.

So Holyfield might have beaten heavier men than himself in several world heavyweight championship bouts, but it's important to note that the vast majority of them were “small” in comparison to today’s heavyweights.

Also, during the course of the nine world title fights where Evander Holyfield failed to emerge victorious, the average weight of his opposition was 238lbs.

Yeah sure, Holyfield was just the first name I thought of being an ex CW and generally thought to be small for a HW. The guy was still almost 6'3" and similar dimensions to Muhammad Ali so in reality not really that 'small' plus we are now talking 20+ years ago when Holyfield was fighting. It will be interesting to see how Usyk gets on as he is also of similar dimensions to Holyfield. Smaller guys will always stand a chance if they are in exceptional physical condition, technically good fighters or a combination of both as that will normally trump someone who is just 'big' and out of shape or just not skilled.

[IRONFIST]

Bellew must still be dazed from the beating he got from Usyk.

[gilgamesh]

I would rather Tony Bellew die right now than to see him kill Boxing.

[milpool]

I don't think I could cope with another weight division and a whole raft of new 'world champions'...

[gilgamesh]

I don't think I could cope with another weight division and a whole raft of new 'world champions'...

This will kill my interest in the sport if it becomes a new thing. I'll shift my combat sports interest 100% to Kickboxing. Tougher to follow, but at least something that has a smidgen of integrity left.

Some MMA too, but Boxing diminishing the richest prize in it's history would be the death blow to me.

[Controversial]

The downside of course is the HW division will still be where the money is so it won't stop some CW and SCW from competing at HW anyway.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I would rather Tony Bellew die right now than to see him kill Boxing.

Yeh. Whatever happened to him staying away from the sport.

[gilgamesh]

The downside of course is the HW division will still be where the money is so it won't stop some CW and SCW from competing at HW anyway.

Plus it's the equivalent of the sport pissing on the graves of some of it's biggest legends.

[jujigatame]

Terrible idea. If anything some of the super/junior classes should be removed. The fact that you have guys cutting weight across 3-4 weight classes at a time has made a mockery of the whole thing.

[gilgamesh]

Terrible idea. If anything some of the super/junior classes should be removed. The fact that you have guys cutting weight across 3-4 weight classes at a time has made a mockery of the whole thing.

Not some of them. All of them.

[cormack]

this was news about 3 weeks ago

[margaret thatcher]

Prob just tony doing a mental jerkoff about how he shoulda been a 2 division champion

[H8Usernames]

This will add to the credibility of the sport and reduce the wwe boxling factors. The 190 pound division was a respectable, old and established one.

Good work Tony Bellew.

[gilgamesh]

This will add to the credibility of the sport and reduce the wwe boxling factors. The 190 pound division was a respectable, old and established one.

Good work Tony Bellew.

Add to the credibility of the sport?

What the f*ck is wrong with people like you?

[snake33]

The Cruiserweight division gets no respect, no respect at all. Just kidding.
And there needed to be something between LHW and HW but due to lack of
history or something people get less excited about it. Adding another one
would add another island in that lost ocean and squeezing the heavyweight
division upwards would only make it harder for guys like Usyk to jump up and
take a shot at the big prize. I think boxers wouldn't like it and fans would
be just as oblivious or more so. Finally, you just shouldn't mess with the HW
division. Chopping it off at the top or bottom is bad business.

[H8Usernames]

This will add to the credibility of the sport and reduce the wwe boxling factors. The 190 pound division was a respectable, old and established one.

Good work Tony Bellew.

Add to the credibility of the sport?

What the f*ck is wrong with people like you?

You've never even strapped on a pair of gloves. What the profanity is wrong with.me? What rhe profanity is wrong with you? Go watch kickboxing, boxing doesnt need you.

[Enlightened-One]

I would rather Tony Bellew die right now than to see him kill Boxing.

If Bellew’s and the WBC’s plans come to fruition, it’ll only have minimal impact on the heavyweight division.

Deontay Wilder is pretty much the only fighter within the last decade (i.e. nine years and ten months to be precise) to have successfully competed in world heavyweight title fights weighing less than 220lbs (and he only did it three times).

The Bronze Bomber's future is uncertain when he loses to Fury again in December.

And there’s no guarantee that the injury-prone Oleksandr Usyk, who’s on the cusp of turning 35 years of age, will achieve anything either.

Those are the only two world-rated guys that would be affected by this change, which might not even be implemented for several years (perhaps after they've both left the world stage).

And let’s face it, based on the last two decades, nearly all the fighters that compete in world heavyweight title bouts weigh more than 240lbs anyway. The stats don't lie - they are what they are!

I don’t understand the reasoning behind your extreme outrage, because this change will have minimal impact on the heavyweight division and it won't affect its legacy either.

It seems to me that you’re making a mountain out of a molehill.

OK, I’ll put my hands up and admit to being proven wrong, if you’re able to list several genuine young prospects that are small heavyweights that typically compete weighing less than 220lbs?

I can’t think of any, but perhaps you know more than me and can name a few.

[Controversial]

Michael Hunter falls into the small HW bracket today

[gilgamesh]

This will add to the credibility of the sport and reduce the wwe boxling factors. The 190 pound division was a respectable, old and established one.

Good work Tony Bellew.

Add to the credibility of the sport?

What the f*ck is wrong with people like you?

You've never even strapped on a pair of gloves. What the profanity is wrong with.me? What rhe profanity is wrong with you? Go watch kickboxing, boxing doesnt need you.

I have in fact strapped on a pair of gloves, and I guarantee the sport means more to me than it does to you, so does the integrity and the tradition of it.

[gilgamesh]

I would rather Tony Bellew die right now than to see him kill Boxing.

If Bellew’s and the WBC’s plans come to fruition, it’ll only have minimal impact on the heavyweight division.

Deontay Wilder is pretty much the only fighter within the last decade (i.e. nine years and ten months to be precise) to have successfully competed in world heavyweight title fights weighing less than 220lbs (and he only did it three times).

The Bronze Bomber's future is uncertain when he loses to Fury again in December.

And there’s no guarantee that the injury-prone Oleksandr Usyk, who’s on the cusp of turning 35 years of age, will achieve anything either.

Those are the only two world-rated guys that would be affected by this change, which might not even be implemented for several years (perhaps after they've both left the world stage).

And let’s face it, based on the last two decades, nearly all the fighters that compete in world heavyweight title bouts weigh more than 240lbs anyway. The stats don't lie - they are what they are!

I don’t understand the reasoning behind your extreme outrage, because this change will have minimal impact on the heavyweight division and it won't affect its legacy either.

It seems to me that you’re making a mountain out of a molehill.

OK, I’ll put my hands up and admit to being proven wrong, if you’re able to list several genuine young prospects that are small heavyweights that typically compete weighing less than 220lbs?

I can’t think of any, but perhaps you know more than me and can name a few.

Yeah...hey f*ck it. Let's make all goals made in Basketball 3 pointers. Let's make every Base hit in Baseball a Homerun. F*ck tradition.

I wish Dempsey could come back from the grave and knock your f*cking teeth out.