Evaluation of Alexander Povetkin's career

[Riddick Bowie]

What is with the lengthy discussion of Povetkin? He was the WBA not-champion for a while and could only eke past second raters Marco Huck and Ruslan Chagaev. His world title challenge against Klitschko, while marred by Klit's outrageous fouling, demonstrated how one dimensional he was. He never once changed strategy, switched to a Plan B. He just marched forward cluelessly into a clinch all night.

The suggestion he could test Usyk given his limitations is laughable.

[Ambling Alp II]

The wins over Huck and Chagaev are accomplishments and thus automatically deserve respect. Beat several other professional fighters. He was an also ran in weak era and that must be respected.

[Cojimar 1946]

The 2010s have better talent than any prior era I can think of
Fury
Wlad
Vitali
Povetkin
Wilder
Joyce
Dubois
Ortiz
Chagaev
Thompson
Pulev
Jennings
Chisora
Haye
Zhang
Kabayel
Sanchez
Hrgovic
Ajagba
Joshua
Ruiz
Etc

H2H the era looks great

[gilgamesh]

The 2010s have better talent than any prior era I can think of
Fury
Wlad
Vitali
Povetkin
Wilder
Joyce
Dubois
Ortiz
Chagaev
Thompson
Pulev
Jennings
Chisora
Haye
Zhang
Kabayel
Sanchez
Hrgovic
Ajagba
Joshua
Ruiz
Etc

H2H the era looks great

I don't know about all time best era, but it's definitely underrated in it's own time. People were saying how sh*t the 90's were in the middle of em too it seemed. But in retrospect it was great.

People can only appreciate greatness when it fades and they don't see it again for many years. When it was right in front of em they'd seen better. In 20 years time they'd seen better but they can't remember when.

[Ambling Alp II]

The 2010s have better talent than any prior era I can think of
Fury
Wlad
Vitali
Povetkin
Wilder
Joyce
Dubois
Ortiz
Chagaev
Thompson
Pulev
Jennings
Chisora
Haye
Zhang
Kabayel
Sanchez
Hrgovic
Ajagba
Joshua
Ruiz
Etc

H2H the era looks great

Good one. I thought you were serious for a second there.

[gilgamesh]

In the 90's commentators and pundits would point to George Foreman and Larry Holmes still hanging around as proof that the era sucked.

It's only when the good times fade that you recognize them sometimes.

[Cojimar 1946]

The 2010s have better talent than any prior era I can think of
Fury
Wlad
Vitali
Povetkin
Wilder
Joyce
Dubois
Ortiz
Chagaev
Thompson
Pulev
Jennings
Chisora
Haye
Zhang
Kabayel
Sanchez
Hrgovic
Ajagba
Joshua
Ruiz
Etc

H2H the era looks great

Good one. I thought you were serious for a second there.

Generally there is a pretty big drop off after the top few guys but the 2010s have much better depth than most eras.
I don't know if has the best top guys but certainly it stays much stronger after the top few than most eras.

A major reason the 1970s are not as highly regarded these days is that the division lacked depth after Ali, Frazier, and Foreman

[Ambling Alp II]

The top of the 2010s is not very good at all when comparing them to other eras. Most of those guys are a joke when comparing them to most other eras. That's why their fights suck to watch.

People are ripping the 1970s?
No depth? WTF?

Besides Ali, Fraizer, and Foreman (which is clearly the best top 3), you had Norton, Quarry, Shavers, Young, Lyle, Bonavena, Bugner etc. . You have Patterson and Ellis at the beginning of the decade. Holmes at the end. Many other good but not great fighters after that.

Now go look up their records and cherry pick their losses.
Also notice that these guys fought each other a lot more than they have in the last 20 years.

[Cojimar 1946]

Plenty of excellent fights. The recent Dubois Wardley fight was very good so was Dubois Joshua and Wardley Parker
Joyce vs Parker had more punches thrown than any of the Bowe Holyfield fights.

Obviously there would be more good fights involving the top guys if they fought each other more

The narrative that fights are boring is based on Wlad

[Ambling Alp II]

It's more than just Wlad. There is a reason why boxing became so much less popular in the 2000s than it used to be. There is a saying : So goes the heavyweight division, so goes boxing"
The skills, speed, pace of fights has been terrible for a long time.

The first Usyk-Joshua fight was atrocious. The rematch wasn't much better and the Usyk-Fury fights weren't very good either.
Usyk has a life and death match against a frikkin kick boxer. If that happened in a previous era you would be all over that. It embarrassing.
Take out the two knockdowns and absolutely nothing happened in the first Fury-Wilder fight.

These guys don't have any challenge in their first 3-4 years. They aren't fighting other top prospects. They aren't fighting veterans who have something left.
Compare the heavyweights from the 1950s to the 1990s. Take a good look at some of their early fights. They were tested.
That is how you improve. By being tested.
Now the contenders avoid each other like the plague. All waiting around for a chance at one of the 4 WBS titles.

[Cojimar 1946]

It's more than just Wlad. There is a reason why boxing became so much less popular in the 2000s than it used to be. There is a saying : So goes the heavyweight division, so goes boxing"
The skills, speed, pace of fights has been terrible for a long time.

The first Usyk-Joshua fight was atrocious. The rematch wasn't much better and the Usyk-Fury fights weren't very good either.
Usyk has a life and death match against a frikkin kick boxer. If that happened in a previous era you would be all over that. It embarrassing.
Take out the two knockdowns and absolutely nothing happened in the first Fury-Wilder fight.

These guys don't have any challenge in their first 3-4 years. They aren't fighting other top prospects. They aren't fighting veterans who have something left.
Compare the heavyweights from the 1950s to the 1990s. Take a good look at some of their early fights. They were tested.
That is how you improve. By being tested.
Now the contenders avoid each other like the plague. All waiting around for a chance at one of the 4 WBS titles.

The Usyk Fury fights featured two past prime fighters one of whom was badly out of shape and had been for years.
Fury was also out of shape for basically the entire Wilder trilogy.

Those just seem like strange examples. It would be like judging Bowe on the Billy Zubrum fight or Holyfield on the Ruiz fights

[Ambling Alp II]

Well they are the two best heavyweights out there. That says a lot about how strong the division has been. Btw- By fighting so infrequently, Usyk has taken very little punishment in his career so he should not be that far past his prime.
There is more to a fighters prime than just looking at his age.
Bowe and Holyfield were not the best heavyweights at the time that you are referring too.

[Cojimar 1946]

Well they are the two best heavyweights out there. That says a lot about how strong the division has been. Btw- By fighting so infrequently, Usyk has taken very little punishment in his career so he should not be that far past his prime.
There is more to a fighters prime than just looking at his age.
Bowe and Holyfield were not the best heavyweights at the time that you are referring too.

I would pick several guys to beat Fury by the time of the Usyk fights. He hadn't beaten a ranked opponent in years and had looked poor in his prior fights. Also excess weight was impacting his stamina.

Usyk was potentially still the best but it's hard to say given he has faced so few guys at heavyweight and fights so infrequently.