BoxRec

There are a lot of better skilled divisions but the Heavyweight division still commands the most prestige. When you get someone like a Mike Tyson ruling the division more casuals will tune in. It's just the way it's always been. The Heavyweight Champion of the World is simply more prestigious than the Welterweight Champion of the World or any other weight division champion. He is simply the top dog.

Not really, I just like where the best action is. As it happens, not a lot of it has been among the heavyweights since I've been following the sport

Baby Face Finster wrote:There are a lot of better skilled divisions but the Heavyweight division still commands the most prestige. When you get someone like a Mike Tyson ruling the division more casuals will tune in. It's just the way it's always been. The Heavyweight Champion of the World is simply more prestigious than the Welterweight Champion of the World or any other weight division champion. He is simply the top dog.

This. It's very rare that HW is the best in terms of talent, but most people deal in absolutes. One exciting heavyweight brings in casuals like 10 exciting featherweights could never hope to.

punchoutsb wrote:

Baby Face Finster wrote:There are a lot of better skilled divisions but the Heavyweight division still commands the most prestige. When you get someone like a Mike Tyson ruling the division more casuals will tune in. It's just the way it's always been. The Heavyweight Champion of the World is simply more prestigious than the Welterweight Champion of the World or any other weight division champion. He is simply the top dog.

This. It's very rare that HW is the best in terms of talent, but most people deal in absolutes. One exciting heavyweight brings in casuals like 10 exciting featherweights could never hope to.

You are right,100 % right. The casual fans around me are able to recognize Maywether, Pacquiao, GGG, Khan and perhaps Canelo. They have not idea about Rigo, Loma, Frampton, Crawford...even Ward, Kovalev and Usyk. But, everyone around me knows Klitschko brothers, Haye, Povetkin. Joshua is becoming a new star, definitely. Personally, I like to watch all divisions, but HW is a "special one".

Historically, most of the time most of the money goes to HW division. That's why a lot of CW's and LHW's guys moved and moves up to THE division...

Just ask any common guy to name five HW champs, and most will do it easily...Ali, Louis, Dempsy, Tyson, Foreman, Marciano, Frazier...
Try them on three LHW....you'll get no answer.

bigman1968 wrote:Historically, most of the time most of the money goes to HW division. That's why a lot of CW's and LHW's guys moved and moves up to THE division...

Just ask any common guy to name five HW champs, and most will do it easily...Ali, Louis, Dempsy, Tyson, Foreman, Marciano, Frazier...
Try them on three LHW....you'll get no answer.

Yes, you are right.

ValMar wrote:For me, HW is the most important division; what about you ? Why yes, or why not ?

I suppose because they are the biggest, the heavyweight division will always be the marquee division.

So I think the answer has to be yes. As greater interest from the mainstream benefits the whole sport, therefore, HW division is the most important.

darkstar81 wrote:So I think the answer has to be yes. As greater interest from the mainstream benefits the whole sport, therefore, HW division is the most important.

Yes !

ValMar wrote:

bigman1968 wrote:Historically, most of the time most of the money goes to HW division. That's why a lot of CW's and LHW's guys moved and moves up to THE division...

Just ask any common guy to name five HW champs, and most will do it easily...Ali, Louis, Dempsy, Tyson, Foreman, Marciano, Frazier...
Try them on three LHW....you'll get no answer.

Yes, you are right.

In the 80's people would mention Michael Spinks, Archie Moore, and Billy Conn.. and possibly Bob Foster.. Heavyweights, most people could name a ton of them.. Middleweights they would name Ray Robinson, Carlos Monzon, Mickey Walker, Jake LaMotta, Rocky Graziano...

But if you asked people today to name any Featherweight, Lightweight, Bantamweight, or Flyweight Champions most probably couldn't give you 2 names.. It's worse today, because with no dominating American Heavyweights exist.. Even Deontay Wilder doesn't get any ink. He hasn't beaten any top guys and Al Haymon and the WBC are fine with that because he's going into his 6th World Heavyweight Championship Fight.. Marciano had 7 right? Everybody knew who Marciano was even though he wasn't very imposing a figure there was still 1 Heavyweight Champion at a time.

For me it is, always has been, allways will be.
A heavyweight champion will allways win against any other champion.

asdfjkl wrote:For me it is, always has been, allways will be.
A heavyweight champion will allways win against any other champion.

What sounds better?

World Heavyweight Champion

World Lightweight Champion

Ruthless-RKO wrote:What sounds better?

World Heavyweight Champion

World Lightweight Champion

what does it matter what it sounds like ? you put a casual fan in front of a telly with a flyweight fight on and ask them what weight they think they are fighting at and they wont have a clue, I did it recently to a mate with a bantam fight and he guessed they were lightheavies, its the fights that matter not the division, on tv they all look the same size anyway

littlepug wrote:

Ruthless-RKO wrote:What sounds better?

World Heavyweight Champion

World Lightweight Champion

what does it matter what it sounds like ? you put a casual fan in front of a telly with a flyweight fight on and ask them what weight they think they are fighting at and they wont have a clue, I did it recently to a mate with a bantam fight and he guessed they were lightheavies, its the fights that matter not the division, on tv they all look the same size anyway

Excuse me, you are not right. There is a great and obvious difference in size between bantam and light heavy (imagine and compare Rigo and Beterbiev) . Did your friend drink/smoke anything ?

ValMar wrote:

littlepug wrote:

Ruthless-RKO wrote:What sounds better?

World Heavyweight Champion

World Lightweight Champion

what does it matter what it sounds like ? you put a casual fan in front of a telly with a flyweight fight on and ask them what weight they think they are fighting at and they wont have a clue, I did it recently to a mate with a bantam fight and he guessed they were lightheavies, its the fights that matter not the division, on tv they all look the same size anyway

Excuse me, you are not right. There is a great and obvious difference in size between bantam and light heavy (imagine and compare Rigo and Beterbiev) . Did your friend drink/smoke anything ?

I didn't say there wasn't a difference between them, if a bantam was facing a lightheavy then of course you can tell, but 2 guys of the same weight/size facing each other and its less obvious which weight they are if your not told, so yes I am correct

littlepug wrote:

ValMar wrote:

littlepug wrote: what does it matter what it sounds like ? you put a casual fan in front of a telly with a flyweight fight on and ask them what weight they think they are fighting at and they wont have a clue, I did it recently to a mate with a bantam fight and he guessed they were lightheavies, its the fights that matter not the division, on tv they all look the same size anyway

Excuse me, you are not right. There is a great and obvious difference in size between bantam and light heavy (imagine and compare Rigo and Beterbiev) . Did your friend drink/smoke anything ?

I didn't say there wasn't a difference between them, if a bantam was facing a lightheavy then of course you can tell, but 2 guys of the same weight/size facing each other and its less obvious which weight they are if your not told, so yes I am correct

An average fan (even expert) can not recognize the difference between bantam and superbantam, or between welter and light middle........But, you can compare the height of fighters with the ropes... And if you have a strong and muscular guy, taller than 6'0'' - it is LHW or CW, for example...

ValMar wrote:

littlepug wrote:

ValMar wrote:
Excuse me, you are not right. There is a great and obvious difference in size between bantam and light heavy (imagine and compare Rigo and Beterbiev) . Did your friend drink/smoke anything ?

I didn't say there wasn't a difference between them, if a bantam was facing a lightheavy then of course you can tell, but 2 guys of the same weight/size facing each other and its less obvious which weight they are if your not told, so yes I am correct

An average fan (even expert) can not recognize the difference between bantam and superbantam, or between welter and light middle........But, you can compare the height of fighters with the ropes... And if you have a strong and muscular guy, taller than 6'0'' - it is LHW or CW, for example...

yes you can use the ropes to compare and also sometimes the ref but I wouldn't expect a casual to notice that most of the time

littlepug wrote:

ValMar wrote:

littlepug wrote: I didn't say there wasn't a difference between them, if a bantam was facing a lightheavy then of course you can tell, but 2 guys of the same weight/size facing each other and its less obvious which weight they are if your not told, so yes I am correct

An average fan (even expert) can not recognize the difference between bantam and superbantam, or between welter and light middle........But, you can compare the height of fighters with the ropes... And if you have a strong and muscular guy, taller than 6'0'' - it is LHW or CW, for example...

yes you can use the ropes to compare and also sometimes the ref but I wouldn't expect a casual to notice that most of the time

Anyway, nobody would make a mistake about weight division watching Klitschko vs Joshua. It will be obvious from the plane.

ValMar wrote:

littlepug wrote:

ValMar wrote: An average fan (even expert) can not recognize the difference between bantam and superbantam, or between welter and light middle........But, you can compare the height of fighters with the ropes... And if you have a strong and muscular guy, taller than 6'0'' - it is LHW or CW, for example...

yes you can use the ropes to compare and also sometimes the ref but I wouldn't expect a casual to notice that most of the time

Anyway, nobody would make a mistake about weight division watching Klitschko vs Joshua. It will be obvious from the plane.

ok let you have that one !

littlepug wrote:

ValMar wrote:

littlepug wrote: yes you can use the ropes to compare and also sometimes the ref but I wouldn't expect a casual to notice that most of the time

Anyway, nobody would make a mistake about weight division watching Klitschko vs Joshua. It will be obvious from the plane.

ok let you have that one !

It obviously used to be the case. But the Charles Martins of the world have greatly diminished the once exalted status of the Heavyweight division. Even long reigning champ Wlad Klitschko (and Vitali) were downgraded from HBO to afternoon cads on ESPN in the primes of their career. And Deontay Wilder has had an alphabet title for almost 2 years without being on a pay network. That shows how far the mighty heavyweight division has fallen.

Smokin' Bert wrote:It obviously used to be the case. But the Charles Martins of the world have greatly diminished the once exalted status of the Heavyweight division. Even long reigning champ Wlad Klitschko (and Vitali) were downgraded from HBO to afternoon cads on ESPN in the primes of their career. And Deontay Wilder has had an alphabet title for almost 2 years without being on a pay network. That shows how far the mighty heavyweight division has fallen.

Agreed if the viewpoint is an American one. The HW crown must be held in higher esteem now in England. After all of these years, finally they've put forth a decent HW or two. America doesn't really care anymore. The UFC, amongst other things, probably helped water down combat sports interest in general, especially for boxing. Mexican Americans don't much care about the HWs, and they're US boxing's lifeline at this point.

Blodhemn wrote:

Smokin' Bert wrote:It obviously used to be the case. But the Charles Martins of the world have greatly diminished the once exalted status of the Heavyweight division. Even long reigning champ Wlad Klitschko (and Vitali) were downgraded from HBO to afternoon cads on ESPN in the primes of their career. And Deontay Wilder has had an alphabet title for almost 2 years without being on a pay network. That shows how far the mighty heavyweight division has fallen.

Agreed if the viewpoint is an American one. The HW crown must be held in higher esteem now in England. After all of these years, finally they've put forth a decent HW or two. America doesn't really care anymore. The UFC, amongst other things, probably helped water down combat sports interest in general, especially for boxing. Mexican Americans don't much care about the HWs, and they're US boxing's lifeline at this point.

UK & EE - future of HW.