BoxRec

I think the cruiserweight division has been something of a dead duck since it's inception, since a good cruiser can make more money being an average heavyweight. So the best cruisers have always moved up as soon as they thought the financial gain was ripe, and plenty of others have bypassed the cruisers altogether in the rush to heavyweight riches. But if there was an equal amount of money to be made at cruiser, which heavyweights might have been great and long-reigning cruiserweights?

Chris Byrd springs to mind, as does Herbie Hide, a sledgehammer puncher but never a true heavy.

Jimmy Young?

I would say Roy Joney, Holyfield, Tarver, Johnson, Byrd, would all have been excelent Cruisers (of course some were already).

But honestly, how do you make Cruiser as financially awarding as heavy? People have a fascination with the unlimited class so they would always pay more to see fights in that class.

But honestly, how do you make Cruiser as financially awarding as heavy?

You can't, but just hypothetically in this case.

Ezzard Charles, Floyd Patterson.

Rocky Marciano
Floyd Patterson
Ezzard Charles
Jack Dempsey
Gene Tunney

Ah, hang on. I'm talking about guys who deliberately bypassed the cruisers, not guys who went to the grave decades before anyone had heard of cruiserweight! There was no need for a cruiserweight division before 1960-something anyway.

KOJOE90 wrote:Jimmy Young?

Young did pretty well himself at HW by itself . . he was actually more troubled by the boxers (Norton, Ali (though he won that fight) then the big punchers (he easily beat Foreman and Lyle).

There's no such thing as a cruiser legend. Cruiserweight was a horrible idea in the first place, it was only created by the sacntioning bodies for more fees. But it backfired. Every cruiser who was worth anything put on the few lbs and moved to HW

dempseyfire wrote:

KOJOE90 wrote:Jimmy Young?

Young did pretty well himself at HW by itself . . he was actually more troubled by the boxers (Norton, Ali (though he won that fight) then the big punchers (he easily beat Foreman and Lyle).

There's no such thing as a cruiser legend. Cruiserweight was a horrible idea in the first place, it was only created by the sacntioning bodies for more fees. But it backfired. Every cruiser who was worth anything put on the few lbs and moved to HW

Too true!!!

Michael Moorer! Bert Cooper would have been a really good cruiserweight had he stayed at 190 and could have stayed off the crack-pipe, he only lost one fight at cruiser.

Marvis Frazier
Leon Spinks
Michael Spinks

jab wrote:I would say Roy Joney, Holyfield,

Surely Holyfield was a cruiserweight legend. I agree it would have been good to see how Herbie Hide did at cruiser.

dempseyfire wrote:

KOJOE90 wrote:Jimmy Young?

Young did pretty well himself at HW by itself . . he was actually more troubled by the boxers (Norton, Ali (though he won that fight) then the big punchers (he easily beat Foreman and Lyle).

There's no such thing as a cruiser legend. Cruiserweight was a horrible idea in the first place, it was only created by the sacntioning bodies for more fees. But it backfired. Every cruiser who was worth anything put on the few lbs and moved to HW

I think Cruiserweight is necessary today. Maybe it wasnt than needed 10-15 years ago,
but today it is close to impossible for a lt-hv to jump to heavyweight and be competitive at the top. The only recent example is Roy Jones who did beat a limited, soon after divorce Ruiz. But the fact that the ref made Ruiz break and fight was the decisive factor. Even so, Roy only had one single fight at heavy. I doubt he would have been successful if he stuck around for more fights againt top 10 guys. Todays heavies are too large for a lt-hv who just jumped up from 175lb.
So while lacklustre, the cruiserweight is necessary. IT is like a training ground if you will for gifted lt-hvs who want to move to heavy. They need the stopover at 200lb before moving up for the big money.