BoxRec

I know this is an absolutely dire thought, but since quite a lot of people named Klitchko as their Linear champ after his (for some people) win, or at least decent showing, against Lewis, would you put Rachman there now? He does after all hold a win over Lewis, despite it being royally reversed later. Or, would you accept Rachman to be the target for whoever is going to be the next linear champion? (It all sounds terrible, but you know what I'm getting at. Hopefully)

First to unify I guess.

I only give Wladi and Brewster a chance to unify three titles.

I agree it should be the first to unify, at the moment you can't really make a strong case for any of the fatties to be the linear least of all Rahman who got his title by default.

Championship: Vacant

1 James Toney
2 Chris Byrd
3 Lamon Brewster
4 Nicolay Valuev
5 Wladimir Klitscko
6 Sam Peter
7 Luan Krasniqui
8 Oleg Makaev
9 Hasim Rahman
10 Monte Barrett

The worst top 10 HW list in history.

Does anyone have the Ring HW ratings for January 1972 to hand for comparison.

Well, the consensus so far seems to be that the smoking, overweight dwarf 36/7? year old holds the biggest promise of the division. Excellent

My conspiracy theory:

Byrd is currently King's weakest link. a) their suing each other b) He is boring as hell c) He's getting on in years. I reckon, if any form of tournament takes place, King will feed him to a "better" hope. I would currently say this was Brewster. Despite not being a pugilistic angel ie. SDs to Meehan and losing to Krasniqi until the stoppage, on the other hand he did stop Krasniqi, not to mention Golota (although whether he is now totally shot we don't know until/if he fights again. So he has big power, plus he is the youngest of the title holders.

On the other hand, if we say Byrd is the sacraficial lamb, then King may put him in with Klitchko, who should win. The winner of that then fights Brewster, that's a decent start.

We then assume that It's going to be Rachman-Toney for the WBC title. I wouldn't jump at the Toney win to be honest, I think Rachman still has something left, particularly if Toney continues with this phantom pregnancy to quintuplates he seems to be having. But, we have Rachman wanting to leave King, Toney on the other hand would probably work with King. I'll argue Toney for now but it's still open that.

Then we have the Valuev enigma. I personally think he'd get beat, Byrd excluded, by any of the above mentioned, 3 or 4 times out of 5. He just doesn't look to have the developed the skills and tactics needed to stay where he is. Having said that, King seemed quite happy in Germany to have him. What is it? 50% cut for the next 4 fights? I reckon Valuev will be used for novelty fights for the time being - Skelton, Tua, Esch etc. Later along the line I fear he and his belt will be wheeled into the ring in the eliminator but only he will leave.

I think I'll stop there. I've even bored and confused myself.

You haven't bored me jomo...your posts are always witty and fun to read (I am also confused though for the record!) I take on board your comments about Valuev's technical skills or lack of them, i cringe every time he throws that corkscrew "Right Hand"