Heavy weight division feels fun again

[MC Paul Barman]

I'm not saying these guys are as skilled as any earlier generation....
but, it's at least interesting again.

The only thing: I wish Fury didn't agree to rematch Wlad. I have no interest in that fight. I don't think any other people are all that interested in it. I think the time is well nigh to finally push Wlad out of the picture.

Sure, Deontay is sloppier in the ring. But I would rather watch him fight any day of the week than having to sit through another Wlad fight.

Deontay, Fury, Povetkin, Joshua, Ortiz, maybe Parker. I'd be interested to see where Pulev sits with these guys.
There are a few outliers too that might help keep things interesting: Perez, Browne, Jennings, Haye.

Breazeale fights Mansour next weekend. So, we'll be able to hopefully see if Breazeale is nothing to be concerned with.... or otherwise.

We've all been blessed to finally have a reason to not watch Glaskov again.


Things have the potential to be interesting again.

 

[nac386]

Hear, hear.

 

[Queen B]

You forgot to mention the other title holder, Charles Martin

 

[Minowafanatic]

I fear that if Wlad wins and looks good, the division will be a bit more boring for the remainder of his stay at the top

 

[Seano]

Always said that while HW hasn't been that deep in terms of raw talent, its the Klitschkos that have robbed the division of excitement. They simply had a skill set combined with physical tools that no one has been able to handle for a while. I'm not really knocking them, but the Klitschko era has sort of sucked in terms of excitement.

 

[clashnat]

^ You really have no evidence for those statements. It's just your personal view.

the hottest HW last year was Fury vs. Klitschko, the hottest HW fight this year is going to be Fury vs. Klitschko.
If Vitali announced his comeback today, it would be immediately become even more interesting to me.

 

[DeJulez]

^ You really have no evidence for those statements. It's just your personal view.

the hottest HW last year was Fury vs. Klitschko, the hottest HW fight this year is going to be Fury vs. Klitschko.
If Vitali announced his comeback today, it would be immediately become even more interesting to me.

He has no evidence for what? That the Klitschkos arent exciting?
Im pretty sure thats been the basis of everyone's arguments about why the HW division sucks, for about the last 10 years.

 

[clashnat]

^ No, there's no evidence the Klitschko's were responsible for general lack of excitement in the division, especially during the 2nd half of the last decade.

Let's assume Wilder gets past Povetkin, and Fury beats Wladimir again ...then Wilder vs. Fury is going to be the most anticipated fight. But Fury's status is based on beating Wladimir Klitschko.

Last time we had that discussion Seano claimed that Wladimir has to retire (expecting Tyson Fury to lose to Klitschko). What happened with the Fury-victory was that Wladimir, with all his momentum, kinda passed the torch to Fury. Shouldn't he get credit for that instead of being portrayed as a redundant disturbing factor? Did Wladimir really take away excitement or did he add excitement?

As already said: Wladimir at this point is still 50% of the biggest heavyweight fight in 2016.

 

[XCuTioNeR]

A lot of parity outside of the Klitschkos. This new era should be fun to watch.

 

[Seano]

^ You really have no evidence for those statements. It's just your personal view.

the hottest HW last year was Fury vs. Klitschko, the hottest HW fight this year is going to be Fury vs. Klitschko.
If Vitali announced his comeback today, it would be immediately become even more interesting to me.

lol at Klitcshko vs Fury being a "hot fight." It was universally panned as one of the worst HW title fights in this history of the sport.
Yeah, there is plenty of evidence that fans have cooled on the HW division for some time and there is even more that fans don't really care for the Klitschko's style. What evidence do you need? People haven't enjoyed HW boxing for some time now.

In terms of fun fights, I'd rather have seen Sam Peter and Chris Arreola fight each other than to see them fight Wlad and Vitali, respectively, and most everyone would agree that those would have been more exciting match ups.

Your trolling is sort of sucky and is getting old already. No one enjoys watching Wlad fight and to pretend you don't understand that or haven't noticed it like its some whacky idea that I just came up with seems unnecessary. Wlad losing to Fury was the best thing that has happened to the HW division since Lewis was active.

 

[clashnat]

^ Your trolling is sort of sucky and has gotten old a long time ago.

Vitali exposed Arreola's flaws pretty good ....Peter and Arreola would've simply gotten into a clumsy brawl.
Having one of those guys as the heavyweight champ six years ago would've done nothing.

Wlad losing to Fury was the best thing that has happened to the HW division since Lewis was active.

Realize this is very different than Wlad simply retiring. The current state of the division is partially based on Wladimir's body of work of the past 10 years.

With "biggest fight" I mean the anticipation and signifcance of the fight, not the fight itself (do you know for a fact that Wilder vs. Fury isn't going to be a stinker?). If Wladimir hypothetically wins the rematch, then Klitschko vs. Wilder automatically turns into the biggest fight. Who disagrees?

 

[nac386]

The most significant fight in a division is always the one involving the champion. So, over the last 10 years, most of the significant heavyweight fights involved a Klitschko. That doesn't mean they were exciting or even especially anticipated. I've gone full years without watching a Wlad fight sporadically throughout his career as champ.

 

[Kolovrat]

People don't give enough credit to the Klitschko era. Klitschko brothers were HUGE stars in Europe, the biggest combat sports stars on the continent for a decade. Yeah, Mayweather doesn't even come close if we're talking about Europe only, not many people watched his fights here (time difference) nor cared about him that much. Klitschkos became household names and their fights were watched by millions live. They had a great deal with German TV and made a lot of money. They promoted boxing like no one before in Europe. You can call Wlad boring but people still watched his fights, also in Europe you don't need to have a WWE-style personality to be popular.

If this post-Klitschko era becomes incredibly exciting it's largely because of the previous Klitschko era. Fury legitimized himself by beating Wlad and is now recognized all over Europe as the man who finally beat the big star. Without beating this dominant champ everyone would still consider him as a loudmouth nobody, in fact hardly anyone outside boxing would know him. Fury is the man who is essential to heavyweight division being fun again, without passing of the torch from Wlad he wouldn't be legitimized. Now he's the man who is known both in Europe and USA.

For example cruiserweight division is absolutely stacked with talent yet no one outside hardcore boxing fans cares about it because there was no recognizable names in the last decade and no one is really dominant. It would be the same with HW division if there was no dominant champ in the last years.

Klitschko did a lot for promotion of boxing in Ukraine, Germany and entire Europe. Americans are mostly clueless about this but if you look globally his reign was a good thing.

 

[clashnat]

For example cruiserweight division is absolutely stacked with talent yet no one outside hardcore boxing fans cares about it because there was no recognizable names in the last decade and no one is really dominant. It would be the same with HW division if there was no dominant champ in the last years.

Good point. There hasn't been a standard in the CW for a long time ...Wladimir was the standard in the HW division for years. IMO his body of work was very important looking back.

 

[JayElectra]

As expected, Wlad losing has opened up the division, but there is also something of a rise of new talent that wasn't really around over the last decade. It's a combination of Wlad losing as well as an increase in talent, I think. We're moving out of a very weak era and hopefully into a stronger one (although, this era only shows some potential and still has much to prove). You can't fault Wlad too much as he can only fight who is out there and the only other genuinely good HW of his era happened to be his brother. Now we just need for these big fights to happen over the next few years.

 

[Seano]

As expected, Wlad losing has opened up the division, but there is also something of a rise of new talent that wasn't really around over the last decade. It's a combination of Wlad losing as well as an increase in talent, I think. We're moving out of a very weak era and hopefully into a stronger one (although, this era only shows some potential and still has much to prove). You can't fault Wlad too much as he can only fight who is out there and the only other genuinely good HW of his era happened to be his brother. Now we just need for these big fights to happen over the next few years.

What do you mean fella? Wlad is in "hot fights!" The world loves a Wladmir Klitschko fight.

But seriously, that what I was just saying. Wlad was/is a very good HW fighter. But his style sucks, fans outside of europe hate him and HW boxing has suffered because no one has been able to make a good fight with the guy for the past 10 years. Several of his fights have been called the worst HW title fights in history.
IF there is a list for bad HW championship fights Wlad probably would be in 4 or 5 of them.

 

[Seano]

^ No, there's no evidence the Klitschko's were responsible for general lack of excitement in the division, especially during the 2nd half of the last decade.

Let's assume Wilder gets past Povetkin, and Fury beats Wladimir again ...then Wilder vs. Fury is going to be the most anticipated fight. But Fury's status is based on beating Wladimir Klitschko.

Last time we had that discussion Seano claimed that Wladimir has to retire (expecting Tyson Fury to lose to Klitschko). What happened with the Fury-victory was that Wladimir, with all his momentum, kinda passed the torch to Fury. Shouldn't he get credit for that instead of being portrayed as a redundant disturbing factor? Did Wladimir really take away excitement or did he add excitement?

As already said: Wladimir at this point is still 50% of the biggest heavyweight fight in 2016.

You're trying to make a completely different argument than the one that was going on. Yes, I like most boxing fans, have been waiting on Wlad to retire of lose to bring some excitement to the HW division. Thats all thats being said here. Wlad vs Fury was awful and was only remarkable because Wlad lost, which is what people have been waiting for.

No one gets psyched for a Wladmir fight.

Think how low the bar has been set that people are enthusiastic about a Tyson Fury fight.

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

Always said that while HW hasn't been that deep in terms of raw talent, its the Klitschkos that have robbed the division of excitement. They simply had a skill set combined with physical tools that no one has been able to handle for a while. I'm not really knocking them, but the Klitschko era has sort of sucked in terms of excitement.

People might argue that about Lennox Lewis' era as well, he was thought of as boring by some people. But agree with the OP generally, I'm not sure how to rate the standard of the current HWs going around but I'm sure we're going to get some exciting fights out of it, and everyone loves a HW fight.

 

[Seano]

People might argue that about Lennox Lewis' era as well, he was thought of as boring by some people. But agree with the OP generally, I'm not sure how to rate the standard of the current HWs going around but I'm sure we're going to get some exciting fights out of it, and everyone loves a HW fight.

Some people thought Lewis was boring but the entire era? I don't recall that. The other top guys in the division were better than what we have now for sure.

 

[burningspear]

Fury's proposed £15m for the Klitschko rematch makes it tremendously exciting for him.