Heavyweight Division: The Waiting Game

By Boxing News - 07/02/2012 - Comments

Image: Heavyweight Division: The Waiting GameBy Simon Hirst: Over the six years, we have seen something of a Klitchsko dominance in the heavyweight division, resulting in them holding control of all the world heavyweight titles. It is quite difficult to lay the blame at their door in terms of their ability in the ring, they are tall, athletic, powerful and quick.

They have become more confident the more they have won and created fear amongst other heavyweights which could be compared to a prime Mike Tyson who won bouts before setting foot in the ring.

As a boxing fan, we all seem to be waiting for the one major shock in the division, which is one of the Klitschko’s being toppled. We have been waiting for this for a few years now and have seen highly rated contenders such as David Haye and Odlainer Solis fail in their attempts.

However, it seems that boxing fans aren’t the only one waiting. It has become apparent that certain heavyweights are also waiting on the Klitschko dominance to come to an end. Let’s have a look at the certain unbeaten heavyweights in the division and their rankings, all according to Boxrec.com

Number 4: Alexander Povetkin. 24(16)-0-0

Number 5: Kubrat Pulev 16(8)-0-0

Number 6: Tyson Fury 18(13)-0-0

Number 8: Robert Helenius 17(11)-0-0

Number 10: Seth Mitchell 25(19)-0-1

Number 14: David Price 13(11)-0-0

Number 16: Denis Boytsov 31(25)-0-0

Number 19: Mariusz Wach 27(15)-0-0

Number 21: Francesco Pianeta 26(14)-0-1

Number 22: Alexander Ustinov 27(21)-0-0

Number 23: Edmund Gerber 20(13)-0-0

Number 26: Mike Perez 18(12)-0-0

Number 29: Amir Mansour 16(12)-0-0

Number 32: Manuel Charr 21(11)-0-0

Number 39: Artur Szpilka 12(9)-0-0

Number 40: Andrzej Wawrzyk 26(13)-0-0

Number 44: Luis Ortiz 16(13)-0-0

Number 45: Vyacheslav Glazkov 12(9)-0-0

Number 47: Bryant Jennings 14(6)-0-0

And for those wondering on this website, here is some comedy.

Number 52: James Toney 74(45)-7-3

Number 53: Oliver McCall 56(37)-12(1)-0

Number 54: Fred Oquendo 34(22)-7(2)-0

Number 55: Matt Skelton 27(22)-6(3)-0

Number 56: George Arias 51(37)-11(4)-0

Number 57: Richard Towers 14(11)-0-0

Number 58: Derric Rossy 26(14)-5(4)-0

Number 59: Deontay Wilder 23(23)-0-0

So, back to the subject. Top 50 heavyweights in the world and 19 of them are unbeaten. 5 of the 19 are ranked in the top 10. Yet for some reason, we don’t see them fight each other or for a world title. Maybe we could view it as this is what is helping to kill the heavyweight division. Who is the true number 3 in the world? Boxrec.com claim it is Tomasz Adamek, something most fans would probably disagree. Surely one of these unbeaten talents hold the key. Think of some of the matches that could be made? Would be interesting to fans and would be interesting to see who the real deal is and who are the ones built on padded records.

The Klitschko’s aren’t going to be around forever, Vitali looks on his last legs whilst Wladimir looks impressive, but should start deteriorating in the next couple of years if father time has his way. If we took away the Klitscho’s and bumped all these contenders up two rankings, would we agree with their ranking. Do we agree Fury is ahead of Price, Pulev ahead of Helenius, that Charr (Vitali’s next opponent) is number 32? To me, there are question marks on these rankings because it is hard to rank unbeaten fighters. The only way we can try is on common opponents, but that isn’t always fair. Surely the fairest way is to fight. The time to fight is now, not when the Klitschko’s get old. The new stars need to shine now by fighting each other, otherwise when the Klitschko’s do leave, we face more years of finding the new top dogs of the division whilst they all vie for the top.



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