By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: Fans and boxing analysts have taken their shots at the heavyweight division calling it weak and not what it used to be. I concur the division has taken a turn. Two things happened that caused this mess. One, the Klitschko brothers or K2 Brothers (Wladimir and Vitali) have gotten their hands on the belts and darkened the division. Two, there has no American heavyweight that stepped up to carry the torch.
I won’t blame the Klitschkos for conditioning and preparing themselves to be champions. What’s even more impressive, they are making big money without any help from American TV. They have also forced Americans and various other challengers come to their territory to get a fight. It cracks me up because for the longest fans have chanted “fighters should unify the belts just like the old days”. But now that they have been, people are still complaining. Fans can only take so much of one fighter being on top for so long before they demand someone else be on top. On the American side things, the destruction started in the early 90’s. Journey with me if you will back to the 1980’s and I’ll show how the division got to where it is now. I will focus primarily on the WBC, WBA and IBF titles.
In 1978, Larry Holmes defeated Ken Norton for the WBC heavyweight title. He vacated that title and picked up the IBF strap in 1983. He lost the IBF to Michael Spinks, but defined the division for seven and half years. After Holmes lost, there were a cluster of fighters, but a huge void was present until the heavyweight tournament ensued. There was Pinklon Thomas, Tim Witherspoon, Trevor Berbick, James “Bonecrusher”Smith, Tony Tucker, Tony Tubbs, James “Buster” Douglass in the heavyweight division. While each of these guys (with the exception of Douglass until 1990) were champions, none of them held the belt longer than one year. Tyson became undisputed champ in 1987 after defeating Tony Tucker and brought some order to the division. He reigned for three years. Here is where things began to fall apart so stay with me.
Tyson loses his titles to Buster Douglass in 1990. In his first defense, Douglass was knocked by Evander Holyfield. Holyfield was champ from 1990-92 before losing to Riddick Bowe. Bowe was stripped of his WBC title for refusing to fight number one contender Lennox Lewis. Bowe was still the WBA and IBF champ until he lost to Holyfield in their rematch. Holyfield losses the belts to Michael Moorer; Moorer losses to George Foreman in his first defense; the WBA stripped Foreman for refusing to fight Tony Tucker (mandatory challenger). The belts floated around until Tyson claimed the WBC(defeated Frank Bruno WBC) and the WBA (defeated Bruce Seldon); Tyson lost the belts to Holyfield; Holyfield lost those belts to Lennox Lewis; Lewis was stripped of his WBA for not fighting John Ruiz, but still retained the IBF and WBC belts; Lewis lost those belts to Hassan Rahman; Raham turned around and lost those belts to Lewis. Rahman was the last unified American champion and that was 2001.
A lot of things happened such as lawsuits and step aside money paid that that caused the belts to shift. But since November 1992, no American has been a unified champion longer than 2 years. Is that crazy or what? And this was before all the bickering between the WBA, WBC, and IBF began. 5 percent of this article was researched and 95 percent I experienced firsthand. People can complain if they want (and they will), but the facts can’t be distorted. Americans had their chances to keep the belts in the U.S. and define the division, but did not. I believe the only way Wladimir loses his titles is if he retires. I could be wrong. Hopefully we’ll see an American hold onto the title longer than one fight.
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