By Adam Fillingham: I think everyone will agree when I say this, the heavyweight division is currently the worst division in boxing. It comes to something when seven out of ten people in Great Britain can’t name the heavyweight champion of the world. Now I don’t think Nikolay Valuev is the most memorable name but he is the WBA heavyweight champion of the world.
To prove my point even further just look at the top five heavyweights in the world:
Wladimir Klitschko (52 (46) – 3 (3) – 0) is renowned as the best heavyweight in boxing due to his many defences of his belt, but he has a major flaw due to his week chin. He also bores fight fans to near death with his fights due to the way he sits behind his jab, (although it is the hardest jab I have ever seen) and only throws his right hand if he knows absolutely nothing is coming back his way.
Vitali Klitschko (37 (36) – 2 (2) – 0) Some boxing fans and pundits say Vitali is the best fighter in the division but he is seriously starting to slow down now-a-days and his stamina could be a lot better as seen in his last fight against Juan Carlos Gomez. Vitali isn’t going to be around much longer in my opinion at least, due to his tender age of 37.
Ruslan Chagaev (25 (17) – 0 (0) – 1) is a reasonably good fighter as he has shown with his unbeaten record but he does look less than impressive in fights. In both fights with John Ruiz and Nikolay Valuev were both close split decisions. Also he didn’t wipe the floor with Matt Skelton and Skelton is hardly the greatest fighter. His other problem is that he can’t stop getting injured and eventually this could push him into and early retirement.
David Haye (22 (21) – 1 (1) – 0) It shows how bad the heavyweight division is that someone like David Haye who has only had two ventures into the heavyweight division should be ranked in the top five. Don’t get me wrong, Haye is a great fighter but whether he can take a heavyweight punch is still yet to be answered. Although Haye is powerful, fast and agile for a heavyweight, we will have to see if he has what it takes, on the 20th of June.
Nikolay Valuev (50 (34) – 1 (0) – 0) is one of the most flawed champions I have ever seen. Valuev wasn’t the fastest fighter in the world but now with age he is getting slower and slower. He can’t even make up for his lack of speed in power because he doesn’t have a lot of that either although he has a reasonably good KO ratio. He is now becoming a laughing stock in boxing due to a close decision against a past his best John Ruiz and a very ‘dodgy’ decision against a 46 year old Evander Holyfield.
So why is it that only seven out of ten people in Great Britain know the names of the heavyweight champions of the world? Do the TV companies take some of the blame? In Britain the Valuev/Holyfield fight wasn’t even televised on any channel. Who has Setanta? Who can afford Sky Box office? This is the heavyweight champion of the world! He should be up there with the likes of Ali, Tyson and Forman. If nobody can watch the fights how can he gain any fans? How can he gain any support? The answer is he cant and neither can any other fringe heavyweight until they can get TV time and get right into the limelight.
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