By Allen Hmiel: Whatever happened to the glory days of heavyweight boxing, the days of Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Ali, Liston, Frazier, Holmes, Tyson? The heavyweight Boxing title is the most prestigious title in all of sports. Boxing fans honor and revere the World’s heavyweight champ or at least they used to.

With the complete dominance of the heavyweight division by both of the dominating Klitschkos the rest of the heavyweights stack up to be virtually and competitively nothing(including the elusive David Haye). As Wlad and Vitali take their titles to Germany and have established a home base fighting in Europe the boxing fans seem to have been disappearing and losing interest fast. Without the active interest of Showtime and HBO in the Klitschkos and the shallow depleted talent pool of untalented heavyweights in the heavyweight division boxing is coming to a crossroads. Will boxing survive without an exciting dynamic Heavyweight title holder? Or without a great American heavyweight?

The other divisions have nobody exciting to watch outside of Manny Pacquiao and the troubled Floyd Mayweather and Pacquiao is possibly on the way out after he starts fighting true opponents who can actually fight. The smaller divisions filled with jockey sized little guys do not have the appeal and excitement that the true Heavyweights bring to boxing. A personable exciting heavyweight champion is the main spoke in the popularity wheel of competitive boxing. Boxing revolves around the heavyweights and as great as the Klitschkos are they are not exciting and they are not fighting out of the USA. Hopefully some new American heavyweights come into the division or boxing is going to see a dwindling fan base based outside of the USA.

Heavyweight Champions define boxing and drive the fan base and the popularity of the sport. Lackluster though extremely talented somewhat boring champions like the Klitschkos brothers are not going to save boxing. HBO and Showtime realize that the Klitschkos are not drawing fans and have shown little interest in showing their one sided boring fights. Boxing is going downhill slowly but the decline will increase as the heavyweight division continues to get weaker and the Klitschkos run out of any type of quality opponents. Sad to see the sport losing so much appeal but face the facts the little guys are not what made boxing great. It was the exciting heavyweights that evolved and developed the sport and took Boxing to new levels. Ali-Frazier, Tyson-Holmes, Louis-Marciano that was boxing at it’s finest. Not two little guys battling away at 145 lbs. Fans want Heavyweights and exciting ones. Where have they gone?