What Happened to the Heavyweight Boxer?

“What Happened to the Heavyweights?”

 

            For some time now the Heavyweight division has been on the decline.  Not too long ago it was the premier division.  Even people outside the boxing world loved Heavyweight fights; they were always the big fights.  Ten years ago you could ask someone who had never seen a boxing match in their life about boxing and I’m sure they would mention Tyson, Holyfield, or Lewis. 

 

A few days ago I asked a friend of mine, who doesn’t follow boxing, some questions about the current state of the Heavyweight division.  His response was, “Are those two Russian brothers still fighting?”  Eventually the conversation drifted to the Heavyweight division “back in the day.”  He mentioned some memorable fights and was even able to come up with about seven or eight good Heavyweights from that time.  He brought up the first Lewis vs. Rahman fight.  He said it was probably one of the best knock outs he’s ever seen.  I had to agree.  For those of you who have not seen this knockout I’m sure you can find it on YouTube.

 

            After a while my friend said something that I had been thinking about for some time now.  “Dude, nobody cares about heavyweights anymore.  Those guys are all slow, boring and out of shape.”  Honestly, I have to agree with him up to a point; it was a fairly accurate assessment.  Although he is not an avid boxing fan, he knows enough about entertainment to understand that heavyweight fights, for the most part, are pretty boring.  I’m not saying all Heavyweights are fat un-athletic slobs, but most of them are either out of shape or beefed up little guys that should be fighting at a lower weight.  There are some good fighters but taking a look at the top ten Heavyweights, the Klitschko brothers are in a league of their own.        

 

Look at the American Heavyweights at this time in boxing.  Ask anyone on the street to name a good American Heavyweight.  If they don’t follow boxing they won’t know.  If they do follow boxing they will laugh.  It may be another golden age in boxing at some of the lighter weights.  The Heavyweight division seems to be in the midst of a less than mediocre tin age (tin is the cheapest metal I can think of offhand).

 

Right now in boxing we do have fighters that will go down in history as all time greats, but none of them are in the heavyweight division.  Honestly, if you want to see an exciting fight these days you have to go to Super Middleweight or lower.  I can’t remember the last time I saw a great Heavyweight fight, unless you consider Klitschko beating the hell out of some guy that most people have never heard of great.  The last Hopkins fight did nothing but prove that Bernard can still look boring and win against a sub par opponent.  I’m still laughing about that Klitschko vs. Arreola fight.  A guy like Arreola has no business whatsoever stepping in the ring against Klitschko.  I realize he was a replacement for David Haye (a beefed up cruiser weight), but still it was a joke of a fight.  That fight made a lot of people realize just how bad the so called top heavyweight fighters (especially Americans) are.   In my opinion, Klitschko could have dominated the fight with one hand, left or right take your pick.  

 

So, is the Heavyweight division ruined, or will it rise up again?  That’s a hard question to answer, but without quality fighters my guess is it’s going to take some time.  For the true boxing fan there is one upside to this.  If I want to see a Heavyweight championship fight I can catch it on ESPN 2 at three o clock in the afternoon, instead of dropping forty to fifty dollars on a pay per view.

By: P.J. Carney