The Future of the Heavyweight Division

[Primo Carnera]

Had a few glitches , so just restarted this thread.
So with the fight last night , Usyk proved he is the man ……….but he’s 37 years old. And Fury and AJ are also mid thirties.
Maybe not imminently , but we are gonna see a changing of the guard.
Who do we think the future top guy or guys are gonna be?
I’m gonna throw this out there and say the the Heavyweight division will change drastically. I believe that in general (and there are always exceptions to the rule) the Giants of recent times are not going to be the top guys.
I reckon Usyk has shown that you can come up from Cruiserweight and bridge the gap if you have the skills and you can overcome the size.
I firmly believe that in the next 2 years, Jai Opetaia is gonna move into the HW division and be a big player.
I could see him give away 3 stone in weight and 4 inches of height and beat guys.
In a nutshell , Usyk has paved the way for Boxing skills to outweigh sheer size and power.
That said, Usyk is a once in a generation talent.

[Memphis]

Yeah I think that's the key, generational talent. As a rule the cruisers end up being cannon fodder for the big boys or it becomes a case of a good big un will beat a good little un. Wlads record for example is littered with cruisers and small heavies that were good, but not Usyk good. I think that sweet spot for heavies 6'4/6'6 240/250 still exists. People like Haye can nick a World title and chin a few. But only the very very elite like Holyfield and Usyk can truly live with the giants.

It'd be rude to put Opetaia in the Holyfield Usyk class right now. So for the moment at least, he's in the Haye bracket.

OK he's at a level that's not setting the world on fire. But Moses Itauma is coming along nicely. Take the top two out of the equation and I'd fancy him to give anyone else in Britain a row.

[Spicoli]

The topic has always stuck with me as a nuisance. The whole dismissal by some that have come up successfully as "blown up cruisers" as well as the insistnace that sheer mass and size equals division dominance. Back to when Max Kellerman would harp every week about the need for a "super" heavyweight division because guys are just naturally bigger. At the same time mentioning examples like Michael Grant, Mount Whitaker, Valuev, Jameel McCline and of course Wlad. Well, 1 out of 5 was not bad as being behemoths did nothing for the first. And even Wlad was sparked out by three fighters who barley weighed more than the 'bridgerweight' limit today. Vitali lost to Chris Byrd who made a career of dancing around giants and naturally larger fighters. All the size...literally the largest heavy to ever hold a title...did not equal dominance for Valuev who arguably lost three in a row to Ruiz, Holyfield and Haye. All three having turned pro as cruisers. Now that may be an extreme case because as we all recall how Valuev was pretty bad but yes absolutely massive. In a way, he was the flip side example of how size can be misleading and at no time the be all end all in a match up. Skills pay the bills! Not to say all smaller guys beating much larger are skilled to the top tier but as we've seen a decent skill set, guile, ice in the veins and fair beard will go a very long way. And Usyk again reaffirmed that crystal clear after being dismissed literally as a middleweight. Holyfield before him and blazing some of that path also . Those two specifically are two of the very best giant slayers to ever put the stereotypes to bed and define their eras.

It truly is all about skill set. The new era coming in is very much reasserting that more common frames and 230+ ish are more than formidable in the current and future division. Look around...where are the massive brutes set to take over. At 6'6 or 6'7 are the likes of Efe Ajagba, Filip Hrgovic, Zhilei Zhang, Joe Joyce, Frazer Clarke or Bakhodir Jalolov striking the fear of god into anyone? But we'll be watching that last fella. And where exactly is 6'7 Tony Yoka now . Skills baby. You gotta have the skill set and mental metal and clearly Opetaia has the ingredients to work with going forward.

[TIC]

i've got to put justis huni in here, his lack of power might be an issue