Quote Originally Posted by Master View Post
In the old days the undisputed cruiserweight champion would earn his way to face the heavyweight champion by working his way through the division.

Holyfield beat Tillis (who was one of the few fighters that went the distance with Tyson), Pinklon Thomas, Dokes (fight of the year), Rodriguez, and Alex Stewart. All good, hard, learning fights which built vital experience of Evander and raised his profile in the heavyweight division.

Maybe the division is weaker than the late 1980’s and Usyk would have lost to these fighters. It would have been in his interest to acclimatise in the division and worked his way up. Usyk is a second division heavyweight with Ruiz and Parker and would have been better to have faced these fighters at this stage.
Too true and also speaks to how different the division depth is. Can you imagine what that version of even Dokes could do today? Crazy thing is we don't really see the same climb the ranks requirements laid out for other divisions today. Guys are routinely guided into title fights when going to higher divisions and many times get a free pass bypassing contenders. All in the name of big name fights and handing trinket belts around but in this case it actually works out that from everything we've seen, this is actually a solid style mash up and one of the better division showdowns.