Wlad and Tony showed something

[Von Milash]

They showed me that I would probably rather watch UFC than a heavyweight title fight.

Seriously, Lewis really heralded the era of the super heavyweight - the guys these days are too damn big. They don't have the speed, endurance or co-ordination that is required to make an entertaining fight anymore.

They need to be smaller.

They need to cap the heavyweights at 235, then have all these big degenerates and wads of cookie dough passing themselves off as champs in a super heavyweight division - more of a freak show or special attraction type of division.

Anybody else feeling my pain here?

There are many issues as to why the heavyweight division has completely dried up.

Young american guys with extra muscle nowadays dont have themselves in boxing gyms as means to survive and are more likely to wanna take up a career in the NFL as its much more lucrative.

The division needs a genuine world class american talent that is gonna have all the great attributes of yester year fighters and not just an arreola type brawler.

Ali/frazier/foreman got kids into the gym during the 70s, tyson/bowe in the 80s.

It seems a generation has since been missed and we are now feeling the effects of that!!

Partially true. Guys don't have to resort to boxing anymore because there are all these scholarship programs in place to take them to school to play football, basketball, etc. There needs to be NCAA boxing. (But that'll never happen cuz it's too violent.)

I also think mma is draining the talent pool at an early stage... JUST enough to help dry out boxing. And the kids whose parent have ANY money get them into tkd, karate, etc. God forbid they actually get punched in the face. Again, it's too violent. Plus this thing about eastern arts... blah blah blah. A load of shit. Boxing is historically a poor boys sport, and there aren't enough poor boys out there anymore. They have options...

[amat]

I don't buy the MMA thing. MMA has been big for about 5 years now. That's when it got exposed to the audience it has now anyways. Before TUF you would never find any young kid inquiring about BJJ and kickboxing lessons. It's effect if it will have one will be in the long term, the heavyweight division has been in disarray since Lewis left and Vitali started backing out of fights with Rahman.

But it is true, a kid with great athleticism isn't going to want to grind their way through the amateur system and operate in near annonomity when they could be the star of their school's football team and not get punched in the face.

Boxing needs a grassroots revival imo but that's a longterm solution, not much to do with how the heavyweights are now but something to think about. Hopefully these superstars who made so much money from boxing, King, Arum, De La Hoya will begin to put money back into boxing at the lower levels.

[SweetPea]

Changing the weight limit isn't going to change anything.

The fact is that 200-250 pound talented American athletes aren't going to waste their time in boxing when they can compete in safer and less corrupt sports like basketball and football. And that's not going to change anytime soon. The days of the heavyweight division being dominated by Americans are over. Get used to it.

I know we all wish that the heavyweight division was stronger, but there are a bunch of other divisions that are full of talented fighters and all-action fights. Enjoy those.

[Larryboy]

Abolish the cruiserweight division. If it hasn't got any recognition apart from being the Place Evander Holyfield fought once upon a time, by now, it never will.

Raise the light heavy limit to say 185.

Make heavyweight between there and say 230, anyone bigger is a super heavyweight. Makes sense seeing as Super heavy is already an olympic weight class and cruiserweight isn't.

The smaller cruisers go down bolstering light heavy, the bigger ones become heavyweights, heavyweight gets some exciting talent that can actually move again and people can ignore anything with the words "super" and "heavyweight" in it, and generally people would be much happier.

[Spicoli]

A super heavy division has been brought up for years.I think the last thing we need is yet another watered down weight division.Personally I think Heavyweights ,as a whole are over rated as they pertain to great match ups and the "excitement" factor.Don't lose faith though,look to the lower weight classes before we go running to MMA as an alternative I'd say.Honestly Its there where The sport has been thriving and kept afloat over the last number of years.

[Julius Rain]

the heavyweight division is dead, haye is just a loud mouth. The heavyweight division sucks lets all face it. Wladdy is the only hope but its getting more and more clear his not going to be the ONE!

[wesrman]

I was thinking about this the other day when a heard someone on an old fight (espn classic) say how much the people love the heavyweights.

The only 2 heavyweights ive ever liked watching are Ali and Tyson, and ive watched boxing to some extent for at least 18 years.

But maybe most casual fans are more about the knockouts than me. I like watching counterpunchers and technical, exciting boxing as much as a war.

As far as MMA goes, i like it, but u dont see as many nice combinations as in boxing and the ground shit makes me want to turn it usually.

[Greig]

I agree with Spicoli and Wesrman - but my point is that the heavyweights of bygone days were absolutely incredible to watch.

Ali-Frazier, Holmes-Norton, Holyfield-Bowe.


Those guys were schooled. When I see Klitschko fight (either one of them of for that matter) he looks like a 250lb kid having his first amateur fight. Don't even get me started on Thompson.

They are so robotic it's embarrassing. No footwork, no style, no grace - just big lumbering idiots. It's sad, because they are both nice cool guys, I just don't like watching them fight.

I'm sorry if that appears harsh, but it's the way I feel - not just about the Klitschkos but about most heavyweights.

Everyone is right - all the coordinated American kids of that size must be playing basketball or football - coz there is no way you could call any of the american heavyweights coordinated.

Just look at how bad Eddie Chambers (probably the most promising American heavyweight I've seen) technique is. His defensive technique consists of covering up and staggering backwards