If you stopped and asked the man in the street to name a boxer, chances are that it will be a heavyweight.
Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey, the biggest names of all time have fought in the biggest division of them all. That’s not even including the golden age, the reign of King Muhammad Ali.
Ali fought the likes of Larry Holmes, George Foreman, Ken Norton, Sonny Liston and Joe Frazier. All could lay claim to being true greats. Even in the 1980s and 1990s we had the unstoppable Mike Tyson, a powerhouse rouge who fought like an animal and had top-class rivals in the form of Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Razor Ruddock and Michael Spinks.
Now in 2010 the gold has well and truly rubbed off the gilded division, leaving a horrible rusty underlayer. It was none more so apparent than Wladimir Klitschko’s comfortable 12th-round knockout of Eddie Chambers at the weekend. “Fast Eddie” was just the next in a long line of sub-standard fighters to crumble at the hands of either Wladimir or his brother Vitali as they continue to exert a reign of terror over a division that they have dictated for around 10 years now.
Chambers gave away a full six inches in height to the multi-belt champion and was bullied around the ring all night. As the bout wore on Fast Eddie was hanging on for dear life, praying for the final bell to sound his salvation. He spent the last three minutes cowering. With 10 seconds left, the end was in sight for Fast Eddie; he was going to go the distance. Then Klitschko half-heartedly strolled over and planted a left-hand cross on the American’s brow and Chambers hit the deck like a whale being dropped out of a plane, his head hanging outside the ring akin to a discarded shop mannequin.
Chambers joins the sorry list of Kevin Johnson, Chris Accerelo, Larry Donald, Vaughn Bean, Ross Purity, Hasaim Rahman, Tony Thompson, Calvin Brock and Ray Austin as American contenders who have fallen short of the brothers Klitschko. While other international fighters such as Ruslan Chagaev and Danny Williams have also failed to rock the family boat.
In essence, the heavyweight division in the 2000s was about as thrilling as paintballing with grannies. The only worthwhile fight would have been between the two brothers and they have both vowed that that will never happen. When Lewis retired it gave them free rein to pick and choose who to obliterate. Lewis was the last man between them and total domination and he basically quit out of boredom.
The likes of John Ruiz and Nicolay Valuev have proven woefully poor opposition, but were basically the best available. With a nickname like “The Quietman”, Ruiz was never gushing with charisma, his fights are interesting if you enjoy 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles of clouds. While Valuev, sadly was just a novelty act and testament to how desperate the division is for viewing figures, can you imagine an uncoordinated bean-pole like that going toe-to-toe with Ali?
It’s not like the Klitschko's are that good either. Vitali is the better of the two and he is all about his sensational left jab, while brother Wladimir is similar but not quite as good. In a more competitive division they would be considered good boxers without a doubt, but there is no way they would dominate if there was real quality around.
Perhaps the final straw for the division was when Audley Harrison announced his comeback. He is the only boxer in history to go into a fight and forget how to box within the first few seconds. The former Olympic gold medallist has quite frankly got worse and worse with every fight and everyone thought that they had seen the back of him after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Martin Rogan in 2008. Now “A-force” is back in business, one fight away from a world title shot. A truly disturbing indictment if there ever was one, and the worst thing about it? He’s fighting Michael Sprott. Reading’s favourite son might have been a reasonable domestic fighter in his heyday, but come on? Really? These two fighting it out for a world title shot?
Of course there is David Haye, he fights Ruiz on Saturday week and should win comfortably. Haye is everything the division has been missing, exciting to watch, trash talks with the best of them and has superb technical skills. The sad thing is, what challenges has he got? He will fight one or maybe both of the ageing Kilitchko's and if he dispatches them that’s it, he’s on his own. There is no fresh talent coming through.
Meanwhile the super-middleweights are contesting the thrilling super six series; the featherweights are full firecrackers like Chris John and Juan Manuel Lopez, while the welterweights comprise some truly outstanding fighters and prospects.
The heavyweight division is the dinosaur division. Their best memories are in the past, they are slow and lumbering and the biggest are getting to old to go on.
Sadly unlike the dinosaurs the heavyweight division can’t be made extinct.
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