By Jake Donovan

It took 17 years for the cruiserweight division to fill the void at the top, from Evander Holyfield’s reign all the way through Jean-Marc Mormeck’s handling of Wayne Braithwaite in 2005. Eight different fighters wore the crown of lineal heavyweight king (Michael Spinks, Mike Tyson, Buster Douglas, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, Holyfield again, Michael Moorer, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis) in that span, all the more reason to focus on the big boys through those years and even less on what was long known as boxing’s bastard division.

Fast forward to present day, where the roles have been considerably reversed.

Three separate fighters have since carried the lineal cruiserweight crown from 2005 to present (Jean-Marc Mormeck with two separate reigns, O’Neil Bell and David Haye). A fourth name will join that list, assuming a winner is produced in Thursday’s matchup between the division’s top two fighters, Steve Cunningham and Tomasz Adamek.

A grand total of zero heavyweights have managed to claim its division’s top prize during that time period, in fact at any point since Lennox Lewis called it a career five years ago.

Even with two of the best three or four heavyweights in the world making ring appearances in the next two weekends, that statistic won’t change.

Wladimir Klitschko is regarded as the world’s best heavyweight, an assumption that figures to still ring true following his alphabet title defense of Hasim Rahman this weekend in Mannheim, Germany (Saturday, HBO, 4:45PM ET/10:45PM local time). Much in the same way that Nikolai Valuev should still be hovering somewhere near the top of the division once all is said and done in next week’s matchup with Evander Holyfield in Zurich, Switzerland.

But no matter what takes place in either fight – the expected, the unexpected, Fight of the Year, Knockout of the Year, whatever – the lineal heavyweight crown will still remain vacant.

The sad part is that we’ll most likely be singing the same song by this time next year. Even sadder is the fact that both Klitschko and Valuev have been in position to do something about it for quite some time.

Many in the media have grown so tired of waiting for a heavyweight pauper to become king, that they were ready to crown Klitschko by default after his alphabet unification win over Sultan Ibragimov earlier this year.

It mattered little that the fight itself bored most, if not all ringside observers to tears, or that Ibragimov barely registered as a top five heavyweight. The argument was that he’d beaten enough of the best of the rest, and that all other titlists would be mired in mandatories for the remainder of the year; therefore, let’s just cut to the chase and already crown him king.

Two separate fights were subsequently scheduled that could’ve allowed that scenario to come to fruition.

Big brother Vitali decided that he was finally ready to come back after a near-three year hiatus from the ring, and was instantly inserted as the mandatory challenger to Samuel Peter, who had just finished beating the snot out of Oleg Maskaev. The win was Peter’s sixth straight since suffering the lone loss of his career to baby bro Wladimir in 2005, managing to overcome a series of unfortunate events to propel himself toward the top of the ratings.

Also within sniffing distance of the top spot was a pair of Eastern Bloc party goers, Valuev and his lone conqueror, undefeated southpaw Ruslan Chagaev. But in pursuit of crowning a single king, two top contenders is one too many. What better way to eliminate one of the two from the mix than to have them face each other.

Such was the plan, though Chagaev certainly pushed everyone’s patience. Their rematch was scheduled to take place this past May, more than 13 months after Chagaev put an end to Valuev’s title reign as well as his pursuit of 49-0.

Valuev worked his way back toward contention with a pair of decision wins, including a virtual shutout of former titlist Sergei Lyakhovich this past February, a week before Klitschko would become the most belted heavyweight in the post-Lennox Lewis era.

With Vitali-Peter and Chagaev-Valuev II on tap, it didn’t matter as much that the rest of Wladlimir’s year would be spent defending against separate mandatories – first Tony Thompson, then Alex Povetkin. When all was said and done, Wladimir’s first fight in 2009 could’ve been the first available winner of the aforementioned bouts, with the last man standing becoming the new king.

Even if Vitali were to beat Peter (which would in fact become the case), fans would respect the fact that the brothers would never fight each other. One fight in three years wouldn’t vault Vitali to the top of the heap, which meant that Wladimir could’ve sought the winner of the Chagaev-Valuev rematch and once and for all put an end to the running joke that had become of a division that had long served as the straw the stirred the drink.

A plan that sounds too simple in theory almost always proves to good to be true.

Chagaev and Valuev would never get the chance to dance again, as the undefeated southpaw pulled out not once but twice. It was the third time in less than a year that an injury of sorts would force the Uzbekistan southpaw out of a high profile title fight, having pulled out of a planned unification match with Sultan Ibragimov a year prior.

With the Chagaev rematch falling through, Valuev would get a different kind of second look, with John Ruiz stepping in. Valuev took a highly controversial decision over Ruiz in their December 2005 meet, but this time won by a more convincing margin in their return go this past August.

Because Chagaev appeared to be in no hurry to get back in the ring really with anyone, the Russian Giant was elevated from interim titlist to the real thing – or as real as a WBA titlist can be regarded these days. But that still doesn’t change the fact that Valuev has no business challenging for the division’s top prize without first avenging the one loss of his career.

What could help change that is, say a win over Vitali Klitschko. The longer Chagaev sits on the sidelines, the better chance other heavyweights have of surpassing him in the ratings, so long as their wins are meaningful enough.

The one Valuev figures to score next weekend doesn’t qualify, not even close. No matter, as Wladimir is no longer in position to enter 2009 with the possibility of being one fight away from piecing the puzzle together.

To give an idea of how meaningless are the next two weekends of heavyweight title fights, consider this: more than six years ago, Evander Holyfield and Hasim Rahman squared off in what was regarded back then as a loser leaves town match.

Holyfield has since been granted two separate cracks at a portion of the heavyweight crown, coming up considerably short on both occasions. That’s not including the humiliating 9th round knockout loss to James Toney that should’ve ended his career in 2003, or the complete non-effort offered against Larry Donald a year later. Even more shameful is that this latest title shot comes following a 14-month layoff, as he hasn’t fought since falling considerably short in his October ’07 title shot against Ibragimov.

Rahman is 10-2-2-1NC since nearly growing a second head in the June ’02 loss to Holyfield. The closest the former lineal champ comes to claiming a meaningful win among that stretch is his August 2005 decision over marginal contender Monte Barrett. With Vitali Klitschko literally stumbling through ’05 before retiring due to repeated injuries, Rahman was given the very title for which he stood in line to compete.

The reign was short lived and without a win; he drew with James Toney before suffering a repeat knockout against Maskaev, on both occasions in fights where he led on the scorecards at the time he got caught and sent packing.

Four wins followed the Maskaev debacle, though none doing much to justify his being in position to challenge the best heavyweight in the world. It was never under consideration until Povetkin pulled up lame while training in late October, leaving Wladimir without an opponent for his December 13 HBO date.

Least considered among the list was Rahman, who was coming off of a shameful performance in his July rematch with James Toney in which he quit on his stool due to a cut over his left eye that left him unable to continue after just three rounds.

A technical knockout was ruled, before being changed to a No-Decision, on the basis that the foul led to the cut and Rahman’s reason for withdrawal, more so than his tapping out. Somehow, his rating remained unaffected enough to where he was in position to fill in for the injured Povetkin.

Ironically, the bout takes place on a day where Toney was scheduled to return against prior Klitschko KO victim Tony Thompson, who has since been replaced by Fres Oquendo. In keeping with six degrees of separation, Oquendo’s last meaningful fight was an embarrassing points loss to ancient Holyfield two years ago.

Because this weekend is viewed as an optional defense, Klitschko – or Rahman, should he upset the odds for the second time against an Emanuel Steward-trained heavyweight – is still obligated to face Alex Povetkin sometime between now and next September.

An optional defense can take place between now and then, though the opponent he has in mind – former cruiserweight king turned full time heavyweight David Haye – won’t put Klitschko any closer to divisional immortality, even if it’s the most attractive heavyweight fight that can be made today.

Even if Valuev, should he win next weekend, get Chagaev in the ring sometime in 2009, the winner will still have to wait all the way until year’s end for Klitschko’s schedule to free up - and fans will have to wait that much longer for a heavyweight head to finally wear the crown.

Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.