The Stepchildren

I don't know if it's just because I've come to generally expect less of these divisions or whether it's actually true, but I'm pretty are better than most of us give them credit for. They are also two of the most fun divisions out there. Really, I think I'm gonna be paying closer attention to them in the next few months than I will be to some of the more traditional weight classes, like welterweight or featherweight. I mean, there will be a few fighters in both those divisions I'll be keeping my eye on, but the two most maligned weight classes in the world will be getting more of my attention overall. There are no big fights coming up in either division, but the possibilities for fun ones are numerous. Look at this list and see what I mean. At cruiserweight there is Wayne Brathwaite, a reckless puncher. Then Jean-Marc Mormeck, a volume puncher who likes to mix it up on the inside. Skipping right over Johnny Nelson, who doesn't have more than one or two good fights left in him - and is boring anyway - there's O'Neill Bell. I dunno who else has seen him, but almost no other fighter creates the same drama that he does. He is always getting knocked down, cut or hurt and then coming back and kayoing his opponent. The list goes on, but I don't think I have to continue. My point is that these aren't great fighters, not all of them even have the potential for greatness, but there's a lotta punchers, and great parity within the division. All of them are roughly equally gifted, and most of them really, really like to fight. The same is true of super middle. There's Joe Calzaghe, who the type of guy that's just fun to watch cuz he throws about 1,000 punches a round. There's Manny Siaca, who's essentially a puncher with a good amount of heart. There's Anthony Mundine, who's a real dick with a mouth that sometimes backs his bullshit up. That's important too, though, a real mouth in the division spices things up. And then there's Antwun Echols and Danny Green. Echols is like O'Neill Bell in that his fights tend to feature intense drama and hard punching, while Green is a truly terrifying puncher who should be undefeated right now with a win over Markus Beyer. Plus there's Jeff Lacy, another bona fide puncher. That's four pure punchers (more or less) out of six fighters, and one pressure fighter, and just one boxer-puncher, and it's not exactly like Mundine is boring to watch. Not always anyway. It all makes for fun viewing. See my point?