The HW division is doing so bad because the top guys are not fighting each other. When I say top guys, I mean the top 5, top 7, not top 15 or top 30.
I hear Toney offers Vitali a bigger split for a fight. What may seem like a mismatch is a more competative fight than Vitali vs Oleg.
I like Rahman, but I feel Vitali fighting even him over a Toney, Byrd, Brewster, or even Ruiz is just delaying things.
I love Byrd, but would love to see him say "no I am not fighting Liasandwich" or whatever his name is "I want Brewster, Toney, Ruiz, or Vitali NOW!"
We need to have a unified champ. I think the HW champs know that there is not ONE truly recognized, undisputed champ, and they all feel they have equal claim to their crown and are happy with just being a belt holder.
You have Byrd who has been the champ the longest, but with questionable victories and escapes.
You have Ruiz who is a 3 (or 2 1/2) time WBA champ who won it in 2001, but lost it twice to former MWs.
You have Brewster who has the WBO title with a surprise win over Wlad and a big KO1 over Golata, but questionable consistency performance with Meehan.
Then you have Vitali who has the belt Lewis had, was "ahead on the scorecards vs Lewis" and has made some defenses but vs low and out of shape opposition. Not to mention he never beat Lewis.
They all make some claim thinking they are the number one guy. But I don't care if one of them defends vs Oleg, Golata, Goofi, McCline, Brock, and Peter all in the same night. No one will have the claim left by Lewis until they fight each other. Period.
Yes I would like Vitali vs Toney, but again, I want to see the champs vs the champs. That is what makes the lower weight classes so appealing. The champs are fighting each other.
Sorry guys, just had to rant.
There was a brief time where Oleg looked like he may be legit...Manny Steward used to praise the shit out of him but in the last few years he has been thrashed. I believe it started with his ko loss to Mount whitaker, after that he looked like a shot fighter.
Sure he has a win over Rock but what did both fighters do after that? Rock went on to ko Corrie Sanders and Lennox Lewis and Maskaev got smoke by T Rex Sanders....that is rock bottom.
Vitaly please dont make this fight, you will never hear the end of it from your doubters.
I was thinking this sounded like a decent fight until I watched Maskaev vs McCall again. Maskaev was knocked out basically by like a jab in that fight. The guy can hit though and did brutally KO Rahman and the McCall fight was very early in his career.
suddenly putting oleg maskaev in the HW picture just goes to show how HORRIBLE the HW division is right now.
Maskaev is a good fighter hes an Olympic winner plus has a victory over Rahman, he hasnt been good the last few years..
I want to see Klitschko Toney happen...
Its going to be a Ukraine vs Russia type of thing. Tell you the truth most soviets would want Maskaev to win. They might be able to bring in lots of money this way. Who else shall he fight, James Toney? The 5'9 phoney midget?