Was the heavyweight division much better 10 years ago?

[Flawless]

The Ring Top 10 Heavyweights in 2008:

1. Wladimir Klitschko
2. Samuel Peter
3. Ruslan Chagaev
4. Nikolai Valuev
5. Alexander Povetkin
6. Sultan Ibragimov
7. Oleg Maskaev
8. Vladimir Virchis
9. John Ruiz
10. Chris Arreola

Opinions? Discuss.

Heavyweight division will take awhile to recover from this era than has actually decreased the interest in boxing. How ****ing sad

[PrettyBoyFloyd7]

Heavyweight division will take awhile to recover from this era than has actually decreased the interest in boxing. How ****ing sad

[Silencers]

mafaufau should've punched 2/3 of the time to the body and shoulder.

i know it was an ibf eliminator but tua should've skipped that fight......

great chin , slick , southpaw , quick...... bad matchup for tua.

Yup, styles make fights.

[duffgun]

by 1998 heavyweight boxing was already on a slide the top guys like Tyson, Holyfield and Bowe where already past there best or retired and Lewis despite being a great fighter was involved in some boring fights, the top young guys Ibeabuchi, Tua, Grant had personal problems or never became as good as we thought they where. There hasn’t been a great heavyweight prospect since Ibeabuchi imo. But now we have the Hayemaker.

[duffgun]

The heavyweight division is much more popular in Europe than it was 10 years ago. Wlad made almost $14 million American for his last fight, and will make close to $40 million this year (I can quote sources if people don't believe it).

With that and the relative value of the Euro dollar, it makes more sense to have the big fights in Europe now.

tyson was making around $35 million per fight back in the mid 90's

[Randall_Hopkirk]

The Ring Top 10 Heavyweights in 1998:

1. Evander Holyfield
2. Lennox Lewis
3. Michael Grant
4. Michael Moorer
5. Shannon Briggs
6. Chris Byrd
7. Ike Ibeabuchi
8. David Tua
9. Andrew Golota
10. Hasim Rahman

Lewis fought and beat 6 of those guys within a three year period. If only Klit would fight fellow ranked guys instead of those laughable mandatories.

[Flawless]

This for the Heavyweight Division between when Tyson came on the scene and Lewis retired.

[Machine Gunz]

The HW division in 1998 had 9 black guys, 1 white guy (Golota) while the HW division of 08 has 9 white guys, 1 black guy. Hmm

[The Hammer]

Lewis fought and beat 6 of those guys within a three year period. If only Klit would fight fellow ranked guys instead of those laughable mandatories.

Byrd was Ring #1 when Wlad fought him.

Peter, Thompson, Brewster, Brock and Ibragimov were all in the Ring top ten going into their fights with Wlad.

[Flawless]

That's why Flawless and Duffgun hate the current division so much, they only like black fighters.

I didn't follow boxing in the 90s, it didn't seem interesting to me at all. Then I saw a couple of Wladimir's fights in 2000 and I was sold.

.

No, that’s why you like the division now because white guys are dominating it now. You started following it in 2000 and Wladimir was the reason you watched it not because you enjoyed that divison. HAHAHAHAAHAHHA