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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, Rid**** 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. [details]
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. [details]
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