The Heavyweight division will never come back.

[DET. IRONSIDE]

Another clueless british moron.

[jrosales13]

You're such a fucking moron. If you have a beef with someone on here, you send a private message or a red k message. You don't hijack a thread and get yourself banned. I'm not taking the bait.

I am not talking about the issues of sending PM's and red K's. I understand that point of having beef's. However, I have never send any racist comments to anybody who I have had "e-beefs" with. But, then again I am not a low life coward unlike others *looking at you*

[Iceta Lives]

Check comes off as a anti-Euro all the time, but I agree. The Heavyweight division is shit. When an ancient Evander Holyfield can do enough to beat a top ten title holder which he did when he whipped Valuev's ass and got robbed, then it's impossible to say the division is good unless you are a Klitchko dick sucking biased moron.

[WladIsTheChamp]

Check is just another jealous, bitter xenophobic American moron who hates the fact that Eastern Europeans are dominating the heavyweight division and destroying all of the best American heavyweights. That same thing is happening in other weight classes too. Eastern Europeans are taking over boxing and that makes Check angry.

THat's right, wait till Pirog and the other Russians and Ukrainians start dominating the lower weight classes, all you tools will say those weight classes suck as well. If the Soviets could box pro back in the day they would have ran **** back then as well.

[WladIsTheChamp]

David Haye will dominate the klits

Oh, yes the exciting young brash talking WBA Champion who has promised the world that he will rid the world of the boring Klitschkos 3 years ago and has yet to deliver, backing out of a fight with Wlad with a fake back injury, backing out of negotiations with Vitaly after claiming that "all that needed is for us to dot the i and cross the t's", and then rejecting a 50/50 offer from Wlad.

Remember according to him, he was "doing this for Dempsey and Louis":

Fought 37 year old Barrett, getting knocked down in the process
Fought 36 year old Valuev, running from him 12 rounds while only throwing around 7-8 punches a round
Fought 38 year old Ruiz
About to fight 39 year old Fraudley, same guy who was beaten by a full-time cab driver, who he promised he wouldn't fight

He hasn't fought one guy younger then 36, all the while being 28-29, so much for your "exciting" Diva Gaye - the walking vagina.

[LuckyPunch]

I think the reason why the heavyweight division went bad was because of the change of the weight limit in the cruiserweight division.

In 2003, they changed the weight limit from 190 to 200 pounds. So, on fight night, fighters would probably weigh in between 205-215. Like Ali, Louis, Holyfield, Frazier, etc. used to weigh.

Basically, the cruiserweight division has the smaller but top heavyweights of the old days and the heavyweight division just has super heavyweights.

[WladIsTheChamp]

I think the reason why the heavyweight division went bad was because of the change of the weight limit in the cruiserweight division.

In 2003, they changed the weight limit from 190 to 200 pounds. So, on fight night, fighters would probably weigh in between 205-215. Like Ali, Louis, Holyfield, Frazier, etc. used to weigh.

Basically, the cruiserweight division has the smaller but top heavyweights of the old days and the heavyweight division just has super heavyweights.

Nothing stopping from the cruiserweights from moving up to the HW, and many have done so successfully so your argument doesn't hold water. The biggest change was that the Soviet Union fell apart in 1990 and you started seeing former Soviet boxers competing in the pros whereas before they didn't. Lo and behold, they are now running the HW division and have been for some time.

[LuckyPunch]

Nothing stopping from the cruiserweights from moving up to the HW, and many have done so successfully so your argument doesn't hold water. The biggest change was that the Soviet Union fell apart in 1990 and you started seeing former Soviet boxers competing in the pros whereas before they didn't. Lo and behold, they are now running the HW division and have been for some time.

They prefer to stay in the cruiserweight division because it's a smaller weight class and because they can move up to heavyweight later on in their careers (like Adamek did).

While it's true that there's more European heavyweights around, the lack of good American heavyweights has nothing to do with the fall of the Soviet Union. Eliminate all the European boxers and just take a look at only the American ones. They're nothing compared to those from past eras. Even in the cruiserweight division, there's a lack of good American fighters.

The overall heavyweight division is in a drought, right now, whether they're European, American or any other nationality. Want proof? An old, out of shape Lewis (one of last era's best heavyweights) beat a prime V. Klitschko (one of this era's best heavyweights).

[FloydTBE]

War Hayeeeeeeeeee

[nomadman]

I think it's safe to say this division is the poorest division in the sport and will never matter again. It's sad to think that for nearly 100 years it was looked at as one of the most important sporting events, an event that was a must see, an event that national media gave true respect to, not for the brutal event that it can be but as an athletically gifted spectacle.

It's the poorest of the marquee divisions, I'll give you that, but to say it doesn't matter nor will it ever matter again is overstating matters. Very few fans were ever drawn to the heavyweight division because it was an "athletically gifted spectacle". They tuned in for the knockout, plain and simply. And I'm pretty sure if you asked any Germans whether the HW divison mattered they'd look at you funny and then proceed to lightly flick you in the gonads.

Where we have all the fighters gone that actually can entertain I ask you? Where are the men among all men that are looked at as the most powerful men on Earth? Instead we are stuck watching a bore fest by two fighters that are bigger than everyone else, popping a jab and putting us to sleep.

You're arguing that entertainment = skill. It doesn't. True, there haven't been too many great competitive matchups in the last few years but that's down to a number of reasons, the relative dominance of the Klitschkos over their opponents, and bad matchmaking foremost among them. Had Sultan Ibragimov and Ruslan Chagaev ever got it on sometime back in 2007 that would have been a classic. Likewise Povetkin/Chagaev or Povetkin/Ibragimov. Peter vs Dimitrenko would have been a good fight a few years back also. None of these happened and it's to our detriment, but it certainly says nothing about lack of skill or potential for good fights in the division.

There is no talent in the division and that starts with the top. All I see is a couple guys that take advantage of their reach and where I come from that isn't skill, that's just using advantages. What has happened to the big men that can actually move and show that they are not just slow lumbering boars....

Everyone takes advantage of the phyiscal gifts they were born with. Where would Ali be without his speed or his chin? Foreman without his reach and power? Tyson without his speed and power. Very few fighters have ever won a fight based on pure skills alone, even guys like Patterson and Byrd used superior speed and relexes to aid them in their victories. Wlad uses all his physical traits to full advantage. That's why he's champion and Dimitrenko, Thompson, McCline, Valuev and Julius Long aren't. I'm trying to work out where you come from, I'm guessing some sort of large tower made of an ivory-type substance.

To watch Ali and Frazier and then watch a "big" time heavyweight boxing event just blows my mind. How can 35 years have such a drastic drop off.

At this point the hypothetical German has ceased flicking your swollen red sack, dispensed with his cool Teutonic demeanour, and simply resorted to laughing heartily in your general direction whilst slapping his thighs in the gusty appreciation of what he now takes to be a massively funny joke.