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If ever a division needed to get off the life support it's the heavyweights, but 2005 saw it sink even lower IMO.
What hasn't helped is that the four men who claim a piece of the overall title like some kind of split amulet have been so inactive. The man widely looked upon as the outstanding heavy of this underwhelming age takes his first fight next week. It COULD be a classic... though on paper, at least, it's a mismatch (the dominant heavy vs. someone who was last champion for seven months four years ago and hasn't done a lot with his career since) and still means we've had to put up with ten months of dross beforehand.
The heavyweight match-up I'm most looking forward to is December's Danny Williams-Audley Harrison clash, which will be the biggest British fight since Bruno-Lewis, though it's unlikely to generate much of a stir in the US, other than boost Harrison's ratings or suggest that maybe nearly man Williams could have a shot at one of the belt holders whose initials aren't V.K.
John Ruiz and James Toney put on a better-than-expected fight in April, though when 95% of the boxing world only wants to see a fight so that one of the protagonists can lose and never box at world level again then it says something about how appreciated Ruiz is. Toney of course soured the event by failing a drugs test, while Ruiz hasn't boxed since.
Chris Byrd, another man no one wants to see, again fought only once, in an absolute dog of a fight (not to be confused with a dogfight, which it certainly wasn't) against DaVarryl "Touch of Sleep" Williamson. Williamson's nickname has now entered the irony lexicon, while Rahman's one-sided and deeply tedious affair with Monte Barrett challenged for the award of most boring fight of 2005.
The only real gem was Lamon Brewster, who blew out Andrew Golota in less than a minute, but then had his trajectory stiffed by having to go to Germany for his next bout in a fight that not many of us saw. One of the most anticipated fights was Wladimir Klitschko vs. Samuel Peter, perhaps the best of an extremely bad bunch, but saw Little Klit hang tenuously onto his "heir apparent... ish" reputation by fighting ugly (grab and jab) and getting knocked down three times.
The heavyweights are in danger of becoming the forgotten division at this rate... they seriously need to pull their asses out of gear for 2006. My rating of the year (so far): 4/10.
What hasn't helped is that the four men who claim a piece of the overall title like some kind of split amulet have been so inactive. The man widely looked upon as the outstanding heavy of this underwhelming age takes his first fight next week. It COULD be a classic... though on paper, at least, it's a mismatch (the dominant heavy vs. someone who was last champion for seven months four years ago and hasn't done a lot with his career since) and still means we've had to put up with ten months of dross beforehand.
The heavyweight match-up I'm most looking forward to is December's Danny Williams-Audley Harrison clash, which will be the biggest British fight since Bruno-Lewis, though it's unlikely to generate much of a stir in the US, other than boost Harrison's ratings or suggest that maybe nearly man Williams could have a shot at one of the belt holders whose initials aren't V.K.
John Ruiz and James Toney put on a better-than-expected fight in April, though when 95% of the boxing world only wants to see a fight so that one of the protagonists can lose and never box at world level again then it says something about how appreciated Ruiz is. Toney of course soured the event by failing a drugs test, while Ruiz hasn't boxed since.
Chris Byrd, another man no one wants to see, again fought only once, in an absolute dog of a fight (not to be confused with a dogfight, which it certainly wasn't) against DaVarryl "Touch of Sleep" Williamson. Williamson's nickname has now entered the irony lexicon, while Rahman's one-sided and deeply tedious affair with Monte Barrett challenged for the award of most boring fight of 2005.
The only real gem was Lamon Brewster, who blew out Andrew Golota in less than a minute, but then had his trajectory stiffed by having to go to Germany for his next bout in a fight that not many of us saw. One of the most anticipated fights was Wladimir Klitschko vs. Samuel Peter, perhaps the best of an extremely bad bunch, but saw Little Klit hang tenuously onto his "heir apparent... ish" reputation by fighting ugly (grab and jab) and getting knocked down three times.
The heavyweights are in danger of becoming the forgotten division at this rate... they seriously need to pull their asses out of gear for 2006. My rating of the year (so far): 4/10.
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