The official cruiserweight thread. Will be updated regularly.

[molinari]

Alekseev has been stripped of his his EBU belt for ducking Maternak again, Masternak will fight one of top EBU rank guys and winner needs to fight Alekseev(unless its Masternak and Alekseev get scared again).

[Capaedia]

Good thread. Necessary thread.


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[The Hammer]

Dmytro Kucher stopped former world title challenger Steve Herelius in round 2 today. He's now 19-0 and has established himself as a top ten cruiserweight contender.

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?hum...9920&cat=boxer

[UglyPug]

Nice Pug! The Cruiserweight division has always been my favorite, because if i was a pro that would be the division i would fight in (i fought as a heavyweight in the amateurs) and there has been some very good fights in this division. I was hooked when i saw "The Real Deal" clean out the Cruisers on free tv in the mid 80's when the limit was 190.

Aye! So many natural athletes who walk around between 190ish - 210 or so. Guys like Holyfield (one of my favorites as well!), and like Freedom mentioned in his other thread, the old school heavyweights like Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Tunney, Dempsey, etc. These would all be cruiserweights today.

It'd be a huge drain to make 175, and with the huge athletic heavyweights who walk around at 225+ today like Klitschkos, Pulev, Bryant Jennings, etc. they are hugely disadvantaged against.

A lot of guys your size now have a chance to make their mark in boxing fighting against guys their own size.

The division now has so many great matchups that could be made.

[UglyPug]

Dmytro Kucher stopped former world title challenger Steve Herelius in round 2 today. He's now 19-0 and has established himself as a top ten cruiserweight contender.

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?hum...9920&cat=boxer

Yes! Thank you Freedom. I couldn't find a way to watch the card, but by Kucher beating fringe contender Herelius in devastating fashion, he has earned himself a position in the top 10 as far as I'm concerned. I had him in the "honorable mention" list (guys who "could be there shortly), but Herelius is a very good win for him at this stage.

Rankings update coming!

[New England]

CW thread .
gonna attract real fans only. fanboys really don't have any CW to nuthug...

anybody know of any good euro fights today for a little saturday afternoon action?

i will talk more sh#t in the guru chat, if that's the case.


subb'd

[The Hammer]

Kucher interview here (this was written before Dmytro's fight today):

http://www.maxboxing.com/news/promo-...-a-world-title

Kucher: "By the end of the next year, I will box for a world title"

By Anson Wainwright

It’s been a breakout year for Ukrainian Dmytro Kucher. The 28-year-old is 4-0 with all four ending inside the distance, collecting the WBC international silver cruiserweight title along the way and improving his record to 18-0 (14). He returns today, looking to further his career when he meets former WBA interim world champion Steve Herelius in what appears on paper to be his toughest test of his near four-year pro career. Kucher is closing on a world title which he hopes to win next year.

Anson Wainwright - In your last fight, you beat Geoffrey Battelo, stopping him in the fifth round. Could you tell us about that fight and what you thought of your performance?

Dmytro Kucher - It was very difficult fight for me. My opponent was very strong and has very powerful punch. In the first round, I saw his conditions and then executed our plan on fight.

AW - It looks like you’re fighting next on 27 October. Could you tell us about that, who you’re fighting, where it will be, etc.?

DK - My next fight will be in Kiev in our training gym. I will defend my WBC international silver title. My opponent is a southpaw boxer, ex-interim world WBA champion Steve Herelius.

AW - How far do you think you are from fighting for world titles?

DK - Now I must win my next fight. But I think that in end of the next year, I will box for a world title.

AW - Who are the members of your team,? Also where do you regularly train?

DK - My trainer is Andriy Synepupov who was IBF Inter-Continental lightweight champion in 1994. He is a very professional trainer and my good friend. My manager and promoter is Roman Valesiuk who is a head of Elite Boxing Promotion from Kiev, Ukraine. I am training in the gym of our promotional company in Kiev. It’s a very modern training gym. Here we often make small tournaments.

AW - What is a typical training session for you?

DK - In present time, I have fights one every two months and in this case, I usually don’t have usual training day. I have fight then I rest for one week. After it, I begin my next training camp, three weeks in the south of Ukraine, we have physical training, then we’re back in Kiev and have three to five weeks of sparring.

AW - What are your thoughts on the cruiserweight division and its current titlists, European champ Alexander Alekseev and world champions Krzysztof Wlodarczyk of the WBC, Guillermo Jones of the WBA, Yoan Pablo Hernandez of the IBF and Marco Huck of the WBO?

DK - Alekseev is a typical representative of Soviet school of boxing but he has a lot of Germany school.
Wlodarczyk is a very good boxer with an interesting style. He can win by KO in every fight. It is very important to know when boxing vs. Wlodarczyk. Jones is also good boxer but his age is 40. I think that he can box two to three [more] years. Hernandez is an interesting Cuban boxer but I think he cannot box vs. boxer with strong punch. Huck is a great boxer but in my opinion, he is not good technically.

[New England]

wide open division

here's the boxrec top 25

http://boxrec.com/ratings.php?sex=M&...eight&pageID=1

the best CW in the world, IMO, is eddie chambers. he just chooses to fight at HW for the money. you've got to assume it's the money. you can make good cash fighting at CW in europe, but if you're a HW you can make seven figs fighting wladimir and getting your ass kicked.


chambers was 202 against adamek, and he still had weight to lose. easy CW. easy.

[UglyPug]

Thank you everybody else for your support! The reason I have Ross at 10 is because of his experience, and competitiveness against perennial top ranker guys in the division. He came a hair away from beating Hernandez (knocking him out even), and was competitive against Cunningham too. But now with Kucher's win over Herelius, I might remove Tarver from top 10 (due to steroid controversy, and arguably losing to Kayode), bump Ross up to 9, and move Kucher in at 10. Kucher needs to be in the top 10 now.


As far as Guillermo Jones, I agree, he might be a top 3 "natural" talent in the division. Watching his tapes against Arslan (the best guy he's fought lately), his boxing looked very sharp. He keeps a high work rate, using his length to keep range, and sets up combinations nicely with jabs, and even lead uppercuts. I think he might win some early rounds against Lebedev, because Lbedev is fairly inactive with his punch rate, and looks to set up big shots. But having the superior power, and being a technical puncher, I think Lebedev finds his groove, timing Jones, and starts landing the left straight/right hook with regularity around the 5th. . . Stops him between 8-11.

[UglyPug]

Kucher interview here (this was written before Dmytro's fight today):

http://www.maxboxing.com/news/promo-...-a-world-title

Nice read. Wow, he's a beast doing all that sparring! It's great that he's staying active - whether it be fighting in a match, or sparring, though. He's good in his analyses of the champions: I don't know a lot about Alekseev, but he seems to be a very good fundamentals first guy, with a good punch. Jones is 40, but because he hasn't been fighting regularly against worthy opponents, he hasn't taken a lot of damage, and thus still has a good 2-3 years left. Lol Huck is a straight up CAVE MAN at times with his approach, but he is damn effective with it.

Herelius is still a legitimate name, and one of hte guys you have to beat if you want to establish yourself as a true contender in the division.