With the winner of Stiverne-Wilder calling out Tyson Fury, mandatory opponent for Klitschko, and Klitschko set to fight Jennings, the mandatory opponent for the WBC strap, we have the makings of a de facto tournament in the makings to find the first undisputed champion since Tyson, which leads me to wonder, given the records of the fighters involved (sheer data, not necessarily quality of opposition) is this a new age of Heavyweight glory, what does MAP think?
But people said Lewis was a bum pretty much up until he beat Holyfield, Even then he was derided through his whole career after he lost to Rahman, after the Tyson fight he was criticized for fighting someone the public clamored for him to fight, he was even booed in his last fight (against Vitali Klitschko i might add) Further more, if this era isn't a golden age, what does it require to be one in your mind, Redcoat?
How do you justify it being an embarrassment, the records, statistics or nationality of the fighters?
Do you watch boxing? Have you seen the kind of fights that the heavyweight division has been putting on for the last decade? The heavyweight division is held together by hyping mediocre fighters who put on mediocre fights. I haven't been even remotely excited for a heavyweight fight since Haye/Klitschko and that was mainly because of the hype that was built up around it
I'm putting it to you though, that the reputation of these past eras is pretty much hype in itself, Ali had some terrible fights, and quite a lot of his rep is based off some rather boring fights, Holmes was viewed as being boring as hell during his reign, and he only ever made a big payday off the back of blatant race bating, I also don't exactly recall many great fights during the late 80's either, and while there was a period of time in the 90's where there were a number of surprisingly exciting fights, it seemed to be mostly due to a tendency of that era for people to brawl with one another as opposed to actually boxing, if you think a good era is people exchanging punches with little defense then i can see where you are coming from, but that doesn't excuse putting this era beneath others because of a cry of mediocrity, a cry which isn't really supported by the statistics the fights provide, nor the records of the fighters.
There were other periods where the division was stagnant, but that doesn't change the fact that the last 10 years have been a horrible time to be a heavyweight. Who, over the last 10 years would you consider to be truly outstanding heavyweight boxers? Who over that period would you put in the same ranks as Foreman, Ali, Tyson, Lewis, Holyfield, Marciano etc.? Let's take the Klitschko's out of it. Can you name any?
Chagaev, Povotkin, Pulev, Valuev and Haye would probably be competitive with most of those people, if not beat them, although i will say, they are generally larger, heavier and have better punch outputs than most of them.
Well your opinion (not really a statement) isn't a popular on, in fact I'm sure you're one of the very few who feels like that.
Again, true, but just because many people believe something it doesn't make them right, further more, i am asking people to tell me why i am wrong, and i have not yet had someone comment with a reason why my misguided opinion is false. I can't fully explain why i think what i think, as it would be an exhaustive pile of data no one will read, so i ask people the question, have people tell me i am completely wrong, but not tell me why, if they can't explain what they say, then they shouldn't be saying it.
Well Ali and the like we're accustomed to going 15 rounds, whereas Haye does twelve and gasses out after 5. Haye has a reputation for dropping his hands and not on purpose. He also didn't have an equal to push him further than just boxing. A golden era in combat sports is where you have a few combatants transcending all previous expectations on what was thought achievable. Haye didn't have a proper opponent to really test him, and neither do the Klitschkos.
While i can agree that boxing matches did last longer previously, using that as a definition of superior skill makes it impossible for boxing to ever get better as boxing matches cannot legally go that long anymore, while also ignoring the fact that most boxers today usually have much more seasoned amateur records, are significantly larger, and fight people with better records, more consistently than previous golden ages. As for David Haye gassing, i can totally agree with that, but the same could be said for Tyson and Foreman (in his career in the 70's at least), but much like both of those two fighters, he is still able to be highly competitive and relies on knocking people out for the most part anyway, as for the dropping of the hands, if we are going to point out stylistic flaws in boxers who have competed in previous golden eras we will be here until next week, even though ultimately they didn't matter to those previous champions who fought in supposedly better eras. As for your definition, i disagree that competition is required for people to transcend expectations on the possible, Ali having close fights with several people during his era doesn't make Joe Louis remaining a champion for 11 years any less impressive, in fact Louis' domination was a commonly used comparison to deride the Ali era, however, i can understand if you are a fan of brawling over boxing, in which case, we of course disagree, and there is nothing currently that can change your mind short of Wlad suddenly dying and an open free for all beginning for his belts.
Boxing hasn't been the same since the early 1900's. Jack Dempsey, Ali, Rocky Machano, and many others. I think we've entered the "entertainment" aspect of boxing more then actual boxing itself.
But people find most fights in the division to be very boring these days, where as other, older fights were apparently much more action packed.
You can be an exceptional fighter, a great fighter, someone revered by millions but if you don't have a serious opponent pushing you then it ain't no golden age. Tyson and Floyd Mayweather are two that jump to mind when we say that they are exceptional, yet they had no competition. Floyd should have of course fought Manny 4 times by now, with wins going either way, but that's a different argument. I'm saying that for a golden era to appear, you need all the stars in alignment, not just one star shining brightly. The most exciting part of boxing right now in my opinion is the Olympics.
