{"id":61827,"date":"2016-07-26T16:24:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T21:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=61827"},"modified":"2016-07-26T16:26:32","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T21:26:32","slug":"the-state-of-the-heavyweight-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=61827","title":{"rendered":"The State of The Heavyweight Division"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"boxingringheader\"<\/a>By Ian \u201cThe Boxing Historian\u201d Murphy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last weekend\u2019s WBC title fight between Deontay Wilder and Chris Arreola got me thinking about the state of the Heavyweight division and how it all might unfold over the next six months. While not the greatest representation of pugilism ever displayed on television, Wilder\/Arreola was a HW title fight on network T.V. This is huge. With the Ultimate Fighting Championship being sold recently, and the popularity of Mixed Martial Arts seemingly on the wane, the time is ripe for boxing to reassert itself as the premier combat sport on television. Despite this upswing in momentum, there are a few things that need to be made clear:<\/p>\n

Who Is Legit, Who is Unproven (still?) and Who May be a Hype Job…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Tyson Fury (like it or not) is the Heavyweight Champion. He beat the man who was widely considered the champ in Wladimir Klitschko. Deontay Wilder\u2019s WBC belt doesn\u2019t give him claim to being champion. He is a \u201ctitlist\u201d or \u201cbelt holder\u201d, and the same goes for Anthony Joshua and his IBF title he won from Charles Martin. WBO, ABC, TGIF, and IHOP belts don\u2019t count, I\u2019m sorry. The man that eventually beats Fury will be the next champion, and that is it. In regards to the quality of the division, it\u2019s not great, but better than it\u2019s been in a little while. Joshua is likely the future of the division, as he has the best physical tools, which is all you need these days as the skill level overall among Heavyweights is pretty low. Luis Ortiz has the best skills, but is in his late 30s. I also don\u2019t see any of the belt holders giving him a shot anytime soon because, you know, \u201cgotta protect that zero\u201d.<\/p>\n

I think this might be the only time in history that all the \u201cchampions\u201d are undefeated. Wilder is 37-0, 36 KO’s and on paper he seems like a monster. Reality? He\u2019s a long, rangy guy with a heavy right hand and the only opponent he\u2019s faced so far that had any credibility is Bermane Stiverne, who was clearly not well in that fight. In fact, he seemed drugged. It\u2019s actually hilarious that one of our champs has nearly forty fights, and STILL has not been in there with a high quality opponent. Anthony Joshua is 17-0, 17 KO’s, but hasn\u2019t fought anyone, either. He still moves like the Tin Man before Dorothy found his oil can, but he has tight punches and legit power. Fury, 25-0, 18 KO’s is the least impressive physically, but the man knows how to box and is the only belt holder to fight anyone (Klitschko) with any credentials. He is better at underutilized things like proper judge of distance, moving his head, and throwing off timing. None of the other heavies have that, or if they do, it\u2019s not to the degree that Fury does. Luis Ortiz has that great Cuban pedigree, but his age will cost him and if he gets fights with other top guys, it won\u2019t be until he\u2019s too old to beat them. Again, that \u201czero\u201d. Others in title contention are proven solid contender Alexander Povetkin, New Zealand\u2019s Joseph Parker (another undefeated guy who has 20+fights and hasn\u2019t fought anyone…), and Kubrat Pulev of Bulgaria is still in the mix, having won his last three after being mangled by former champion Klitschko in 2014.<\/p>\n

The Near Future…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So what does the future hold? In my opinion, the future lies with Fury and Joshua. Fury is at his peak now, and he likely beats Wladimir Klitschko in their upcoming rematch. I just cannot see Wladimir changing his approach drastically enough to make a difference. Joshua is still green, but is improving fight to fight, even though he\u2019s nowhere near as good as a lot of British fight fans make him out to be. He\u2019s more Frank Bruno than Lennox Lewis… Wilder is out for the rest of the year due to injury and even though he has defended his trampionship four times, still hasn\u2019t fought anyone. Joshua is likely to fight Stiverne next, who is better than anyone else he\u2019s fought to date and that should be a solid test because it anything, Stiverne is a tough guy with a thick beard who won\u2019t wilt under Joshua\u2019s power immediately. Joseph Parker might be in the mix to fight Joshua if the Stiverne fight doesn\u2019t happen. Ortiz? He\u2019s still getting the run around and that\u2019s a shame, because he\u2019s a good fighter who deserves more exposure. The rest? Still pretenders and wannabes in this guys eyes!<\/p>\n

RSR Readers we have a contest for the 500th subscriber to the RSR YouTube Channel. Our 500th subscriber will win a personally autographed picture from James \u201cQuick\u201d Tillis.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Here is the link to the RSR YouTube Channel to subscribe.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

[si-contact-form form=’2′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ian \u201cThe Boxing Historian\u201d Murphy Last weekend\u2019s WBC title fight between Deontay Wilder and Chris Arreola got me thinking about the state of the Heavyweight division and how it all might unfold over the next six months. While not the greatest representation of pugilism ever displayed on television, Wilder\/Arreola was a HW title fight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15541],"class_list":["post-61827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-the-state-of-the-heavyweight-division"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61827"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}