19.03.04 – By Slava Novirasputin – Over the past 2 years we have a seen a number of lower weight contenders make the jump to Heavyweight and challenge for marginal honors. Although it is not unheard of for fighters to jump from the lower weights, into what some people consider the “money” division, never has the migration been so intense and so talented. The future of these so called “invaders” is extremely important to the future of the heavyweight division, and more importantly to boxing and deserves more attention.
Roy Jones – Roy was the first of the “massively” challenged to make the jump, and thanks to a few glad hands with Don King challenged for a title straight away. John Ruiz was “R.J’s” victim in this proceeding. The bout basically ended in the first round, when Jones refused to back down from a brawl, and in my opinion got the better of that exchange. Over the course of the other 11 rounds he proceeded to give Ruiz a lesson in boxing, and won a lop-sided decision, with no dispute.
In my opinion Jones has the pure skills to make a name for himself in the division, and at his age still has about 3-4 fights to do it in. Basically I cannot see him beating the taller, more skilled heavies (i.e. Klitschkos), but thankfully there are enough shorter heavies, with soft hands, like Byrd, Gomez, left to feast on. Jones won’t unify the titles, but he can at least find a comfortable PPV pay day against a smaller heavy (like Tyson perhaps), with a warm up on HBO and be done with his career. First however he will have to dismember Antonio Tarver, from his big mouth, and comfortably put on that poundage he came in with for Ruiz, so he can make all this possible.
James Toney – was the second of the Viking crew, to make his appearance at heavy. After the now legendary war with fellow invader Jirov, Toney wiped the floor with Evander Holyfield. Although the guy fighting Toney was not the guy, we saw take out Tyson and challenge against Bowe. In all honesty James Toney was fighting a man who could not throw punches, and could no longer defend himself. In other words Toney was fighting a bum with a name. Yes I am sorry to insult the “Real Deal” but he longer is a real boxer. The only reason he was allowed to fight was because of his name. James Toney should be ashamed of himself for even taking the fight, he in no way proved anything by beating Holyfield and he knows it.
His future in the heavyweight division is a big fat question mark. The Mccline match could have given us some insight, into Toney, the Heavyweight, but that didn’t happen. All that is left is to wait and see how exactly Toney will fair against a heavyweight, who can throw more then one punch at a time.
Vasili Jirov – It is extremely important for everyone to know that I am utterly and completely sold on Jirov. His war with Toney, just brightened the star that I knew he was. His subsequent fight with Mesi further proved, how smart a ring tactician “the Tiger” really is. And yet he lost both fights, in the eyes of the public. It is a very interesting paradox when a fighter’s stock goes up, after losing twice. Jirov connected two very important ends of a spectrum in the Toney and Mesi fights. He basically showed he can be affective against good competition with either a high output, or a low output of punches, 1100+ and 340+ respectively. This is key for any fighter to know and control.
Jirov’s future in the heavyweight division, is very similar to that of Roy Jones. Although he doesn’t have as many doors as Jones open to him, and cannot unify the titles, he can if given the opportunity break some of the smaller Byrd like heavies. The reason I think he will be given that chance is not because of his fiendishly underated skills, but because of that one all important factor, fans love. That factor is “toughness.” Pure eat 5 raw eggs, have German shepards bite you if you don’t run fast enough toughness. It’s a throwback quality to the days of pounding meat instead of heavybags, and grinding crap into your face so your skin won’t lacerate as easily. The guy can take a punch and as showed in the Mesi fight, has very underated power even at heavy. It is a shame about his size though, because he is really too big for Cruisers, in the sense that I cannot see anyone below heavy beating him, and too small to fight everyone at heavy. However I for one am glad he is fighting at heavy. He like the Gatti’s and the Ward’s of the lower classes, comes to fight for the sake of boxing, and I think he should be rewarded for that. As a fan I would rather see him going out on a stretcher, knowing he gave it his all, rather then having him beat the Arthur Williams’s, and Johnny Nelson’s to claim cruiserweight titles.