26.04.04 – By Matthew Hurley: Ever since Lennox Lewis stepped down from his heavyweight perch the division has become both muddled and ridiculed. Without a dominant heavyweight champ boxing suffers in terms of mainstream popularity and, in recent years, becomes a whipping post for sports writers who either don’t like boxing or simply refuse to educate themselves on the sport. But inside the boxing community, knowledgeable fans watch and wait for the next big man to clean out the division with anticipation and, sometimes, marked frustration. What is so odd about the current state of affairs is that despite all the criticism the heavyweight division has provided boxing fans with several terrifically entertaining fights.
This corner feels that the massive criticism being leveled at today’s heavyweights is simply unwarranted. The division always sinks into a trough after a dominant champion retires. Suddenly waves of potential champions crash to the shore. It’s always a bit messy but take a look back for a moment at some of the fights we’ve seen.
It all started with Vitali Klitschko’s battle royal with Lewis. Since then we’ve seen Corrie Sanders decimate Wladimir Klitschko, James Toney destroy a weary Evander Holyfield, Vassily Jirov war with Joe Mesi, Dominick Guinn slug it out with Duncan Dokiwari, Monte Barrett surprise Guinn in a tough fight, Vitali blow out Kirk Johnson, Chris Byrd struggle to a draw with a somewhat revitalized Andrew Golota, and then this past Saturday Vitali went into the trenches with Sanders. It hasn’t always been pretty but it has been pretty damn fun.
So why all the complaints? Why all the criticism? Sure, John Ruiz will stick around to annoy us for a while but he’s simply the fly in the ointment. The heavyweight situation is not dreadful it’s simply in flux. Vitali, with his exciting win over the tough Sanders has staked his claim as the “people’s” champion. There is a charm about him, a sense of the dramatic and many American fans seem ready to adopt him as their own. Still, until he steps into the ring with Chris Byrd and avenges his loss to the tricky southpaw questions will remain. But with Vitali now clutching the WBC belt the division is starting to lose the bloodshot from it’s eyes.
And of course you have those moldy-oldies Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield still meandering about the periphery. Sometimes uncertainty can lead to pure excitement. How refreshing it was to hear the as of late constant cynic Larry Merchant exclaim at the end of the third round of the Klitschko – Sanders fight, “This is the best heavyweight round we’ve seen in years!”
The division will straighten itself out in the next year or two but to assume that it would simply right itself in the wake of the deterioration of the old guard and the retirement of Lewis is more than a bit presumptuous. It’s going to take a while. And with expectations apparently at an all time low it seems suprising that the media and the more jaded fans of the sport aren’t enjoying most of what they’re seeing.
Someone will come along and clean out the division, someone always does. But things have been pretty exciting lately. As long as all these guys are willing to step into the ring with each other and swing for the fences, enjoy it. They may not be the best of fighters, but they all truly want that brass ring so they’re willing to fight one another. So sit back, enjoy these fights, and just wait for that golden child to emerge.