A Golden Era of the Heavyweight Division

A Golden Era of the Heavyweight Division

By Michael Gavaghan

The heavyweight champion of the world was long considered the pinnacle of sporting titles, the heavyweight division the King of boxing divisions.

It all changed when Vladimir Klitschko started his 10 year reign, it could be due to lack of opposition, his defensive nullifying style or other reasons that many turned their backs on heavyweight boxing switching their attention to welter and middleweight fighters like Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

Heavyweight boxing is now back on top and it is no coincidence that it coincides with the rise of Anthony Joshua, today AJ is unified champion and Deontay Wilder the WBC champ and with a list of hard-hitting contenders headed by Dillian Whyte I would like to ask the question how good is this heavyweight division?

To answer this I’d like to compare it to a golden era of heavyweight boxing the 90’s, a time when like today a British heavyweight was King of the division Lennox Lewis. But the comparisons between Joshua and Lewis do not stop there, both Olympians and of a similar stature with only a couple of inches difference in reach and height, both are knockout artist’s working behind a long jab.

But Lewis was not the only Brit in the top half of the division in the 90’s his rival Frank Bruno, the former WBC heavyweight champion was flying the flag and played his part in making the 90’s era great,

AJ like Lewis has a British rival Dillian Whyte a top contender today can easily be compared to Bruno with similar frame and height they have very similar style heavy hitters but vulnerable and open to being knocked out.

The Americans of course played their part during the 90’s with a list of great fighters probably lead by the great multi-weight champion Evander Holyfield a former undisputed cruiserweight champion who moved up to heavyweight as today’s undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk has recently done. I know it is too early to know how good Usyk will be at the weight but if his performances at cruiserweight are anything to go by he will make some serious waves in the division.

That brings us to Mike Tyson a former unified champion an explosive fighter a real power puncher much like today’s WBC champion Deontay Wilder todays King of the KO. No comparison can be made in terms of size, weight and stature but both built up high KO percentages fighting lesser opponents and fell short when stepping up to the very top. I realise Wilder is still unbeaten but Tyson Fury exposed some real flaws in his make up.

Now what I believe what makes this era great and has the potential to be the greatest era of all time is the inclusion of Fury as earlier mentioned is back to his best incomparable and unique he adds a nearly superhuman factor too today’s era, a giant with a giants heart coming back from the abyss to potentially becoming undisputed champion of the world.

So how good is the division? With so many great heavyweights boxing has never been so popular it has been decades since stadiums have been filled with boxing fans and viewer numbers are higher than ever, this is definitely a golden era of heavyweight boxing potentially the best ever.