Enjoying the excitement of today’s heavyweight landscape

By Dan Morley

WITH the dust beginning to settle on last weekend’s huge fight between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, it is worth taking a step back and looking at just how unpredictable this heavyweight landscape has turned out to be in recent years.

Whilst the fight wasn’t the Hagler-Hearns type of war a few boxing heads suggested and was, in fact, more of a one-sided pummelling, it was still extremely shocking and exciting. 

As is the case when any of the top heavyweights take a loss in this era, you will always have a large section of people criticising them about how they have been exposed, overhyped and, of course, how poor this era of heavyweights is. 

There has been enough of a theme in these comments appearing across my social media feed around the course of a big heavyweight fight, and I honestly don’t understand the criticism at all.

We currently have Oleksandr Usyk clearing out the top dogs off the back of a brilliant cruiserweight run to cement himself as an all-time great and the undisputed king, albeit temporarily, due to boxing politics. The UK has been spearheaded by popular, exciting champions in Fury and AJ, whose vulnerabilities add to the drama of their fights. 

Both men have beaten top fighters in their own right and come up short at other times. Yet, their impact on the sport, selling out stadiums and providing all-time classics on numerous occasions, has once again lifted heavyweight boxing to the forefront of British sports. Add in Daniel Dubois, the newly crowned IBF champion, similarly a man on an unexpected run of destruction, himself recovering from two crushing defeats.

It’s bizarre to think, Joe Joyce had just beaten Dubois and Parker by stoppage, only to then be beaten three times in his last four, with those men he had toppled being right at the top of the tree. Coincidentally, Joyce was derailed by Zhang and Chisora, two men Parker has beaten! It’s the nature of the game, especially with the big boys – styles make fights!. 

Fury dismantled Chisora easily three times only for Chisora to give Usyk his hardest fight, then Usyk goes to beat Fury. Dubois, who was stopped by Usyk, blasts AJ, the same AJ who went the distance with Usyk twice.

Ngannou and Wallin trouble Fury. AJ blasts them away. Joyce stops Parker, before Zhang blasts Joyce away twice, only to lose to Parker. Every era has these stylistic contradictions. Look how easily George Foreman blasted away Ken Norton and Joe Frazier, two men who gave Muhammad Ali absolute nightmares, only for George to be tactically outwitted and stopped by Ali.

Joseph Parker aims a right hand at Zhilei Zhang during their heavyweight fight in Saudi Arabia (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

This isn’t the greatest Heavyweight era ever, no – but it’s a particularly good one and is extremely compelling. When you have an overview on the entire era, you can include the intrigue of Deontay Wilder, who, whilst lacking certain boxing fundamentals, possessed all time great KO power in the right hand which could work as an equaliser in any fight. 

Andy Ruiz, with a combination of fast hands and a drive to create Mexican history pulled off an upset against the odds. Dillian Whyte has provided us with entertainment on many occasions. Add in the the likes of Povetkin, Chisora, Parker and Joyce who have all troubled the main men when given their shot. 

Add to the mix fighters like Zhang, Bakole, Kabayel and Hrgovic, chomping at the bit to work their way to a title shot, with names like Moses Itauma, Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke pushing through, then you have a lot going on in the division and a lot of explosive matchups in the future.

This is off the back of a dim era of heavyweight boxing ruled solely by the Klitschkos, whose dominant run over an era of few worthy contenders and even fewer great fights, provided a stale period in the glamour division. 

Even the early 80s era was ruled solely by Larry Holmes, the 40s ruled by Joe Louis, and the 20s ruled by Jack Dempsey, who himself, whilst leaving an incredible impact on the sport, only defended the heavyweight title five times in six years. 

This currently isn’t the 70s or 90s, which were the greatest eras in heavyweight history, but it’s a very compelling one, with top champions, ever-changing supremacy, great fights and a lot of really dangerous, exciting challengers. 

Anthony Joshua lost to a better man on Saturday night, it’s happened before, but he’s also beaten a lot of proven good fighters and is leaving a very impactful legacy on British Boxing, in and out of the ring. Whilst this isn’t the greatest era of heavyweight boxing in history, it’s certainly one of the better ones, all things considered.