Welcome back fight fans to another video here on The Fight Game.
For the first time in a long time the heavyweight division in boxing is back.
The heavyweight division is often considered the king of all divisions, because if you
were the heavyweight champion, you were above all
and everyone in the sport. When the heavyweights fought, you were sure to watch.
In the last two decades however the heavyweight division seemed to fall into
a sort of lull, but in recent years it has quickly and surely climbed back to the pinnacle
of glamourised prize fighting. In this video we'll be taking
a look at the entire heavyweight division, and
what we can expect in the coming years for the sports most storied division.
We're still not sure who the best heavyweight is yet, could it be Joshua, Fury, Wilder,
Ruiz, or will it be the dark horse Oleksandr Usyk coming
on to the scene, we just don't know yet, but it sure as
hell is going to be fun finding out as the heavyweight division is now jam packed with
great fighters along with great fights to be made.
But hold up, before we talk about the now, let's take a look back in the past to see
how it all began.
The year is 2015, and Fury has just defeated Wladimir Klitschko to end his near-10-year
reign. After Fury beat Klitschko, a new door was
opened for the division, and the following month
a new up and coming prospect defeated Dillian Whyte in a heavyweight pay-per-view fight
in London, that prospect was of course no other than Anthony Joshua. In the space of
two months, the heavyweight belts had a new owner and
Anthony Joshua had just scored an incredible knockout
which really got people talking about heavyweight boxing again. Four thousand miles west we
had another major heavyweight player accumulating
knockouts one after another, Deontay Wilder. As time progressed over the next couple of
years Joshua and Wilder would continue their domination
in their respective countries, with their star power rising as well as talks about a
megafight between the two. In this time, Tyson Fury would struggle
with mental health problems. Fury would later overcome
his differences and take the risk to take on Deontay Wilder on December 1st 2018, while
before this Joshua would have a fight of the decade contender
against Wladimir Klistchko in front of 90 thousand people at wembley stadium.
The build up to Wilder Fury was spectacular, and the fight delivered the such anticipated
excitement. Fury would birth a pure iconic moment by amazingly
getting up off the canvas after being knocked down by Wilder, many thought he took a page
out of the undertakers book to rise from the ground when
everyone was surely convinced he'd been knocked out. The fight ended in a draw, and while
the decision was unsatisfactory, the fight surely was not.
The boxing world was excited that now, more than ever, the heavyweight
division was back in business, this time with three major players, Wilder, Fury and Joshua.
Just when we thought things were fairly straight forward, Joshua would suffer a shock defeat
to Mexico's Andy Ruiz Junior earlier this year in his
American debut, as soon as the master-plan seemed clear,
the sport of boxing decided to complicate the story. The rematch is scheduled for December
7th of this year, Joshua will have a chance to redeem himself, although it is unfair for
Joshua as the public had such unrealistic for his career,
this is boxing, boxers get beat, it's all part of the fight game.
And just like that, in one night we now had a new player come onto the scene of elite
heavyweight boxing. We will be making an in depth analysis on
this fight soon, so make sure you're subscribed and click the bell
icon to be notified for our future uploads.
Wilder's next fight will come against Luis Ortiz in a rematch on November 23rd on Fox
pay-per-view. In their first bout, Wilder came very close
to being stopped as Ortiz rallied in the mid rounds.
The fight ended in spectacular fashion for Wilder with a classical knockout. The rematch
surely poses a risk for Wilder, but he's expected
to win in the typical form of a knockout. Wilder is said to be focusing more on his
boxing skills now, and if his last fight is any indication of
the changes that has brought, it's sure looking very dangerous for the other champions who
may cross paths with him. Deontay Wilder is up there
with some of the most powerful punchers in boxing history. Any
boxer who enters the ring against Wilder is taking a very big risk.
Fury Wilder 2 is expected to take place early next year, and while Fury waits for Wilder
to finish up business against Ortiz, he's decided to take a road
trip to the WWE to take on Braun Strowman.
One man who is open to the risk of also facing Deontay Wilder is actually a new-comer onto
the scene, Oleksandr Usyk. He's said he is open to facing Wilder eventually,
which would be a fantastic fight for any sports fan to watch. Usyk could
very well be a dark horse when it comes the heavyweight division, Usyk was the undisputed
cruiserweight champion but vacated his titles in early 2019 to move up
to heavyweight in pursuit of the megafights against the likes of Joshua Fury
and Wilder. Usyk may not have the one punch power for heavyweight, but his footwork, head
movement and angles are some of the best, he boxes similarly to Lomachenko,
in the sense that he breaks down his opponents throughout the course of the fight. This is
one of Usyk's main advantages over all the others,
he can chip away at his opponents until they finally crumble, especially with
his great body shots. The charismatic Ukrainian has an extensive amateur pedigree, giving
him that little bit of an extra edge when it comes to his fellow opponents
who are lesser skilled. Usyk is Ukraine's first ever undisputed champion, for those
who don't know what undisputed means, it means that a boxer holds all of the major world
title belts simultaneously. Usyk won all 4 belts last year by winning
the world boxing super series. But one question not many have considered is could
he become a two-weight undisputed champion? There is not many of those in boxing history,
I tried to do some research to find other names who won all major world titles
in two weight divisions, the only name I found was Evander Holyfield, who
became undisputed champion at both cruiserweight in 1988 and heavyweight in 1999. But at cruiserweight,
he only won 3 belts, as the first WBO cruiserweight belt didn't come until 1 year
later in 1989. That means if Usyk becomes undisputed champion at heavyweight he
will become the first ever boxer to hold 4 of the major world title belts simultaneously
in two weight divisions.
Each of the top boxers in the heavyweight division have very contrasting styles, which
really makes choosing the best very difficult, but it also means that every matchup
is intriguing to watch. Wilder is undoubtedly the one with the power, Fury
is the one with the skills, Joshua is the one with a bit of both, Ruiz is the one with
the speed, and Usyk is the one with a fundamental and perfected boxing technicality.
Because of this, we look to the old saying of styles make fights. The saying
means that if Wilder beat Joshua, and Fury beat Wilder, it doesn't mean that Fury would
beat Joshua. It really depeneds on how the two styles mix in the ring. As for boxers
taking losses, who cares if one of them loses, ever since Mayweather made such
a big deal about being undefeated he's brought an unpleasant stigma about taking a loss in
boxing, which isn't right, because every boxer takes a loss. Pacquiao has 7 losses,
Mike Tyson has 6, Ali has 5, so why should we care so much if a boxer takes one,
two, or even more losses. What we want to see is great fights, I think it's fair to
say most fans would choose great fights over undefeated records any day. Ideally, if each
and every top heavyweight fought one another, it's quite unlikely that they would all go
undefeated. But that's not what matters, what matters is the legacy, fighting the best,
that's what the fans want to see, and it does seem to be the direction boxing is
headed in as we move on from the Floyd Mayweather era, into a new and better one.
The question comes, who will become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. There must
be one, and there will be one, but which one will it be. Will it be Joshua to avenge
his loss in December, will it be Fury or Wilder, maybe Andy Ruiz, perhaps Usyk who has sneaked
his way up the ranks, or might it be some of the lesser
known prospects such as Daniel Dubois. Will it be Dillian Whyte or Joseph Parker who are
in constant desire for a second chance at a world title fight,
could it be a wild card we are yet to hear of, it's almost impossible to tell. But as
you can see, the heavyweight division is stacked. The possibilities
are endless, who knows what the future holds for the heavyweight division.
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the channel. We'll see you in the next video here
on The Fight Game.