Klitschko disappoints and the heavyweight division is still in shambles…

By Rui Zheng

On a night when people were ready to crown a new and “true” heavyweight champion, Wladimir Klitschko has skeptics doubting once again whether or not he should be considered THE champion.  When I emphasize the “THE”, I’m referring to the lineal heavyweight championship of the world.  Mike Tyson was previously the undisputed lineal heavyweight champion of the world and the succession has ran through Buster Douglas, Evander Holyfield, Michael Moorer, George Foreman, Shannon Briggs, Lennox Lewis, Hasim Rahman, Lennox Lewis again and has since become vacant due to the retirement of Lewis.  Forget all the supposed “world title” champions for they are nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Ever since Klitschko defeated the up-and-coming Samuel Peter, he has been on a run that has seen him dominate all opponents including Chris Byrd, Calvin Brock, and Sultan Ibragimov, all of whom were Top 10 heavyweights in the division.  However in order to determine a lineal champion, the consensus #1 and #2 heavyweights in the division must fight and the winner would be declared the champion.  Klitschko is the consensus #1 heavyweight, but the #2 heavyweight ranges from the likes of Peter (who defeated James Toney twice after his loss to Klitschko) and Chagaev (who upset the giant Nikolay Valuev).  A fight with either one of them doesn’t appear to be happening soon so in the eyes of boxing fans, the situation is like this: How many Top 10 heavyweights does Klitschko have to dominate before he can be regarded as the champion without having to face either Peter or Chagaev?

Confused yet? Don’t worry, so is every boxing fan following the heavyweight division.

Other notes:

- As a fan of Winky Wright, I feel his pain when Bob Arum isn’t even considering Wright’s name as a possible June opponent for middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik.  Clearly Bob Arum doesn’t want his potential cash cow to die off less than a year of winning the middleweight championship.

- The biggest prospect in boxing may not be Amir Khan after all.  Olympic gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa has taken the featherweight/junior lightweight division by storm after defecting from his native Cuba.  His management is pushing him fast and we should expect to see him in a title fight within the next year.

- Don’t look now, but the super middleweight division is shaping out to be fantastic.  Among the fighters in the division (or would cut down or move up in weight for a big fight) are Jermain Taylor, Mikkel Kessler, Edison Miranda, Lucien Bute, Jean Pascal, Roy Jones, Joe Calzaghe, Bernard Hopkins, Kelly Pavlik, and Winky Wright.

- Cristian Mijares is finally starting to make a name for himself in boxing after dominating the tough Jose Navarro over 12 rounds.  Mijares first splashed onto the scene after dissecting Jorge Arce, but now he is talking potential unification fights in the junior bantamweight class with either Kirilov or Montiel.