Why the hate for Cruiserweight?
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It is poorer than most of the other divisions, historically, though to be fair it is one of the newest. It's always been a very competitive division for sure, with no shortage of close fights but the skill level just doesn't match some of the divisions around it.
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true its had some troughs in terms of talent, but at the moment its right up there in my opinion, huck, afolabi, hernandez, lebedev, its certainly on a par with light heavy, maybe even surpassing it? and people complain of dire heavyweight bouts but we've had some great cruiser ones recently, is it because its more popular on the continent? Domestically it's dire, with Leon Williams and Shane McPhilbin holding the Lonsdale belt, but historically it's produced some big names and good fights
i think most of the hate basically comes from the fact that most of the best Cruiserweights will happily take a belt there but will fuck off up to the heavyweight division for the big money. A lot of guys would rather boil down to LHW as well if possiblw which means the talent pool is generally poor or brief in the division. Has a bit of a shit history as well compared to other divisions.
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Is it poor historically? Dempsey, Johnson, Louis, Marciano etc would all have been Cruiserweights.
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oooh controversial
but raises a good point, nowadays you get these gargantuan super-heavies as a result of better diets etc so a cruiser division is necessary unlike all the light/super ones we have, and these guys would have bee in the cruiser class, i still think you could put them in with modern heavies though, so doesn that undermine my point? :/
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We had the odd freak of nature back then. I mean, Willard towered over Dempsey, yet he got laid out in double quick time.oooh controversial
But if those guys were around today, I'd imagine all of them would have at least started as Cruisers, if not light heavies in Rocky's and Dempsey's case. But, I suppose like today, all would eventually move up and challange the Heavies.
Is the division necessary? Absolutely. Like you say, the golf from 175 to Wlad is huge.
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Severely underrated division, which is hard to understand considering that there has been loads of quality fights at the weight. Imo it's not lacking that much in the quality of fighter's in comparison to the marquee divisions. And if it is, its probably because people don't pay enough attention to it, causing a lot of quality fighters to see it as a stepping stone to an eventual move up to heavy.
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It's only a good division if you don't want 70% of your heavyweights to be "athletically pre-diabetic". Otherwise, it's completely pointless.
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I like cruiserweight as a division. It's a shame that it has not consistently taken off - SMW is a newer division, too, yet has produced some classic fights and fighters, so it can't be just the division's relative youth. I further fear for it with the renewed talk of introducing a professional 'Super Heavyweight' division, with a limit around 16 stone or just under. I see the case for it - some decent fighters can't make CW competitively but are just too small to tangle with the giants - but we could get even more dilution of the CW division. I don't get it, as other divisions exist happily with others in close proximity, but this one struggles. The Holyfield period was fun, the Haye period was fun, Huck et al are always good to watch these days, and there have been decent Americans in the title mix which always helps profile, yet it just doesn't quite catch light. Either way, I always look forward to a CW title fight - they bring the excitement of the heavyweights with, generally, better workrate and mobility. What's not to like?!
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if only i had that like button :good I agree, it's got that feel of a heavyweight fight, but with better output and movement, and theres a lot of good cruiserweights in history, and the division has always made good fights, with big american names, it baffles me this one hasnt taken off. its a necessary division unlike light/super versions of established divisions
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fighters like johnny nelson where boring, its alot better now though, but its never had the glamour of a heavyweight fight imo... like if haye stayed crusierweight he wouldnt be a household name now... i suppose you get alot more smw fighters, as its more of a common weight (i mean for normal people, not fighters) to be a cruiser or heavyweight and still be athletic is alot more rarer than an athletic super middle if that makes sense lol
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i know exactly what you mean mate, how many athletic people do you know at 200lbs? and then how many of them are into/would try boxing? very very few, then even less at 220-250 you need to be for heavyweight. IMO people bangon about there being no good heavyweights but they have always done that, only in hindsight we look back and saw those were good times, its just rare you get massive athletic guys that want to do a sport like boxing
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glad you get what i mean haha i think the freakishly big (heavyweights) people do realize they look intimidating so you get few of them getting into boxing (as theres no america football) they dont have to be so athletic, just plod along and bang lol whereas the 200ibs cruisers just dont, because its rare they are athletic... i think you still have to be pretty athletic to be a cruiser, its a weight where its kinda stuck in between being either too big or too small...
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