2004 HEAVYWEIGHT PREDICTIONS

2004 HEAVYWEIGHT PREDICTIONS

By Michael Amakor

Most boxing scribes and luminaries continually talk about the lack of depth in the divisions north of the Welterweights. Fightkings.Com disagrees with this analysis because we have a Pandora box of talented boxers buried in the heavyweight ranks who lack the star power or a good promoter to advance them to a title shot. This situation is further complicated by bad decisions like the bitter taste Chris Byrd holding on to his title after losing to Oquendo… or Holyfield in his first fight against Ruiz…or Jones against Tarver etc that continues to recycle under deserving champions and frustrates the talent fighting to punch out.

Another factor is leapfrogging an entire division due to star power and prestige, this especially makes a laughing stock of a division so by- passed, this is partly responsible for the dullness in some divisions like the cruiserweights. Roy Jones would have ignited that decision if he had fought Jirov or Braithwaite who would have given him a good fight or knocked him out instead of taking a well foretold move against Ruiz. He is now down to the Light Heavyweight….such confusion and what a mess.

On the bright side the there is still hope for the heavyweight division and without further ado we shall talk about where the division is heading and who will lead the charge in 2004.

UNDERVALUED TALENT

John Ruiz

It has often been said he has a lot to be quiet about.. what with losses to Tua and then Jones. But in all cases he has regrouped to surprise us with his dogged hugging tenacity. A closer look at his suppressed resume shows some decent names and a couple of alphabet titles to his credit……if you mention his unappreciated ugly wins over Johnson, Holyfield, Rahman… you begin to get a sense of his mettle that the ordinary bystander does not see. As is true to his nature look for John to quietly hold on to the title he regained by hugging his way through spirited challenges from Oquendo and a few challengers.

Vitali Klitchko

Questions about his heart will continue to dog him for the rest of his career because smaller fighters like Hopkins and Gatti failed to quit on their stool after hurting their shoulder against Echols or Ward respectively…..but Vitali showed us his championship resolve when be put up a very heartening performance against veteran Lennox Lewis…. which immediately makes us want to forgive his past transgression in quitting against Byrd.

His fight with Lewis is the harbinger of the hurricane set to flood the division and Vitali will become champion either by design or by default, look for some excitement as he becomes the next white hope when he tries to unify the heavyweight title against Byrd, Ruiz, Tyson or defend against Mesi..Harrison or Guinn..etc… he will look good as he builds a record knocking out these guys in whatever order the come until about his 3rd defense when he cannot protect his beard due to his Ramrod stiff European style and he ends up back in the drawing board wondering what hit him.

Wladimir Klitchko

How the mighty fall and so soon the wolves come out of the thicket.

This plodding giant has got the stuff to be great and as soon as he gets his courage back….look for him to seize back his WBO title and make a couple of defenses. He has the power and amateur background to intimidate any of the current pretender challengers who might come forward. Heavyweight history will be made as two brothers become champions at the same time… Everybody will get back on the Wladimir bandwagon as he feasts on mediocre opponents until he walks into a wild uppercut sometime in 2005.

Iron Mike Tyson

His time is slowly and painfully coming to an end….But money problems will kick his bad ass back into the ring along with more spider web tattoos and surrounded by a mob of tax collectors, hanger ons and pick pockets.

He will be a shadow of himself as he barely gets past mediocre opposition until one champion lured into a false sense of security about his press clippings will step into the ring against the BADDEST man on the planet for a record purse and boxing immortality.

Everything goes according to plan until some time in the middle rounds when suddenly, an angry, chastised, victimized and recharged Mike Tyson unleashes a vicious uppercut deep down the depths of hell packing all the fury of his tribulations and ex wives………and in slow motion the world watches as the referee slowly waves his hands in horror halting the bout and the fans at Madison Garden rise up in anxious shock and go completely berserk as Mike Tyson is Champion again.

Lennox Lewis vs Vitali Klitchko

Lewis has been a great champion but his reign has suppressed a galaxy of talent straining to break loose. Fightkings.com also holds Lewis for the lack of excitement in the heavyweight division presently…….. his wrongs have been numerous from getting $1m to toss a belt instead of fighting Byrd, to only having fought once last year……to not granting Vitali an immediate rematch…..to congratulating Saunders for knocking out Wladimir who mind you he should have fought a long time ago.

And since he will not abdicate his throne, his well deserved ego will push him into a fight with Vitali Klitchko …Lewis won the first fight hands down and it is our opinion, he would have kayoed the stiff Ukrainian if the fight had continued, but in the year 2004 Lewis will log his 250+ pounds of fat into the ring to be repeatedly beat to the punch……nothwithstanding his effort and even if he fights down Klitchko……..the politics….and our resentment against his past intransigence will force the judges to wrench the title from off his head to open the floodgate of new blood into the division.



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