BACK TO THE CRUISERWEIGHT DIVISION
By Michael Amakor
What can you say
about the Cruiserweight Division, for the past several years the
Division has been battling in the throes of obscurity, the last time
the division generated any excitement was when a certain 1984
Olympic bronze medallist by the name of Evander Holyfield beat
Dwight Mohammed Oawi in a sensational fifteen round slugfest back in
1986 to win the WBA Title. Holyfield went on to unify the titles in
the division before leaving the division to become a
Heavyweight.Since his departure there have been a host of vaguely
recognizeable champions like Virgil Hill,
Adolpho Washington, Imamu Mayfield, Uriah Grant, Nate “Mr” Miller,
to name a few, who have all lacked the star power to attract boxing
fans to the division, this situation continued uuabated for several
years further relegating the
Cruiserweights to the dustbin of boxing divisions.
However, a few events are signaling the revival of the division, not
too long ago the various alphabet organizations in their infinite
wisdom increased the weight limit of the division from 190 to 200
pounds in a long overdue move that is sure to retain talented
fighters within the division. The second event happened in a well
publicized boxing event this past April, when we watched WBA
Champion Jean Marc Mormeck, display fearsome punching power, that
backed up WBC Champion “Big Truck” Wayne Braithwaite over twelve
rounds, to annex his title, and become the first unified champion of
the division since 1988.
Notwithstanding these great strides, alot still needs to be done to
garner more interest so that the division can afford to pay its top
ranked championship contenders the prize money they deserve. This is
important because several worthy champions of the division like
James Toney, Juan Carlos Gomes, Al Cole, Orlin Norris, and Vassily
Jirov to name a few have cited these reasons for leaving the
division. However, these ill advised and desperate moves have been
disastrous for their careers as all of them have seen their stock
fall dramatically in their fruitless searches for more money and a
heavyweight title. Out of all of them, only James Toney made a head
way with his steroid tainted reversed victory over John Ruiz for the
WBA Heavyweight Belt.
Light Heavyweight Champions, are also notorious for skipping the
cruiserweight division in their quest for glory, but have paid the
price in my opinion for doing so. Two fighters come to mind
immediatly, the first that I can remember was former WBO Light
Heavyweight Champion Michael Moorer, who skipped the cruiserweight
division entirely and campaigned for the rest of his career as a
full fledged Heavyweight, a few fights later it became apparent that
he had lost the fearsome punching power that had allowed him
dominate the Light Heavyweights, thereafter most of his fights ended
in boring twelve round decisions. Roy Jones also skipped the
division right into a title winning victory over John Ruiz for the
WBA Heavyweight Belt, he decided after that to go all the way back
down from a solid 193 pound muscled champion to a 175 Light
Heavyweight shadow to defend his titles against Antonio Tarver. I
honestly believe that Roy Jones would have preserved his legacy a
little longer if he did not ignore the division when he did. This
sudden fluctuations in weight wrecked his conditioning and
contributed to his losing the second fight against Tarver by kayo
from a single punch, he also got frightfully knocked out by Glen
Johnson in his next fight. In hindsight he should not have subjected
himself to that ordeal and instead should have fought as a
Cruiserweight where he would have been sure to retain his
conditioning and power.
The need for more fighters to revert back to the division became
clearer to me when I watched Vassily Jirov and Orlin Norris battle
each other to a majority draw a few days ago, both guys should serve
as poster boys for what can happen when you leave your natural
weight division into the heavyweight division. I blame the 39 year
old, five feet, eleven inch Orlin Norris less for damaging his
career in his move upwards because back in the day the limit was 190
pounds so it is quite possible that he outgrew the division, or
perhaps he was just to lazy to train to make the weight, but in this
fight you could see that he still has something left in the tank as
he was able to go the distance with the younger Jirov, proving that
he could be a more respectable force if he scales back down to the
cruisers where he will fight guys more his size. You will have to
agree with me that he was monumentally mismatched against six foot
giants like Henry Akinwande and Vitali Klitchko in some of his
losing efforts in the Heavyweight Division.
Jirov on the other hand, gets the most blame for making the same
mistake that has turned his once blossoming career into an ongoing
disaster. He should have consulted former cruiserweight champions
like Al Cole and Juan Gomez who would have warned him about how
their once famed kayo power had little to no effect in the land of
the Heavyweight Division. Jirov lost his very first fight in that
division against Joe Mesi, he lost his very next fight against
passive
Michael Moorer by kayo, and has now battled Orlin Norris to a draw.
He should understand that he does not have the power to be effective
in the division, and should as a matter of urgency do back down to
the Cruiserweight Division. He should do so before a few more losses
force fans and boxing experts to perceive him as yet another journey
man.
Personally, I would like to see Jirov match his wits against WBA and
WBC champion Jean Marc Mormeck in a
fight that is sure to generate more interest in the division and
secure for both fighters a huge pay day. After that we should start
clamoring for the winner to unify the division. Things will get very
interesting when that happens because there are two fighters of
British vintage lurking in the shadows waiting to spring a surprise
on boxing fans, one of them is the unknown, but highly ranked WBO
Champion Johnny Nelson and IBO Champion Carl “The Cat” Thompson who
once feasted on former champions Chris Eubank and Ralf Rocchigiani
in dramatic fashion.
Another great fighter in the division is Wayne Braithwaite who
showed great courage in getting up from a knock down in his fight
with Mormeck. He was able to switch styles under pressure and land a
ferocious volley of punches that would have stopped any newly
crowned IBF Champion O’Neil Bell dead in his tracks. Braithwaite
should consider easing himself back into position by seizing the IBF
title to prepare himself for a rematch with Mormeck or as a
contender in a unification series.
On a final note perhaps the fighters are not to blame for the state
of the division, because I just read that Don King won the purse bid
to promote a bout between Virgil "Quicksilver" Hill, and the
unbeaten Russian, Valery Brudov for the WBA regular cruiserweight
title which is now vacant because Jean Marc Mormeck was declared the
Super champion. The King usually puts together great fights, but I
have to disagree with him on this one, this is another
meaningless fight contracted in hell, that will slow the momentum of
interest in the division. But perhaps it is all for the better as
the Brudov may force Virgil Hill to retire for good, and inject new
fresh blood into the crowded deck of
Cruiserweight Championship contenders.
Punch On
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