Cruiserweight: boxing’s most disrespected division

[Wheelchair]

 

 

Pretend for a moment that time travel is possible and we can go back through the years, pluck up various fighters in their primes and bring them to 2010 – sort of a pugilistic Bill & Ted. Say we collect Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano, all at the peak of their powers, and insert them into today’s fight game. They’d instantly be the three most sought-after commodities in boxing, right?

 

Sadly, no. Three of the greatest heavyweight champions in history wouldn’t have much hope in 2010 of attracting the interest of boxing’s deepest-pocketed television executives.

 

Dempsey weighed 187 pounds the day he knocked out Jess Willard for the heavyweight title. Louis weighed 197¼ when he ended the Cinderella reign of Jim Braddock. And Marciano tipped the scales at 184½ the day he flattened Jersey Joe Walcott for the championship. These legendary heavyweight champs were all cruiserweights, according to today’s weight divisions. And there’s a big difference, in the mind of the TV programmer, between cruiserweights and heavyweights.

 

The cruiserweight division turned 30 years old this past March, which means we’re celebrating 30 years of 190- or 200-pound fighters being disrespected because they represent a “bastard” division directly below the most glamorous (historically, anyway) weight class in boxing.

 

That disrespect was mostly warranted for the first 20 years or so of the cruiserweight division’s existence. Evander Holyfield was the only truly great cruiserweight and also the only cruiserweight champ who succeeded as a heavyweight.

 

But the disrespect should have disappeared over the last 10 years. The cruiserweights have consistently delivered more-entertaining fights than their oversized brethren to the divisional north. Several cruisers have proven themselves capable of beating top heavyweights.

 

And yet the disinterested attitude continues. Steve Cunningham vs. Troy Ross took place in Neubrandenberg, Germany over the weekend with no means for American fans to see it other than obscure international internet streams. It was an excellent matchup on paper between the top-rated fighter in the class and a Top-5 contender. Both create entertaining action, both are from North America.

 

Such fighters shouldn’t have to fly across the Atlantic to get paid, but the fact is, HBO and Showtime, which together control all but a few percentage points of the TV boxing budget in the U.S., aren’t throwing money behind the cruiserweights. HBO almost never has. Showtime has dabbled in the division but more or less removed its toe from the water five years ago. That’s why Cunningham – an articulate, impressively built, versatile boxer from Philadelphia – signed with German-based Sauerland Event as his new promoter a month ago.

 

“I am very excited about beginning the next chapter in my boxing career by signing with Sauerland Event,” Cunningham stated at the time. “I believe this is a bold but smart move, especially because of my weight class.”

 

That weight class just can’t seem to shake the stigma of being called “cruiserweights.” That term translates as “less than heavyweights” in many people’s minds. Or “heavyweight lite.” Or “the division that called Marvin Camel, S.T. Gordon and Taoufik Belbouli champions.”

 

What they’re ignoring is that those days are long gone. Sure, there are still some mediocre cruiserweight titlists, but that’s because there are 256 belts per weight class these days and every division has an undistinguished schlub or two parading around with a belt.

 

In the last decade, the cruiserweight division has given us James Toney, David Haye and Tomasz Adamek, all first-rate fighters who went on to beat up world-class heavyweights. It has also given us Cunningham, Jean-Marc Mormeck, Wayne Braithwaite, O’Neil Bell, Vassiliy Jirov and Marco Huck, all legitimate talents who delivered action.

 

The division has provided no shortage of outstanding fights. Toney-Jirov and Adamek-Cunningham were both serious Fight of the Year contenders. Mormeck-Braithwaite, the two Bell-Mormeck fights and Ola Afolabi-Enzo Maccarinelli delivered memorable two-way action.

 

But a great fight like Adamek-Cunningham was relegated to the Versus network, and even after seeing the modern classic that ensued, HBO and Showtime chose not to put money behind a rematch.

 

“The only interest HBO showed in a rematch was based on the theory that they fight each other at heavyweight,” said Main Events President Kathy Duva, who promotes Adamek. “There were conversations with HBO about the rematch, and I understand, they have a limited budget, a limited number of dates, so the conversations never turned serious. Then suddenly, when Tomasz moved up to fight Andrew Golota, the conversation turned to, ‘Wow, if he fights at heavyweight, we’re a lot more interested.’ And they even mentioned the idea that Cunningham would be a good opponent for him at heavyweight.

 

“There’s definitely a stigma attached to the word ‘cruiserweight.’ They get so little respect. Two of the best fights we ever promoted were the first Holyfield-(Dwight) Qawi fight and the Adamek-Cunningham fight. And they did not get the respect they would have gotten if the guys had weighed one pound more.”

 

Simply put, over the last decade cruiserweight has become the most underappreciated weight class in boxing. And it’s not just the television executives who have failed to get on board. Most fans are guilty of it also.

 

We as humans get stuck in a certain mindset, and the cruiserweight division was a punch line for so long that it isn’t easy for people to think of it as anything else. But it’s high time they tried. The public eventually stopped thinking of Justin Timberlake as the annoying kid from the boy band with the Harpo Marx hair and accepted him as a grown-up singing/dancing/acting superstar. Why can’t the boxing world update its image of the cruiserweights to fit what the division has actually become?

 

While there may not be a Marciano-Louis-Dempsey type talent competing at cruiserweight right now, the division currently is what heavyweight used to be: a home to the most athletic big men in boxing.

 

It’s quite possible that Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko would destroy any current cruiserweights, and it might also be that they would defeat the great 200-pound heavyweights of yesteryear. But they lack the grace, the mobility, the speed and the punching volume that an athletic 200-pounder can possess.

 

“The heavyweight division has lost a lot of its luster, and the reason is that the move toward these super-sized human beings has made the sport a lot more dull,” Duva said. “There’s an inconsistency in the way people think these days. Mike Tyson fought at his very best at 216 pounds. Tomasz Adamek is 216 pounds and people are saying he’s too small to be a heavyweight. Those same people who say he’s too small will tell you Tyson was one of the greatest heavyweights of all-time. Well, he was way shorter than Tomasz, and frankly, I could argue that I think Tomasz handles it a lot better when he gets clocked by a heavyweight punch than Tyson did.”

 

Poll 100 serious boxing fans and ask them what the most exciting fight is that can be made in the current heavyweight division, and the runaway winner would be Adamek vs. Haye. It’s not a coincidence that the most action-packed heavyweight fight would match two former RING cruiserweight champs.

 

Adamek and Haye could both get paid well for that fight now, but that wouldn’t necessarily have been the case two or three years ago. And the only thing that has changed is that they’ve stopped training down to a specific number of pounds.

 

On Saturday night in Germany, Cunningham got off the canvas in the fourth round to TKO Ross as the result of a dangerous cut in the fifth – an inconclusive ending to a compelling cruiserweight fight. That sure sounds like a recipe for a rematch.

 

And wouldn’t it be something if the folks in Cunningham and Ross’ hometowns could actually watch it on TV next time.

 

http://www.ringtv.com/blog/2001/cruiserweight_boxings_most_disrespected_division/

[iamasadlittleboy]

Cruiserweights are fun...can't wait to see how Carlos Negron and Lebedev get on

[Wheelchair]

The division did have to suffer the worst title fight ever though. Carlos De Leon vs Johnny Nelson for the WBC title back in 1990.

[grapevine241]

everything south of bantamweight are the most disrespected divisions.

[iamasadlittleboy]

The division did have to suffer the worst title fight ever though. Carlos De Leon vs Johnny Nelson for the WBC title back in 1990.

 

Bobby gun TWICE got title fights too =/

[Wheelchair]

Ezra Sellers vs Carl Thompson was a cracking cruiserweight fight though.

[LondonRingRules]

Re: Cruiserweight: boxing’s most disrespected division

 

......Say we collect Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano, all at the peak of their powers, and insert them into today’s fight game. They’d instantly be the three most sought-after commodities in boxing, right?

 

Sadly, no. Three of the greatest heavyweight champions in history wouldn’t have much hope in 2010 of attracting the interest of boxing’s deepest-pocketed television executives.

 

Dempsey weighed 187 pounds the day he knocked out Jess Willard for the heavyweight title. Louis weighed 197¼ when he ended the Cinderella reign of Jim Braddock. And Marciano tipped the scales at 184½ the day he flattened Jersey Joe Walcott for the championship. These legendary heavyweight champs were all cruiserweights, according to today’s weight divisions. And there’s a big difference, in the mind of the TV programmer, between cruiserweights and heavyweights.

 

-------- More nonsense from Ring, eh?

 

One has to wonder why they didn't include Ali who turned pro in the low 190s and defended in his first reign a couple of times near 200. He'd definitely be a cruiser since that was his primary comp before the Liston fight, sub 200lbers. The Moore, Jones, and Cooper fights could've been his first title challenges at cruiser.

 

It's also inane to think that Dempsey or Rocky couldn't make 200 if they wanted, and Louis was well over 200 during 90% of his championship days, so really this article is just a little nonsense to have a pop at the heavy division by using the cruiser division as a feint.

 

Roy Jones could've easily moved into the cruisers to pick up his 5th belt and extend out his career, but he made a lot of strategic errors late in his career. He could've established the division with some star power, esp had the Toney rematch been made for example, and he had first crack at undefeated Jirov also.

 

Overall, even Holy was not that big of a star as a cruiser, so it's the lack of a dynamic, charismatic champ that has doomed the cruisers, not the weight. Holy needed big, charismatic stars like Foreman, Bowe and Tyson, to become a star. Those stars just don't exist in cruisers yet because their best cruiser candidates from the LH ranks tend to pass over them like Byrd, Roy, Spinks, and Moorer did.

[davemurphy]

After nearly 30 years and periods where I thought the Cruisers were finally turning the corner (I really thought the move up in the weight limit from 190 to 200 would have more of an effect than it has), I'm finally forced to conclude that no matter what we do, Cruiserweight is apparently destined to be the weak sister stuck between it's more glamorous siblings to the North (HW) and to the South (LHW). It's always going to be a Weigh Station on the Highway that features those looking to move up for the Heavy Payday or those simply no longer able to make weight at LH. To say I'm disappointed would be putting it mildly, because I don't recall there EVER being a need for a weight class as great as there was when it was just HW and LHW. It's still of interest, but I don't think it's ever going to produce a mainstream star on it's own........as LRR mentioned, Holyfield himself wasn't really THAT big a star when he was there, only later on after he'd escaped.

[Wheelchair]

Re: Cruiserweight: boxing’s most disrespected division

 

......Say we collect Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano, all at the peak of their powers, and insert them into today’s fight game. They’d instantly be the three most sought-after commodities in boxing, right?

 

Sadly, no. Three of the greatest heavyweight champions in history wouldn’t have much hope in 2010 of attracting the interest of boxing’s deepest-pocketed television executives.

 

Dempsey weighed 187 pounds the day he knocked out Jess Willard for the heavyweight title. Louis weighed 197¼ when he ended the Cinderella reign of Jim Braddock. And Marciano tipped the scales at 184½ the day he flattened Jersey Joe Walcott for the championship. These legendary heavyweight champs were all cruiserweights, according to today’s weight divisions. And there’s a big difference, in the mind of the TV programmer, between cruiserweights and heavyweights.

 

-------- More nonsense from Ring, eh?

 

Not really they're just calling it as they see it, as opposed to yourself who just likes to disagree on principle with any utterance by anyone, anywhere with regard to the fight game.

 

Amazing as it may seem, people are entitled to have a differing opinion to yours!

[LondonRingRules]

After nearly 30 years and periods where I thought the Cruisers were finally turning the corner (I really thought the move up in the weight limit from 190 to 200 would have more of an effect than it has), I'm finally forced to conclude that no matter what we do, Cruiserweight is apparently destined to be the weak sister stuck between it's more glamorous siblings to the North (HW) and to the South (LHW). It's always going to be a Weigh Station on the Highway that features those looking to move up for the Heavy Payday or those simply no longer able to make weight at LH.

 

------- Keep in mind that the supermids were considered in the same vein.

 

Common Calzaghe smear tactic was to slam him for not moving up to LH, but look at the explosion of interest after he retired.

 

Had Holyfield stayed cruiser for a natural cycle before moving up to heavy, and then retire, good chance the division catches on sooner. As it is, recently with Adamek, Cunningham, The Unspellable Pole, Frago, Bell, Mormeck and others, the talent has been pretty decent, it's just the one star missing.

 

Go to boxrec and you'll see a ton of mid 20s cruisers coming up the ranks with good talent, and they are doing quite well in Germany, so perhaps the Americentric gloom and doom view just ain't valid anymore.

 

The first star of cruisers will be watched by Americans, but that's pretty much all the boxing the mainstream can handle, the occasional star bout as Mosley/Floydy was recently. Look how big Danny Green is in Oz, but who watches him outside of Oz as one example, and who in Oz otherwise watch the cruisers?

[iamasadlittleboy]

It's just like SMW in the way it's a Euro division recently (haye, macca, thompson, nelson, huck, wlodarcyzk, frago, adamek) other than cunningham their has been no fighter even of note from the us

[Skav]

Ezra Sellers vs Carl Thompson was a cracking cruiserweight fight though.

 

I remember watching that one live (think it was a Friday night but not certain) and it was an up and downer like anybody wouldn't believe!

 

It was ridiculous how only seconds apart each of them went down.

 

The Holyfield v Qawi fights are classics!

 

Unfortunately, the Cruiserweights will always be in the background of the heavyweights.

[Wheelchair]

Thompson - Rothmann was another cruiser classic.

[Skav]

Thompson - Rothmann was another cruiser classic.

 

I'll have to check that one out, never seen that one.

[Wheelchair]

Do Skav, it's great! What a KO!

[Ironman]

I can agree with alot in that article but not all. The Cruiserweight division might be bland but Prizefighter are soon to do one in that Division and there was talk that when The Super Six ends that they will do another Super Six but at Cruiserweight also.

 

Signs of things changing perhaps ?

[Wheelchair]

There has already been a prizefighter cruiserweight too.

[SeelowHeights]

Surprised that the light-middles haven't really been mentioned - they've been the Naseem Hamed ginger bastard stepchild of the middleweights for years and years.

 

Then again, with fighters like Williams, Angulo, Dzinziruk we might get some entertainment. Kirkland as well when he comes back...

[grapevine241]

i think some of the perception with cruiserweights are that they are too lazy to be light heavyweights and not ambitious enough to be heavyweights.

[davemurphy]

After nearly 30 years and periods where I thought the Cruisers were finally turning the corner (I really thought the move up in the weight limit from 190 to 200 would have more of an effect than it has), I'm finally forced to conclude that no matter what we do, Cruiserweight is apparently destined to be the weak sister stuck between it's more glamorous siblings to the North (HW) and to the South (LHW). It's always going to be a Weigh Station on the Highway that features those looking to move up for the Heavy Payday or those simply no longer able to make weight at LH.

 

------- Keep in mind that the supermids were considered in the same vein.

 

Common Calzaghe smear tactic was to slam him for not moving up to LH, but look at the explosion of interest after he retired.

 

Had Holyfield stayed cruiser for a natural cycle before moving up to heavy, and then retire, good chance the division catches on sooner. As it is, recently with Adamek, Cunningham, The Unspellable Pole, Frago, Bell, Mormeck and others, the talent has been pretty decent, it's just the one star missing.

 

Go to boxrec and you'll see a ton of mid 20s cruisers coming up the ranks with good talent, and they are doing quite well in Germany, so perhaps the Americentric gloom and doom view just ain't valid anymore.

 

The first star of cruisers will be watched by Americans, but that's pretty much all the boxing the mainstream can handle, the occasional star bout as Mosley/Floydy was recently. Look how big Danny Green is in Oz, but who watches him outside of Oz as one example, and who in Oz otherwise watch the cruisers?

 

An interesting take, and one that I think has some merit, at least as far as American Viewership is concerned. There HAS been adequate talent to jump start the division, but just not that one big star to ignite it (as far as over here is concerned). Globaly, it's been much more successful, and perhaps I should focus more on that, and NOT that we're lagging behind in our appreciation here. Good Post.

[davemurphy]

i think some of the perception with cruiserweights are that they are too lazy to be light heavyweights and not ambitious enough to be heavyweights.

 

Yeah, I think guys like James Toney did it a real deservice by seemingly treating it as a opportunity not to have to make weight. Somebody like David Haye, who was in shape and straining to STAY at Cruiser is totally foreign to our thinking.

[Wheelchair]

An exciting killer puncher with a long reign should focus some attention on the division. Even if it's just wondering how they'd do at heavyweight.

[Wheelchair]

Surprised that the light-middles haven't really been mentioned - they've been the Naseem Hamed ginger bastard stepchild of the middleweights for years and years.

 

Then again, with fighters like Williams, Angulo, Dzinziruk we might get some entertainment. Kirkland as well when he comes back...

 

Might be strange now, but it wasn't all that long ago that light-welter was ignored, now it's pretty hot.

[davemurphy]

An exciting killer puncher with a long reign should focus some attention on the division. Even if it's just wondering how they'd do at heavyweight.

 

I think that's the problem though, it's been kind of perceived as a Minor League for HW Potential. I guess it owes to the HW Title's Rich history as Sports Biggest Prize, which is a much bigger shadow that the other "Jr Divisions" have to deal with, even 154 and 140. Just having the more glamorous and lucrative neighbor to the north means the long reign would be cut short :(