Widespread frustration with the heavyweight division threatens boxing’s future

Steve Hoyles

Steve Hoyles looks back through the eras of heavyweight boxing to understand where the division is heading

Throughout history, the heavyweight champion of the world has been the most coveted title in sport. Those that held the crown in boxing reached an immortality that world champions in other sports can’t. Boxing is at its best with a thriving heavyweight division… but those days are gone.

In the 1960s, genuine rivalries between Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Floyd Patterson, and Sonny Liston spilled from the ring into real life. Personalities transcended the sport, none more than Ali who became a superstar as he beat down racial barriers. His taking of Sonny Liston’s title in 1964 brought widespread attention to boxing. 

Column inches filled with boxing news and TV audiences tuned in as the cocky upstart delivered on his promise of victory. In an era of social change, boxing, led by Ali, a young, Black Muslim, was at the forefront. As he brought non-boxing fans in, boxing became part of the social fabric.

Ali was banned in 1967 after refusing to fight in the Vietnamese War. When he returned in 1970, the rivalries that simmered in the ‘60s really boiled over. Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ken Norton, and Ron Lyle made this a golden era for heavyweight boxing. Four of boxing’s greatest ever fights took place in that decade – Ali and Foreman’s Rumble in the Jungle, and the trilogy between Ali and Frazier, who’d won the titles vacated during the ban. 

In this fraught era of score settling and PR campaigns, boxing wasn’t just a sport, it was the culture. It changed attitudes to race, religion, and politics in a way we’d never seen, and elevated heavyweight boxing to new heights. Those heights however were boxing’s peak.

The glorious 1970s heavyweight era faded with the retirement of the greats. The 1980s seemed boring in comparison. It will be remembered for the emergence of Mike Tyson but the lack of rivalries turned punters away from heavyweight boxing. 

Nobody wants unchallenged domination. Tyson won fights before the first bell, such was the power of his aura. As opponents feared and avoided him, boxing generated little interest. Thankfully, the sport retained relevance 80s thanks to a stellar ‘Four Kings’ rivalry in the middleweights. Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns produced some of the most gripping fights of any era to sustain boxing enthusiasts.

By the 1990s, Cool Britannia was in full swing, the American economy was booming, and the Cold War was over; the future was bright. Another special decade of boxing was upon us. Sky’s coverage built momentum, wall-to-wall reporting allowed time for narratives to develop and interest to build. As money flowed into boxing, boxers and fighters became personalities that transcended the sport.

The ‘90s heavyweight scene was stellar. The emergence of Lennox Lewis, Donovan ‘Razor’ Ruddock, and Evander Holyfield gave the division had genuine competition for the first time in over a decade. Casual fans’ interest rapidly returned. Domestically, there was Lewis and Frank Bruno’s rivalry with plenty of bad blood with insults traded in the press. Internationally, epic fights between Holyfield and Tyson drew enormous attention. Lewis duked out an momentous two-fight battle with Holyfield before knocking out Tyson, securing his legacy as the best of the era.

The British boxing scene had the Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn rivalry. Their bitter dislike of one another was played out between the media coverage and the ring. They faced off twice, and the two fights have gone down in history. And the future of British interest in boxing was secured with the emergence of Joe Calzaghe and Ricky Hatton in the late ’90s, world title winners who the public adored. When Hatton travelled, thousands of fans went with him. Boxing had never seen anything like it.

Following Lewis’ retirement in 2004, heavyweight boxing wilted. Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko began a decade of dominance, holding all the belts. Thankfully, the middleweights were fantastic, and there was real action in the welterweights. Floyd Mayweather, Ricky Hatton, Manny Pacquiao, Joe Calzaghe and Andre Ward held attention as interest in the golden division declined.

Heavyweight boxing was down but not out. Tyson Fury defeating Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 kickstarted the new era. The belts were scattered. Fury’s mental health struggles threw opportunities into the division, and the likes of Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, and Joseph Parker grabbed them with both hands. At the same time, boxing really embraced social media. YouTube journalists were given access, fans got closer to the action, and Eddie Hearn became a brand. It appeared boxing had fended off competition from the UFC to assert its dominance. 

Then boxing committed the ultimate defensive sin… it dropped its guard. Teasing blockbuster bouts whetted fans’ appetites. It had to deliver, but time and again, big fights never arrived. A heavyweight unification fight between Joshua and Wilder was frequently mentioned, but disputes between broadcasters, sanctioning bodies, disagreements, promoters, and fighters meant it was never made. 

Fury and Wilder’s trilogy offered hope, but it sparked genuine hope for an all-British heavyweight unification bout between Fury and Joshua which never arrived. The goalposts moved, egos got in the way. It remains a ‘what if?’

The beginning of the end for this era of heavyweight boxing was when Oleksandr Usyk entered the fray. He beat everyone up, taking their belts and reputations, and was even gracious enough to rematch Joshua, Fury and Daniel Dubois, offering them a shot at redemption. They all missed. There are echoes of the 2000s with all the heavyweight belts belonging to Ukraine.

Letting fans get so close to the sport made them emotionally invested, and so the pain of inaction was felt more acutely. Fans wanted the big fights, the sport needed the big fights, but fights took too long to be made if they were made at all. It was a time when boxing needed to pull together for the benefit of the sport. But it didn’t.

Boxing is the grandfather of combat sports. It’s where the money and glamour lie, but market share is being lost through hubris, lack of innovation and currently, a lack of talent. With the best MMA fighters all competing in the UFC, the big fights actually happen. There’s drama, intrigue, and rivalry; we see scores settled in the octagon.

Boxing was always carried by the heavyweights, but its current heavyweights are ageing. Interest in Joshua vs Fury has waned. Joshua vs Wilder is irrelevant. Usyk has a fight, possibly two left in him. Moses Itauma looks good, but who will challenge him? Sport needs rivalries. 

Whereas the lighter divisions stepped up in times of trouble previously, they’re not well set to now. Terrence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez are superb but they’re approaching the end. Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev served up some classics, but Beterbiev is over 40. There’s little in the way of exciting talent coming through in any division.

Boxing isn’t out for the count but it’s certainly on the ropes. It needs to shoot a glance at the UFC and, dare I say it, the Misfits brand – big shows, big personalities, big fights. If boxing doesn’t help itself, its 300-year reign as the king of the combat sports will be over.

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