By John Hively

The successful return of Vitali Klitschko may be giving the folks at Ring Magazine a few extra thoughts.

The Ring has refused to give recognition to Wladimir Klitschko as their world’s heavyweight champion until he defeats Samuel Peter a second time, which makes no sense when you think about it, but clearly within their rules. The elder Klitschko’s dominating performance against the much feared Peter cleared the roadblock that his younger brother faced.

What is the Ring going to do now that Vitali has punched Peter down several notches in the ratings? Peter, who was previously ranked at number-two, was knocked down to number-seven, and Vitali was raised to number-two, right behind his younger brother. The Klitschko brothers will not fight each other, so you’ve got to wonder if they will name one of them as The Ring Champion or wait it out for someone to beat them both?

Luckily, the Ring’s championship rules state that under certain circumstances, number-one can duke it out with number-three for the championship. So according to that, Wladimir will be able to punch it out with Ruslan Chagaev for the right to be called The Ring world champion. But then that wouldn’t be fair to Vitali, who won’t fight Wladimir, who also refuses to punch it out with his brother. This suggests the editors of the Ring may have a political problem on their hands.

As we ponder this quandary, we ought to close our ears to the pundits who insist today’s big guys are not as good as those of years past. That may be true of a few eras, but for the most part it’s poppycock, pure hogwash, I say, since every decade has great boxers and sluggers, and good, if not great heavyweights. Someday, twenty-years from now, the critics will write, “Geez, today’s heavyweights are terrible compared to those guys back in 2008, 1994, 1972-77, 1940, 1931 and 1911-16. And many of us will agree.

There is no undisputed champion today, and that’s part of the problem when comparing the talent of this era with those of the past. But make no mistake about it; this heavyweight division is extremely deep.

And yes there isn’t a consensus all-time great now, but if the Klitschko brothers or Chagaev continue their winning ways for several more years, we’ll look back and probably rate them among the top thirty heavyweights of all time.

My top ten are as follows:

1. Wladimir Klitschko, who hasn’t lost in nearly four-years, and during that time he’s been ripping up his fellow contenders, winning nearly every round of all of his bouts. He has significantly improved during this period under the guidance of Emanuel Steward. For example, Wlad uses his feet more to avoid punches than earlier in his career. This guy has a cannon of a left hook and a howitzer of a right cross, and both fists deliver vicious barrages of punches with remarkable speed for a heavyweight. A stamina-deficit accounted for two of his three defeats years ago, but Wladimir paces himself much better nowadays.

2. Ruslan Chagaev has the mental and physical skills needed to give Wlad a run for his money. But he hasn’t fought since January, and he has nothing lined up in the foreseeable future. The Ring may be forced to drop him from its ratings in a few months.

3. Vitali Klitschko was spectacular wiping out Samuel Peter, but don’t let that fool you. As I noted here, Peter was made to order for Klitschko. We should discover how much Vitali has left when he takes on somebody who has speed and knows how to use it. Think of Eddie Chambers, Sultan Ibragimov or Ruslan perhaps. No matter what, it seems the big guy still has a lot left in the tank even at the age of thirty-seven.

4. Nikolai Valuev is robotic, but he has a nice jab and fair punching power. His primary strength is his 325-pounds, spread out over his seven-foot frame. He is improving.

5. Alexander Povetkin beat Chris Byrd and Eddie Chambers. This Olympic gold medalist is being rushed into a bout with Wlad in December. It should be fairly one-sided as Dr. Steel Hammer impales the younger man with left jabs and right crosses.

6. Samuel Peter was exposed by both Klitschko brothers. It’s obvious that Sam is not very competitive against guys with reach, height and power over him; and he is slow and easy to hit. Further, he lacks the iron chin of say, David Tua. But Sam can still bang and defeat a fair number of top twenty contenders. That makes him a force to be reckoned with. He’s also young and can improve.

7. Sultan Ibragimov may have the fastest hands and feet in the division. He also has a solid chin. A good fight for him might be against Peter. Sultan hasn’t fought since losing to Wlad in February 2008.

8. Oleg Maskaev is nearing forty-years of age. His best is probably behind him. He might be at the trial horse stage now. It’s doubtful the old guy can defeat a lot of the top twenty heavyweights, but there are a few: Povetkin perhaps? Rahman? Sure.

9. Eddie Chambers: After Eddie Chambers lost a close decision to Povetkin, an inexcusable thing occurred. He slid out of most top ten ratings. Pasting Calvin Brock and losing a tight one to Povetkin should hardly have bounced this speedster out, but it happened. As of today, Eddie does not have an upcoming bout. But he has won his last two, although those wars proved nothing since they were against no-hopers.

10. Juan Carlos Gomez easily beat back the challenge of tough Vladimir Virchis. Juan has not had a stellar heavyweight career, but he is as ready to move up and challenge a Klitschko or two. Better now than later. Age is catching up to him.

The depth of this division can be shown by the next ten pugilists. This list is made up of hot young prospects and seasoned veterans. Number-twenty Matt Shelton lost a competitive battle against Ruslan Chagaev last year. Last year, Peter barely edged number-eighteen Jameel McCline. The point is this division has a ton of depth, the likes of which we arguably have not seen since 1972-76. And yes, we don’t have a visible all-time great like that era did. It boasted of Ali, Frazier and Foreman, but if the Klitschko's and Chagaev keep winning...

John Ruiz

Chris Arreola

Alexander Dimitrenko

Tony Thompson

Taras Bidenko

Hasim Rahman

Vladimir Virchis

Jameel McCline

David Haye

Matt Shelton

P.S. – In June 1979, Larry Holmes stopped Mike Weaver in defense of his WBC heavyweight title. In March 1980, Weaver defeated John Tate for the WBA title. The Ring then declared Holmes its world champion because he had beaten Weaver previously.

Think about it. Using the same criteria, the Ring could have declared Wladimir its champion when Peter stopped Maskaev. Now that Peter has slid down in the ratings, what are they going to do? Who knows? We might not have a Ring heavyweight champion for another decade.