By Troy Ondrizek

Wladimir Klitschko’s recent destruction of Ruslan Chagaev finally gave the WBO/IBF champion and the rest of the heavyweight division some closure.  He is now the definitive champion at the weight.  One of the reasons it took so long for a linear champion to be crowned, and one of the reasons nobody cares about the heavyweights, is because of the dearth of talent.  Though a lot of questions were answered regarding the division on the 20th of last month, there is one important question still lingering, who is most deserving of a title shot now?  The best answer to that question (older brother Vitali Klitschko) is not even an option. 

Looking over the possible candidates and finding one that’s the most deserving is literally impossible.  Not because there aren’t a couple of contenders out there, but because most have yet to prove their worth.  In terms of being battle tested like the Klitschkos are, no one is honestly close.  With the exception of John Ruiz that is, and I don’t accept Ruiz as a viable candidate for anything but retirement. 

The talent level in any division varies from year to year.  Some divisions have incredible depth at the moment, take the welterweights.  Where any top 5 welterweight can headline a PPV card and guys not even in the top 25 headline multiple shows on Showtime (Luis Carlos Abregu).  Yet two of the top three heavyweights in the world end up on ESPN Classic in the first championship fight in six years. 

For one man to completely clean out the welterweight division right now would be an achievement that would warrant all-time great status.  To completely clean out the heavyweight division right now one would be lucky to even land a mention along with Earnie Shavers. That’s the situation that Wladimir Klitschko is faced with.  His shortcomings in legacy can be partially attributed to his fighting style and partially to his lack of opposition.  In regards to his opposition, the fact that they’re not truly ready for a title shot is only their fault. 

The heavyweights get the most money for the least amount of credibility so why risk future earnings by fighting another contender or top prospect when you could make a little less but still be guaranteed a win against a journeyman?  That’s been the mantra of the heavyweights for the past 5 years.  Like electricity they take the path of least resistance to a title shot and once there they hope lightning strikes.  What a poor way to prove one’s worth and that’s the fundamental problem with the heavyweight division.  Too many unproven, over-protected, prima donnas who feel that simply existing gives them the right to the title.  Fortunately, the young guns don’t necessarily have the same motto, theirs is more like “We’ll try to fight the best, but if we can’t, we’ll fight each other”.  That’s how it should be done; to be prepared once you’ve hit the top is the norm, not the heavyweight exception.  It’s hard to pass a test if you never studied.  With that in mind, I’m going to review the best possible candidates to Klitschko’s crown and let you pick the correct one.

The question before you is who is the most qualified individual to contend for the heavyweight crown?

1. David Haye (22-1, 21KO) (Ring ranking: 8) is the man who was slated to fight Klitschko last month.  He pulled out with a back injury setting up the opportunity for Chagaev to get pummeled by numerous right hands.  Haye is 2-0 as a heavyweight with wins over journeyman Monte Barrett and never-been Tomasz Bonin.  He stopped both men, but was down against the former.  It’s not his heavyweight credentials that warrant him a fight for the heavyweight title, it’s his cruiserweight.  He was the undisputed linear cruiserweight champion of the world.  No one was on par with him at that weight and champions moving up in weight to fight other champions happens all the time.  No one complained when Ricky Hatton went north to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., Rafael Marquez found only respect from fans when he squared off against Israel Vazquez, and I don’t need explain why Joe Calzaghe wasn’t criticized when he fought Bernard Hopkins.  So to bitch and moan that David Haye doesn’t deserve a title shot because he was only the cruiserweight champion is nothing short of ignorant.  Just because you don’t like the man’s methods of ridicule and constant trash talk, doesn’t mean there isn’t merit in his championship efforts.

2. Alexander Povetkin (17-0, 12KO) (Ring ranking: 2) grabbed super heavyweight gold in Athens eight years after Wladimir did the same in Atlanta.  Unlike Klitschko who was babied to start out his career, Povetkin was put in tough early to properly build him up.  It took Wladimir 36 fights with a loss included to even battle for an alphabet strap.  Povetkin is most likely going to fight Wladimir for the heavyweight crown in only his 18th professional bout.  Victories over fringe contenders Larry Donald and Friday Ahunanya were two good wins for the young fighter. 

Throw in a dominant performance over a faded former titlist in Chris Byrd and two of his best wins to date are against two other young fighters, American Olympian Jason Estrada and top 5 contender Eddie Chambers.  The Chambers fight was by far his toughest test in which the young Povetkin was out-skilled and clearly out-classed.  He wasn’t out-hustled and more importantly, he wasn’t out-fought.  Chambers sliced and diced and hammered Povetkin with sharp counters and crisp one twos.  It was beautiful, but Sasha kept coming, barreling through the shots forcing his will upon Chambers like my bulldog upon the neighborhood children.  He was buzzed at times and ended up bruised, but in the end Alexander Povetkin was victorious.

3. Nikolai Valuev (50-1, 34Ko) (Ring ranking: 4) is quite possibly the most undeserving fighter in the top 10. In his last appearance (it sure as hell wasn’t a fight) Valuev was out-worked by a geriatric Evander Holyfield.  I don’t know what was a greater struggle, to watch the fight, or score a round in favor of Valuev?  The 7ft. man from Russia started his career as a sideshow act and has put in a great amount of work to make himself a viable fighter.  He has a solid jab when used, and his height and chin are his best assets.  While not a formidable puncher, he is no slouch either and has solid stamina for a man his size.  He gets demerits for getting gift decisions against Larry Donald and Evander Holyfield, and if he was merely boring, it would be an improvement.  He would be the only man to ever tower over the 6’6” Wladimir.

4. Cristobal Arreola (27-0, 24KO) (Ring ranking: 6) is the wild card amongst the contenders.  He is labeled as such because he is in fact just that, wild.  No heavyweight in the world outside of Denis Boytsov puts on such a ferocious performance in the ring.  Arreola is everything we want in a heavyweight action-wise and has the personality outside of the ring.  He goes by the nickname of “The Nightmare” and he is the personification of such to his opponents.  For all that he is offensively; he completely lacks the defensive aspect of boxing.  Anyone who can throw a straight shot (did Wlad automatically come to mind?) will touch Arreola with ease.

Heavyweight hopeful Travis Walker put him down using this technique.  Only to have Arreola get up and knock him out.  Cristobal has some power, but not knockout power, more of a combination puncher who overwhelms you.  No speed or angles, but does put a lot of emphasis on body punching.  He has the style that makes his opponents fight going backwards, if they are weak in doing so (did Wlad automatically come to mind?) he has a huge advantage.  He would have to get by the jab first though, and it seems that he has an easier time calculating quasars than he does figuring out how to dodge a jab.  If he can take his training more serious, the kid has a bright future in the sport and can attract the American audience back to the division.

The winner of this weekend's fight between Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0, 19KO) (Ring ranking: 7) and Eddie Chambers (34-1, 18KO) (Ring ranking: 5) would become yet another mandatory for some worthless sanctioning body.  With the politics aside, this is one damn good fight for the division.  Earlier I stated that this upcoming generation is willing and able to fight each other while they are young, this is what I’m talking about. 

Chambers has already battled young guns Derric Rossy, Raphael Butler, Calvin Brock, and Samuel Peter in winning fashion; and lost a tough fight with Alexander Povetkin.  Dimitrenko has been brought along slowly. I once thought he was a waste of height and was a colossal failure waiting to happen.  Since then, I have gone on record stating that he is the future of the division and not far off from being the present.  This Saturday will go a long ways in validating my soothsaying skills.  As for Eddie, he is the best defensive heavyweight in the game and his moniker of “Fast” Eddie Chambers is accurate, but a more fitting name would be “Fast but Choosy” Chambers.  He has the skill to pick apart any heavyweight, just he doesn’t keep his hands going enough, and his size of 6’1” and a pudgy 220lbs is a hindrance.  If Eddie was just a bit bigger and busier, he would be the best heavyweight in the world for the next several years. 

There are several fighters wishing they were the mandated number two to Wlad’s crown, but they’re not, Vitali is.  Beyond that it gets a bit murky, but very interesting.  There is no right answer now, but soon enough there will be.

Extra Notes:  I don’t normally do this, but in the wake of Alexis Arguello’s untimely death I must say something.  I was born while Arguello was champion, so it’s not like I really grew up with the man, but I kind’ve did.  My old boxing trainer would make all of us watch his fights and try to mimic his style.  We all know he did everything great in the ring and his life afterwards was full of depression and substance abuse.  You can call me naive if you must, but in my line of work I have seen hundreds of successful suicides throughout the years and not one of them included a gunshot to the chest.  I though have seen several homicides of that nature.  At the moment I refuse to believe that a man, who battled so valiantly in the ring in the toughest of conditions and a man who waged war against the same government he recently joined, would throw in the towel so soon on this fight.  I’m more than a bit skeptical.  The end result is the same, that a great fighter is no longer with us.  Thank you Alexis Arguello for fighting for us for all those years, you will be sorely missed.