Cruiserweight Mania:

Cruiserweight Glorification: The least talked about division (outside of minimum-weight/Strawweight) today on November the 10th got it’s day in the spotlight. And the big cruiserweights did not disappoint as the battle of Manchester and the WBSS tournament fights in Chicago was terrific.

Oleksandr Usyk vs Tony Bellew:
Usyk (15-0) vs Bellew (30-2-1) for all four major title belts from Manchester Arena, England. Lots of hype Leading up to the fight as undefeated / universal / undisputed Cruiserweight Champion Usyk fights Bellew (moving back down in weight). Usyk wants to KO Bellew and move up to heavyweight. Usyk goal is to also be Undisputed Heavyweight Champion and go down in history as one of the greatest- Bar-None. I don’t know how The Cat will do in the Heavyweight division; heavyweights nowadays are a lot bigger but not less athletic. When Usyk fights champions that are 3-4 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier, he will have to change his aggressive come forward -relentless style and learn to box more because The situation will be flipped and he will no longer be able to bully the smaller fighters, also I wonder if any of the Heavyweight Champions will respect his power?

The Fight: From Manchester
Oleksandr Usyk vs Tony Bellew:

Round 1: Usyk moving well with his hands up and behaving like a world-class boxer. Bellew being aggressive but boxing like he’s out of shape with no head movement and his hands down.

Round 2. Good round for Bellew, really showing off his boxing skills. I think Usyk is a great boxer and the best in his Division (weak division), but he is not a pound for pound great. For the amount of punches he absorbs he doesn’t have the power to back it up. For example, if you weigh his weight/power and compared it to Errol Spence or Naoya Inoue’s weight/power, Usyk results are far inferior.

Round 3. Usyk coming out aggressive now, and Bellew boxing well trying to do his best James Toney impression.

Round 4. Bellew fooling around too much, it’s now Bellew’s skills against Usyk’s Will.

Round 5. After watching round five it reaffirms the weaknesses of the cruiserweight division. I kept thinking of how Roy Jones Jr. or Andre Ward would have a field-day with Usyk.

Round 6-8. Bellew acting like a heavy out of shape James Toney and an old man Bernard Hopkins trying to preserve his energy and looking for that one single counter shot. Bellew gets Knocked-Out in the 8th round (more from fatigued then anything else, he just doesn’t have the stamina to go 12 rounds) in a good fight that showed the Beauty of boxing in many many ways. We saw it all in this fight: Usyk’s will, Bellew’s skills and the love and respect that runs deep in the sport we love.

UIC Pavilion, Chicago Illinois:
The World Boxing Super Series
WBSS cruiserweight Tournament:

Mairis Briedis vs Noel Gevor (Mikaelian):
Briedis (24-1, 18Ko’s) 33 years old is the first Latvian to win a world title. His only loss was a slim Majority decision to the bigger, relentless Oleksandr Usyk. 28 year old Noel Gevor (23-1) from Yerevan, Armenia, is coming of a victory against American Isiah Thomas.

Mairis Briedis vs Noel Gevor Mikaelian:
Briedis started boxing the first few rounds well and then Mikaelian started landing some hard shots in rounds 4-6. Mikaelian also got a point deduction for hitting behind the head. Rounds 6-12 were very physical (with Briedis losing a point) with a lot of holding and grabbing, the entire fight was very sloppy. Briedis somehow squeezed out the decision and won. Briedis reminded me tonight of Wladimir Klitschko in 2004 when he fought and lost to Lamon Brewster. Briedis seemed to have no energy, he had a hard time breathing throughout the whole bout and just didn’t look right, he seemed very dry, Mikaelian should have put more pressure on him instead of looking for single shots the entire fight.

Krzysztof Glowacki vs Maxim Vlasov:
In the other WBSS Cruiserweight bout of the day, 32-year-old boxers Glowacki (30-1, 19 Ko’s) from Poland and Maxim Vlasov (42-2, 25Ko’s) from Samara, Russia go at it.

Krzysztof Glowacki vs Maxim Vlasov:
Glowacki hurt Vlasov really bad in the first round coming off a break, I thought the fight would end, but Vlasov recovered well. In the third round Vlasov fell to the canvas when he was off-balance but the referee called it a knockdown because Glowacki was throwing a punch and in real time I guess it’s hard to determine if it was a knock down or not. Through seven rounds I am very impressed with both boxers. Glowacki is very talented and might be the top Cruiserweight and Vlasov is as tough as nails, goodness is he resilient, he has taken some big shots and it doesn’t seem to affect him at all. Good fight, great round 10, both guys leaving it all in the ring. I give Glowacki credit because he is clearly out boxing Vlasov and up on the score cards, but he is still taking chances and being aggressive (taking a big risk) and trying to go for the knockout. Great Heart from both of these men who put on a great show. Glowacki won by unanimous decision and moves on to fight Mairis Briedis in the semi-final of the WBSS Cruiserweight Tournament.

Artur Mann (14-0) vs Alexey Zubov:
On the night of big cruiserweight action, these two cruiserweights stole the show. Greed II Movie star Zubov came out in the first round and forgot to play defense. Mann (Thunder-Man) knocked Zubov down in the middle of the round and Zubov went down again Hard and was saved by the bell (Zubov is to tough for his own good). Surprisingly, he came back strong and outboxed Mann till the seventh round when he got dropped again. The Doctor checked him out in between rounds as a precautionary which I thought was a great idea. Zubov again took some very very heavy shots in the ninth round and both men finished the fight on their feet after 10 rounds. I hope they take some precautions and send Zubov to the hospital to get checked out. Mann improved his record to 15-0, in a brutal fight.

Also in Jr. Welterweight action, Shohjahon Ergashev improved to 14-0 after knocking out Zack Ramsey in the first round.

In celebration of probably the biggest day in cruiserweight division history, we look back at the Best Cruiserweights in Boxing History:

By looking at the names of the top cruiserweights of all time, you can probably see for yourself this is not the most glamorous and famous division in boxing. The cruiserweight division isn’t really my cup of tea; it’s like two heavyweights with no punching power slapping each other.

Created in around 1980, The cruiserweight division is a good middle between light heavyweight and heavyweight. Prior to 1980 (and in many ways still today) Most of the best light Heavyweight champions who wanted to make a name or splash moved up to heavyweight, that is one of the main reasons why really outside of Evander Holyfield and now superstar Oleksandr Usyk, there’s not that much excitement and history in the Cruiserweight division. If we were actually going by strictly weight as opposed to official divisions, Greats like Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano (who weighted around 190 pounds in there prime) would be on top of the greatest cruiserweight division list.

Best Cruiserweights in Boxing History:

1. Evander Holyfield
2. Carlos De Leon
3. Oleksandr Usyk (rising)
4. Juan Carlos Gómez
5. David Haye
6. Yoan Pablo Hernandez
7. Marco Huck
8. Johnny Nelson
9. Jean Marc Mormeck
10. Krzysztof Glowacki (rising)
11. Vassiliy Jirov
12. James Toney
13. Denis Lebedev
14. Tony Bellew
15. Mairis Briedis (rising)
16. Fabrice Tiozzo
17. Anaclet Wamba
18. Grigory Drozd
19. Steve Cunningham
20. Dwight Muhammad Qawi

Honorable Mentions: O’Neil Bell, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Tomasz Adamek and Orlin Norris.

I will leave it up to the fans imagination, to really know who the top cruiserweights of all time could have been if the division had existed earlier in the last century. Some of the top light heavyweights of all time would have made the current cruiserweight list easy.