Precious few sports can carry global, iconic figures through decades of history. This is often due to either the popularity or standing of the sporting event in question, such as The Fifa World Cup Final (football) with stars like Lionel Messi or being the fastest man on earth in the 100m sprint like Usain Bolt. These are sport stars that are recognised the World over. The Boxing Heavyweight Champion of the World holds a similar level of prestige. You would struggle to find someone who has never heard of Muhammed Ali or Mike Tyson.
It’s no surprise then that over the years, many boxers have jumped up in weight categories in a bid to realise their lofty ambition of becoming Heavyweight Champion and being able to lay claim to the title of ‘The baddest man on the planet’.
Here are the profiles of a selection of boxers, examining the success or indeed failure of those who have dared to dabble with the big boys.
Michael Spinks
A significant fighter in the history of the sport in so many ways. Spinks started out his professional career in the Light-heavyweight division. After securing the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, he made history by leaping from Light-heavy straight to a Heavyweight fight (no cruiserweight division at that time) against the undefeated Larry Holmes who, with a record of 48-0 was on the verge of equalling Rocky Marciano’s record of 49-0. Spinks bulked up significantly for the fight but was still giving away around 15lbs on fight night. He won a narrow and contestable 15 round decision to become IBF Heavyweight Champ and became the first man to ever win a Light-heavyweight World title and a Heavyweight World title. He later lost to a twenty-one-year old Mike Tyson in a devastating first round knockout after failing to recover from a combination of shots from body to head put him down once and he was immediately floored again didn’t make the count.
Heavyweight Claim: Jumped from Light-heavyweight to Heavyweight, along with brother Leon became first pair of brothers ever to be World heavyweight champions.
Verdict: Hit
Evander Holyfield
There’s plenty of scepticism within the boxing industry when a cruiserweight makes the transition to the Heavyweight ranks, especially in todays current climate. It may be that the Heavyweight landscape in recent years has had giants like the Klitschko’s, Lennox Lewis and latterly Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua and so smaller fighters moving up is more noticeable. However when Evander Holyfield moved up from Cruiser in the late 80’s, such was his physique and conditioning (along with the fact that smaller heavyweights like Tyson were on top) it never really felt as though it would be a leap too far for the man nicknamed ‘The Real Deal’. So it proved as Holyfield became World Champ beating James ‘Buster’ Douglas claiming the WBC, WBA and IBF belts.
Holyfield had memorable battles against Lennox Lewis (twice) and Mike Tyson (also twice) including the infamous ear-biting incident.
Heavyweight Claim: Remains only man to be undisputed champion in two weight classes.
Verdict:Hit
Tomasz Adamek
Unusually made the transition from Light-heavy to heavyweight, a jump of two weight classes inside 3 years. A short space of time, but long enough for the Polish operator to unify the IBF, Ring magazine and Lineal cruiserweight titles beating Steve Cunningham and an unbeaten Johnathon Banks along the way, having already held the Light-heavyweight WBC belt.
Despite some notable wins at heavyweight against the likes of Eddie Chambers, Chris Arreola and compatriot Andrew Golota (most famous for being disqualified twice against Riddick Bowe for low blows), he failed to win a full version of a heavyweight title, coming up short in his bid for the WBC heavyweight strap against Vitali Klitschko.
Has picked up various intercontinental and international titles, holds a record of 53 wins and 6 defeats.
Heavyweight Claim: Beat his countryman, the notorious Golota who had challenged four times for a World title.
Verdict: Miss
Roy Jones Junior
Enigmatic, flamboyant and unbeatable at his imperious best. Roy Jones Junior defied the odds on many an occasion and found angles and speed that made even the most observant spectator gasp. Despite that, even the most ardent Jones Junior fan surely couldn’t have envisaged a venture up to heavyweight having competed in and around super-middleweight and Light-heavyweight for the most part of his distinguished career. But that’s exactly what he did, albeit for one fight only against a diminutive heavyweight in John Ruiz, picking up the WBA strap via a wide points decision win, proving too fast and accurate for the cumbersome Ruiz.
He held titles at four different weights, including middleweight, super-middleweight, light-heavy and heavyweight.
Pound for pound will be considered one of the greatest of all time with a stellar list of scalps on his resume, which include Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, Antonio Tarver and Felix Trinidad.
Heavyweight Claim: The only boxer to start his career at junior-middleweight and go on to win a heavyweight world title.
Verdict: Miss
David Haye
The heavyweight division was in danger of becoming stagnant until explosive puncher David Haye blew in through the door that was left ajar by some rather lifeless, high profile championship fights involving the crop of heavyweight title holders around at that time.
After unifying the cruiserweight division, David Haye started his heavyweight quest with swagger and panache by dispatching Monte Barratt. A smaller heavyweight in comparison to most, ‘The Hayemaker’ made up for it with speed and explosive power. The division was on watch and it wasn’t long before he got his shot at heavyweight glory, a fight that will forever look like two fighters super-imposed into the same shot. Haye faced the giant ‘Beast from the east’ Nikolai Valuev for the WBA belt.
It was a hugely impressive, hit and run performance from Haye who miraculously managed to stagger and wobble Valuev, a fighter he was giving away a 7 stone weight advantage and 9 inch height advantage to.
After making defences against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison, he failed in a bid to unify the division against Wladimir Klitschko after an ill-tempered build up on the run up to the fight.
Heavyweight Claim: Only he and Holyfield have unified at cruiserweight and gone on to win heavyweight world title.
Verdict: Hit
Oleksandr Usyk
To be continued…..
Comments