Who is the Real Heavyweight Champion?
By: Ken Hissner
This Saturday WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder, 36-0 (35), of AL, USA, age 30, defends his title against Chris “Nightmare” Arreola, 36-4-1 (31), of CA, age 35. in Birmingham, AL, Wilder’s hometown. In Arreola’s last fight he failed a drug test. Wilder has defended against No. 12, No. 9, No. 7 and now another No. 9. He was scheduled to fight Alexander “Russian Vityaz” Povetkin, 30-1 (22), of RUS, age 36, who failed a drug test and passed on second time around. Povetkin is also a former Olympic Gold medalist.
Tyson Fury, 25-0 (18), UK, age 27, who holds both the WBA and WBO titles since defeating now former WBA, WBO and IBF world champion and Olympic Gold medalist Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer” Klitschko, 64-4 (53), UKR, age 40, who is now No. 2 in both the WBA and WBO. This took place in November of 2015. Fury was scheduled to give Klitschko a rematch but injured his hand in training. There may be a bout in September but no date has been set.
WBA World champion is Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne, 24-0 (17), AUST, age 37, having won the title in March stopping Ruslan “White Tyson” Chagov, 34-2-1 (21), of UZE/GER. The No. 1 contender and WBA interim champion is Luis “King Kong” Ortiz, 25-0 (22), CUBA/Miami, USA, age 37, is schedule to fight No. 3 Alexander Ustinov, 33-1 (24), RUS/Belarus, age 39. The winner may be in line to fight Browne.
IBF champion and Olympic Gold medalist Anthony Joshua, 17-0 (17), UK, age 26, recently won the title stopping Charles Martin who has dropped to No. 10 in the rankings. He defended his title with a stoppage of Dominic Breazele in June. His last four opponents had been unbeaten.
The No. 1 IBF and WBO contender is Joseph Parker, 19-0 (16), NZ/NV, USA, age 24, who is fighting No. 11 WBA contender Solomon Haumono, 24-2-2 (21), NZ, AUST, July 21st in NZ. Parker is No. 8 in the WBA and No. 4 in WBC. The winner could be in line to fight Joshua.
So you have a pair of champions fighting out of the UK in Fury and Joshua. One from Australia in Browne and one from USA in Wilder. It would make sense if Joshua fights the Fury-Klitschko winner. Browne to the fight Parker-Haumono winner and Wilder fight Povetkin. As noted quite a few of the top boxers are between 35 and over like Klitschko and Humono both 40. Ustinov is 39, Ortiz and Browne are 37. Povetin is 36 and Arreola 35. Wilder is 30, Fury 27, Joshua 26 and Parker 24.
Joshua is without a doubt the champion to reckon with in the future since only having 17 fights. Klitschko was considered the best holding three titles until a very poor showing losing to Fury who didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Wilder is still untested while the Povetkin fight was to be his toughest test until cancelled. Arreola is a big underdog to Wilder. Parker is high in two of the organizations but doesn’t look like he has champion qualities. Browne is a late comer who won his title in Russia and could be a spoiler. The most dangerous is probably Ortiz. Any way you look at it there are several who could achieve three titles as Klitschko did.
It’s also the feeling Klitschko will win the title back. Fury has mentioned this could be his last fight. So unless the champions fight one another it could be a long time until there is going to be an undisputed champion holding all four titles!