Who is the Real Heavyweight Champion?

By Ken Hissner, Dog House Boxing (September 1, 2016)

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In July WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder, 37-0 (36), of AL, USA, stopped Chris “Nightmare” Arreola, 36-5-1 (31), of CA,in Birmingham, AL, Wilder’s hometown. In Arreola’s previous fight he failed a drug test. Wilder had 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, who failed a drug test and passed on second time around. Povetkin is also a former Olympic Gold medalist. Now Povetkin must defeat the former WBC champion and ranked No. 2 Hatian Bermane “B.WARE” Stiverne, 25-2-1 (21), of Las Vegas whom lost to Deontay Wilder in January of 2015 by decision and is the only opponent of his to go the distance.

Tyson Fury, 25-0 (18), UK, 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, 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. No date is set and Klitschko is considering bringing a lawsuit against Fury to make the re-match.

WBA World champion is Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne, 24-0 (17), AUST, 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, was scheduled to fight No. 3 Alexander Ustinov, 33-1 (24), RUS/Belarus but nothing is confirmed. The winner may be in line to fight Browne.

IBF champion and Olympic Gold medalist Anthony Joshua, 17-0 (17), UK, 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, 20-0 (17), NZ/NV, USA, who stopped No. 11 WBA contender Solomon Haumono, 24-2-2 (21), NZ, AUST, in July.Parker is No. 8 in the WBA and No. 4 in WBC. He is scheduled to fight Alexander “Sascha” Dimitrenko, 38-2 (24), a Russian fighting out of Germany October 1st.

So you have a pair of champions fighting out of the UK in Fury and Joshua. One from Australia in Browne and one from NZ in Parker and finally the USA in Wilder. It would make sense if Joshua fights the Fury-Klitschko winner. Browneneeds to fight Parker since defeating Haumono and Wilder fight Povetkin.

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. Parker is high in two of the organizations but does he have 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!

Please send all questions and comments to Ken Hissner at: Kenhissner@gmail.com

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