After seeing heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko dominate David Haye for a one-sided unanimous decision in a WBA title fight that was hyped to be a brawl, it reminded me how broken this division really is. The fight was boring from the start with Klitschko establishing his jab in the early rounds and going on to outscore Haye on every card, 118-108, 116-110 and 117-109.

Yeah, Klitschko improved his record to Hall of Fame type numbers at 56-3 with 49KOs and improved to 17-2 in title fights but it was a typical yawner, like all the heavyweight title fights over recent years.

The smaller Haye who earned more attention for his cheesy pre-fight shirt that showed him holding the severed heads of the Klitschko brothers, fell to 25-2 with 23 Kos.

This fight was typical of today’s standards; nothing like many of the classics we saw in the 70’s or Mike Tyson’s run in the 90’s when the weight class lived up to the hype and kept us at the edge of our seats.

During those 70’s I was notorious for skipping out on work, risking jobs when a set of competent heavies were scheduled to go toe-to-toe because I knew these brawls would leave a lifelong memory and they have.

Muhammad Ali, ‘Smoking Joe’ Frazier and ‘Big’ George Foreman climbed through the ropes in many of those fights that lived up to their hype including “Fight of the Century”, “Rumble in the Jungle” and “Thrilla in Manila”. From 1968-77 one of those three boxing icons would hold the heavyweight title while the others were obsessed with getting it back.

The torch was later handed off to Larry Holmes who usually struggled to find a worthy opponent until a troubled 20-year-old named “Iron” Mike became the youngest heavyweight champ and one of the most dominating fighters to ever step in the ring. Tyson was billed as “The Baddest Man on the Planet” and for good reason. He was chasing Rocky Marciano’s record of 49-0 until he ran into a path of self-destruction that landed him in jail and destroyed his reputation.

Since the implosion of Tyson, boxing has been starving for another charismatic character to step in and with that looking impossible at this point there is only one fix to this division.

The only hope for this faltering division would be matching up the Ukrainian Klitschko brothers, champs Vitali 42-2, (39 -KO) and Wladimir 56-3 (49 KO) but the siblings say they the fight will never happen. Like “Rumble in the Jungle” and “Thrilla in Manila” this “Fight of the Millennium” would be worthy of having a name.

In the meantime boxing fans will be presented with fights like the Haye vs. Klitschko sleeper while seeing other so-called contenders like “The Nigerian Nightmare” come and go.

And that’s what this division has become…. a nightmare.

Originally from Detroit, Tom is an Atlanta-based sportswriter whose work has been published in the New York Daily News, Washington Times, Detroit Free Press and national hockey mags including The Hockey News (Canada) and USA Hockey Magazine. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomFerda

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