Defending the Light Heavyweight Division as the Best Weight Class in Boxing:
For the last couple of decades, the light heavyweight division has been a dull, moribund place with too few strong fighters to merit much attention. During my own long stint as an amateur and white collar boxer, I had to look back to when I was in grade school to recall a time when the division was exciting, and that meant looking to the early and middle 1980s.
The light heavyweight doldrums are now over. Today the 175 lbs weight class is one of the strongest in the sport, and here’s why:
See the full series – Which weight division is the best in boxing today?
1. Excitement:
At 175 lbs we’ve got crosstown (Montreal) rivalries galore, the oldest reigning champion of all-time (B-Hop), and three guys in the Top 10 who can knockout punch a tough guy’s button with a single blow (Stevenson, Kovalev, Cloud).
Points: 4/5
2. Star Power:
One of the biggest, best-established names in boxing sits at the top of the light heavyweight heap in the form of Bernard Hopkins. Chad Dawson, Lucian Bute, and Jean Pascal are all familiar names among boxing fans, and Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev’s awesome punching power are sure to make them stars in the near future.
Points: 3/5
3. Depth:
This is the foundation of the light heavyweight revival. The division has a mix of rising young bloods (Kovalev, Stevenson, Shumenov), veterans (Pascal, Dawson), and fringe contenders (Cloud, Grachev, Erdei, Diaconu, etc.), plus one living legend (Hopkins). Frankly, does any other division in the sport have a line-up like this?
Points: 5/5
4. Potential & Influence:
Whether it be against Floyd Mayweather or someone like Stevenson or Kovalev, Bernard Hopkins is set to find himself in a major PPV clash in the near future. Stevenson, Pascal, and Bute can duke it out for bragging rights in Montreal for years to come. And who doesn’t want to see Stevenson and Kovalev bang each other up in a puncher’s shoot-out?
Points: 4/5
5. Pound for Pound Standing:
This is where the division falters. To find it’s first Pound for Pound entrant, one needs to reach all the way down to #14, and that’s the ageless wonder Bernard Hopkins. Bute, Pascal, Stevenson, and Dawson are all in the #26 to #50 bracket, but of the four I give only Stevenson any realistic chance of climbing out, with Dawson having a very outside chance of resuming his place in the Top 20.
Points: 1
Total Score: 17
The main count against the current light heavyweight roster is its lack of Pound for Pound luster. Even so, the interesting thing about how it stacks up in P4P terms is that Dawson and Bute were both former P4P rankers, pointing to the depth of the division. Sergey Kovalev, given a few more big stone-fisted wins, might find himself mentioned as well. Give me the deep list of names in the division right now over a single Roy Jones any day.
The bottom line is that 175 lbs is a stronger weight class than it has been for a quarter century, and in the near future it is likely only going to look even better.
