The Search Continues: American Heavyweight

July 5th, 2010

For the past few years on the 4th of July, I have written about America’s greatest heavyweight hopes in the spirit of patriotism. In past installments of this yearly look at the US heavyweight scene, I’ve included such fighters as Philadelphia’s Eddie Chambers, California’s Chris Arreola and Washington D.C.’s Tony Tompson.

However, all three men have challenged the two-headed monster of heavyweight champion brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko and all three have been stopped.

Taking a look at the top 6 American heavyweight contenders according to boxrec.com, 5 of those fighters have fought and lost to a Klitschko. None were really all that competitive either.

The only fighter within that top 6 who has yet to fight a Klitschko is Evander Holyfield. He’s certainly a legend and a household name, but if (and it’s highly unlikely) he were to ever fight a Klitschko, I couldn’t see it going very well for the past his prime and undersized former champ.

With the list of American contenders full of retreads who have already had their shot, I was going to look towards discussing American heavyweight prospects that maybe could be viable threats to the heavyweight throne in time.

However, there really aren’t any. 2008 Bronze medalist Deontay Wilder (11-0, 11 KO’s) is the only fighter that sticks out. But despite his world-class amateur credentials, he only started boxing 3 years prior to winning the bronze in Beijing and is relatively inexperienced. He’s being brought along very slowly and thus far has been in against soft opposition as a pro and has only had to fight beyond the first round twice.

Wilder is a prospect for sure, but it’s far too early in his development to tell is he’ll ever make the jump to contender.

So while the heavyweight scene in America is at an all time low, the lower weights keep us interested. Americans Steve Cunningham, Chad Dawson, Andre Ward, Floyd Mayweather, Tim Bradley, Devon Alexander etc. are currently ruling their respective weight classes.

Maybe the long wait will make it that much more special when an American heavyweight threat finally does come along.