Is Heavyweight boxing starting to improve?

I appreciate there's been a lot of talk around the state of heavyweight boxing over the past decade, but just having a look down the recent ranking there does appear to be a fair bit of talent emerging:

Haye (albeit out classed but not dominated by Wlad)
Wilder (still untested)
Povetkin (appears to be waiting for K Bro's to retire)
Price (lost his "0" but still has time to rectify)
Helinius (granted, poor against Chisora but has size on his side)
Adamek (not big enough for K Bro's, but still represents a challenge within the division)
Fury (still undefeated......)
Pulev (still undefeated, but needs a real challenge)
Boystov (again undefeated but needs to face the boxers mentioned)
Solis (probably the most talented, but doesn't have the ambition)

So all in all, a fairly competitive division if the above begin to challenge each other and then aim to take on a K Bro.

Well soon the K Bros will both step aside, then it will be a massively open division. The excitement may come back, but talent-wise it won't be anything better.

I think Solis has genuine talent but can't see it translating if he's more interested in cultivating titties rather than a legacy. I felt it started improving from around physicallyshootgate/tripodthebipodwiththeipodgate as there was a gradual sense of a deepening of the talent pool but not a drastic improvement. There is also stiverne, who is handy as well so its a little better than it was. Perhaps with only Wlad at the top, he'll be fighting the better known fighters on a regular basis and carve out several decent wins to bolster him.

I think that heavyweight boxing reached its nadir when Vitali had his injury-prompted retirement and Wlad was slowly emerging from his shadow. Since then, we've seen an incremental improvement - to be brutal, there was no other way for the division to go.

It's good to see an emerging puncher among the possibles, even while we acknowledge that Wilder hasn't faced anything resembling a test yet. I like his willingness to travel, which will stand him in good stead. It would be good to see a genuine desire to fight each other from all the names that ATG mentions, which would give us a competitive division at least, something that has largely been missing for a decade.

Imagine the confidence that a future challenger to Wlad might possess if he had beaten two or three of the other contenders before he actually went for the whole pot of marbles. At this stage, it's still hard to call this a vintage crop with the best will in the world, but there is at least the potential for heavyweight boxing not to provoke ridicule by its very existence.

stiverne and mike perez could also be added to that list, and jennings and mitchell in america may turn out okay as well.

Would throw Jonathan Banks in the mix too

Agreed, re: Mitchell, Banks & Stiverne. Fury's younger cousin looks a good operator too, albeit still too young to tell how he will progress. Young Anthony Joshua also could emerge as a decent pro when he takes the plunge.

Not saying this a talent packed division by any account, but surely we will start to see more televised heavyweight fights outside of the K-Bros in the near future.

Starting from such a low base, it can only get better.

I think best bet out of all would be Price if I was a betting man....

Hopefully you're not.

I think the division is as bad as ever it has been. Vitali has gotten so old and slow, yet would still be favourite against any boxer with a different surname to him. Wilder is the only credible hope. And after 29 (?) fights he looks still a untested rookie. Has he a chin? Looks like price, fury and Mitchell don't.

I have very little interest in the heavyweights. The only entertaining fighter over the few years has been David Haye and he was only interested in fighting average domestic opponents to make easy money. Give me brutal speedy classy wars at Welterweight etc than this boring dross

If my use in battle hadn't been deemed a war crime in 1992 the division would be much more exciting.

Ha! God I love AZ's witty sarcasm.

The division will improve massively once the Klitschko brothers are beaten. I think have squeezing the last bit of value they can out of their careers but sooner rather than later they will have to face someone their own size who can fight back. Fury, Price and Wilder would beat them I think. Vitali is 41, what a joke. Can people really think he would beat the new generation coming through?

People go on about chins too much. Its heavyweight boxing. These men are enormous and all capable of knocking each other out. Thats heavyweight boxing.

Thomson is 42 and he spalttered price. Cunningham is 38 and managed to hurt Fury, and wilder was knocked down by a jab thrown by the retired captain birdseye. I think Vitalis got it in him to be certain of defeating all but Haye and even against him i'd make him a slight favourite.