I agree.

The heavyweight division is dire. It's by far the worst it has ever been in my lifetime. We desperately need another fighter like Tyson to bring it back to life like he did in the 80s.

What's really worrying is the lack of black American heavyweights. They've dominated the division for decades, but now there are virtually none and those that are coming up through the ranks in America look very ordinary.

If someone had told me 10 or 20 years ago that there would come a time when there were no good black US heavyweights I'd have said they were crazy.

Not quite like that.

Price's legs were completely gone and it was clearly the right to the head that put him down.

Nobody can be beat the Klitschkos that's the harsh fact! The only one in recent times who could have was David Haye and look how he faired he was rubbish! They are just 10 steps ahead of everyone else at the moment and its not their fault so many big guys have taken the route offered by the NFL, WWE, UFC instead of giving Heavyweight boxing a good crack and making it competitive again and that's the cycle that's gonna last for many year to come unless something major happens!

As for Price like you said his reputation has been dented big time and i suspect it wont be long before the same happens to Tyson Fury!

Heavyweight will always be the marquee division, but when you think about it there's only really been the 60s/mid 70s, then the late 80s/90s where it actually had good strength in depth. Larry Holmes fell between those two eras, and he had a similar reputation to what the Klitschko's do now, in that people accepted him as a good boxer while also questioning the level of his opposition.

100% correct.

The lighter weights should really be looked upon as the marquee ones, as they're the ones that seem to produce the greatest fighters & best fights.

As for Holmes, he was born at the wrong time. He came to prominence when Ali was fading into oblivion & Frazier & Foreman had retired & the heavyeight division was about to be over populated with cocaine snorting fat blobs with tremendous talent.

Just as he himself was fading, he came up against the force of nature that was the 21 year old Mike Tyson.

Although he did continue to fight until 2002 & even put up a decent challenge to Evander Holyfield in the 90s, he will never get the credit he truly deserves IMO.

Unfortunately for Price, this post is true reflection of that defeat and his future ambitions.

A bit harsh. He perforated his ear drum, hence his balance and wobbling all over the show.

In the heavyweight division one punch can cause damage, Fury could go the same way for sure.

I see Ricky Burns has dumped Frank Warren, this leaves Warren in all sorts of trouble really. This only world champion he has is that joke Cleverly

I know I'm late to the party, but I was shocked by Price. I hoped he was the real deal, especially after the way he dealt with the extra-durable Matt Skelton but he collapsed like a Jessops shareholding and the punch didn't even seem particulary hard. I can only pray that it was a freak shot of location and timing and that Price can come back from this.

As for pre-knockout talk of him facing the Kitlchko's, well I didn't quite give in to the hype that much. I thought he was at least fourteen months away from that - if only to give both brothers time to deteriorate further. Sometimes I feel that both brothers - almost uniquely in sport - have sufferred for not being black. Even if they were both Congolese with little english they would own the sporting world by now. Respectful, intelligent, largely scandal-free and crucially both very very good boxers, for all the talk of Larry Holmes not being given his due, that goes for the double V's as well.

I would put Vitali easily inside the top ten of heavyweights I've seen in my lifetime (if only for that punch that he took from Lennox Lewis ) and post-chinny Vlad wouldn't be far behind either. Audley would make my top twenty. Of dancers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhIRC9Jm-94 (4.39 onwards...)

BIB I didn't know that, thanks. Makes me feel (slightly) better about his future. At least he won't have to stoop to fighting Freddie Flintoff next.

Everyone is leaving the Frank Warren sinking ship This is great news for boxing in the UK, Frank Warren cards are a joke.

Hearn going from strength to strength, must be a huge pull for a boxer knowing you are the sky media machine behind you for maximum exposure and publicity

I think the question is why didnt they jump sooner! Warren doesn't publicize his fighters much anymore its like all his efforts all go into his terrible TV channel and his fighters have suffered because of that!

I'm glad to see Ricky Burns defect now his career badley needed it and especially Eddie Hearn is a very smart guy by getting the Sky machine right behind him Burns is gonna get himself noticed a hell of a lot more now especially when the big world title fights come around!

And now it comes to what self respecting boxer is gonna choose Warren over Hearn the tide is changing in British Boxing for the better!

Alvarado vs Rios II tomorrow, make sure to watch it. The first fight was shaping up to be a modern Gatti vs Ward (something i don't say lightly), until the referee prematurely stopped it in my opinion. Hopefully the fight will last longer tomorrow but maintain the war like levels of the first fight.

I wish I could find a stream for this fight. The first fight had everything. Alvarado was trying so hard throughout the fight to keep from going into the trenches. While Rios was hell bent on war and kept the fight at inside range to achieve it. I think in the 5th or 6th round you can see Alvarado make the adjustments as if to say 'f$@k it, let's make this an all out war'.

Rios looked spent for much of the fight, but that was obviously an illusion given how he jumped Alvarado at the first sign of trouble.

I hope the second can come close to what the first was.

What a fantastic fight, I thought Alvarado deserved it but they were both fantastic warriors I think they need to fight some others before having another rematch as doing that again will probably cause some serious long term damage or something

I'd love to see Amir Khan in the ring with either of them, I doubt he's last a minute. De La Hoya tweeted about Alvarado facing Broner but it'd never happen because of the promoters feud

That was better than Gatti vs Ward

Rios V Alvarado 2 had everything and icing on top. Who could imagine the second fight would be more intense than the first encounter. Another contender for fight of the year and we're still in march.

I was disappointed in the Prescott v Crawford fight. I wanted a convincing Prescott victory, instead I saw Prescott second to every punch and unable to deal with the orthodox or south paw stance of the slicker Crawford.
Having seen this fight, I'm beginning to wonder whether a Broner v Crawford fight (for the purist) could take place in the not so distant future.

It was the first time i've seen Crawford, i was impressed. But Prescott I think has been hyped more than what he is because of the Khan KO. At every opportunity barring the McCloskey fight he has choked.

Anyone up for the big one tonight?? Gonna be a boxing purists wet dream!!!! (part of me thinks it could turn out to like a mismatch though, cant look past donnaires power and rigos chin).

Anyone favouring rigo tonight?

How wrong was i, rigo put on a clinic.

Rigo put in a top performance, Donaire looked at least 10lbs bigger than him but Rigo had the better skills. His reflexes were lightning quick. Garcia is abit of an overrated trainer, it is twice now that his fighter has been outboxed and all he has said is 'apply more pressure'.

After feeding off scraps for the past couple of months all of a sudden there's too much to watch tonight...

On Channel 5 we've got Tyson Fury's American debut against Steve Cunningham. USS is a decent boxer who's been unfortunate with a decision or two, but is essentially a cruiserweight 44lb (!!!) lighter than Fury at yesterday's weigh in. In some ways it's a dangerous fight for Fury - he'll be expected to win and win comfortably with such a size advantage.

On Sky we've got Brian Rose v Joachim Alcine. Alcine has been beaten handily every time he's stepped up, but no one knows for sure where Brian Rose rates at the moment, so it's a close contest on paper. Many people's quiet pick for a future world champion Lee Selby is also fighting on the undercard.

And then there's Frank Warren's show in London with Nathan Cleverly defending his title against mandatory Robin Krasniqi, although the most intriguing fight could be Liam Walsh v Scott Harrison on the undercard. Del Boy Chisora also makes his return against a random Argentine, and says he's going to win it for Thatcher

And then finally there's Saul Alvarez v Austin Trout. Really looking forward to this. Trout put himself in the big leagues with his win over Miguel Cotto last time out. A win for Alvarez would silence a few of the doubters. A real 50/50 on paper.

Pretty decent line up. Rumours another FW fighter will sign for Matchroom on tuesday, look to see fighter's body language after their fight to see who it is. My money is on Cleverley, he's been treated like a dog under Warren.

I dunno, I've always got the impression that Cleverly is happy to fight who he has been as long as he gets paid. I could see one or all of the Walsh brothers looking for a way out, their inactivity has been absurd, particularly Liam.