2000-2009 Top 5 Heavyweights

The last decade has seen a relative dirge in heavyweight talent with only a few names really stranding out as truly great fighters, whilst the welterweights and lightweight divisions have both been incredibly fantastic with top tier fighters fighting each other regularly. However with the decade coming to an end lets look at the top 5 heavyweights of the decade and try and reason who was the best of them. The things to consider are all inside the decade (2000-2009) and include quality of opponents, number of fighters, how much of the decade they fought in and what they did when they were champion? For example did they just beat the softest fighters there on the way to racking up defences or did they face the best and unify the titles.

5-Samuel Peter
Though at one point it looked like Samuel "The Nigerian Nightmare" Peter was going to be the next heavyweight saviour with stupidly heavy hands and a KO punch to rival anyone, and for a few years it looked like his time would come. Sadly his time came and went rather quickly and he seemed to fail to reach the potential of what many were hoping for. A fight with Wladimir Klitschko saw Peter deck him several times through out on the way to a points loss though it was again obvious he hit hard even if he looked sluggish and could be out boxed as he fell to 24-1 with 20KO's. 2 victories over James Toney set him up for a chance to win the WBC heavyweight title, though he ended up facing Jameel McCline for the interim title due to an injury to the champion. McCline would score several knock downs before losing on points and Peter finally go his chance to fight Oleg Maskaev for the WBC title and won by 6^th round TKO. This would be the final stand out victory before losses to Vitali Klitschko (retired after 8 sided rounds) and Eddie Chambers (points). Though still fighting the hype surrounding him has gone.

4-Hasim Rahman
For a few years Rahman was arguably in the top 3 heavyweights of the early part of the decade, with several high quality opponents on his record and multiple title reigns during the time. He was a WBU champion and beat Corrie Sanders in 2000 before landing a fight ending shot on Lennox Lewis to become the WBC/IBF/IBO and Linear champion, though the reign was short lived lasting less than 7 months before he hit a rough patch and lost to Evander Holyfield and John Ruiz whilst drawing with David Tua. A victory over Monte Barrett saw him win the WBC interim title that got promoted to the full title after Vitali Klitschko suffered several injuries and retired. Again his title reign was short lived, only a year but he'd still managed more than most. In recent times it's seems he's lost his heart and at 37 it's probably time he got out of the sport if his heart isn't in it.

3-Lennox Lewis
Lewis was the dominant heavyweight during the start of the decade and end of the previous decade, though the problem when you cross over decades like The Lion did was that you sometimes fail to last the length of it in the second one and this shows in the fact that Lennox (who debuted in 1989as a professional) was well through his career in the 00's. His record of 6-1 for the 00's until his retirement in 2003 saw him lose for the second time in his career (KO 5 to Hasim Rahman) whilst beating Francois Botha, David Tua, Mike Tyson, Vitali Klitschko and a rematch with Rahman. The WBC/IBO/IBF and Linear champion for vast parts of the 3 years he was fighting just didn't last long enough into the decade to be number 1. Though the opponents were fairly highly thought of (except for Tyson who many knew was beyond his best) the loss seriously hurts his claim to being the best.

2-Vitali Klitschko
Despite losing the WBO title in his first fight of the decade via retirement to Chris Byrd after damaging his arm, he'd go on to be ½ of the most dominant pairing in recent boxing memory. He would go 11-2 in the decade (including the loss to Byrd and one on cuts to Lewis) and would stop 10 of the 11 victims. A loss to Lennox was his first title fight since losing to Byrd, though he was generally regarded as the best after Lewis retired and after beating Kirk Johnson and Corrie Sanders he had acquired the WBC title. A dominant destruction of Danny Williams was his last fight for almost 4 years before starting one of the better boxing comebacks. Dismantling the new WBC champion Samuel Peter before defences against Juan Carlos Gomez and unbeaten American hope Christobal Arreola. Though now lined up for what looks like an easy title defence against Kevin Johnson it's unlikely he'll be on too much longer.

1-Wladimir Klitschko
Although he's lost twice in the decade he has racked up 22 wins the vast majority at the top level with a world title on the line. He would also be the fighter who would go on an unify some of the titles and despite not being the most exciting it's hard to fault a fighter who has in recent times been so dominant that it often looks like he's not lost a single round. Unbeaten since 2004 he would avenge the Vitali's loss to Byrd outpointing "Rapid Fire" for the WBO title in 2000 a title he would hold until he was upset by Corrie Sanders in 2003 having made defences against Francios Botha, Ray Mercer and Jameel McCline. Since the loss to Brewster he has beaten Samuel Peter, Chris Byrd (a second time), unbeaten Calvin Brock, Brewster in a rematch, unified the WBO and IBO titles with the IBF title beating Sultan Ibragimov, he then finished the decade by beating the "WBA Champion in Recess" (who's title wasn't on the line) Ruslan Chagaev.

Sadly it would seem it's been a dire decade for the division outside of the top 3, so few were even competitive, though fighters like Eddie Chambers, David Haye and Alexander Povetkin are coming through at the moment it looks like the golden days of the 1970's won't be repeated any time soon.