Heavyweight Bracketbusters by Marty Mulcahey (March 21, 2008) Send this page to friend Give us your feedback This week the NCAA basketball tourney begins, and in honor of that engrossing event I have put together, ranked, and bracketed a 64 man field of heavyweight hopefuls. I believe you have to acknowledge unique and exciting aspects of other sports (with the exception of Major League Baseball, where my prejudices refuse recognition of positive attributes) such as the NCAA tourney and soccer's World Cup. The most obviously attractive aspect of those two events is the tourney format, which boxing would be well advised to emulate on a smaller scale. After all, it worked for HBO, Mike Tyson, and the heavyweight division back in the 1980's. I tried to follow the NCAA format as closely as possible, but some changes were made for my tourney. Firstly, I limited myself to the heavyweight division after toying with the idea of throwing the best 64 fighters in the world into one pool and treating all as if they fought in the same weight class. While that might be more attractive in theory, I found that a lack of believability and real world possibilities detracted from the concept. Staging an all-time heavyweight tourney, featuring the best heavyweights of all eras, faltered in terms of current relevance as well as believability. Plus that format has already been played out in other print and online publications. Sadly, the heavyweight division lacks talent at this moment, but it remains boxing's lifeblood and the focal point of the media. From top to bottom it has the most visible and well-known boxers, and heavyweights receive an inordinate amount of boxing’s television time, thus fans can make better judgments on my fight predictions, especially in bouts involving lower seeded boxers, and any flaws they might contain. After all, there is little fun questioning someone’s assessment of a topic if you have little knowledge of said subject. The heavyweight division also has one of the widest global reaches, with a wide array of countries providing entrants. There are a couple of entrants I have not seen footage of (despite youtube technology), and in those cases I have deferred to their records, knowledge of their opponents, as well as online articles and opinions. My exclusively using the heavyweight division means I will be culling the field to a "Sour Sixteen" and "Fatal Four", instead of a "Sweet Sixteen" and "Final Four". Some of my bubble boxers, who did not make the final 64, were Vitali Klitschko (injuries and lack of recent bouts), Corrie Sanders (he beat Wladimir Klitschko, but was kayoed in one round and probably retired by Osborne Machimana), and Larry Donald (no significant wins in three years). Those men were also left out to make room for some younger blood, and have already had their shots at glory. I also included David Haye in the tourney, since he has promised a move up in weight. Below is my field of 64, ranked from top to bottom. There is room for argument, especially with lower seeds, where I began to make judgments based on current form and my view of outcomes in head to head matchups. If you believe I have overlooked a boxer, shoot me an e-mail with a reasonable argument. I will consider placing other boxers in the tourney, in the place of one of my lower 15 entrants, and will annotate any changes before the tourney begins. 1. Wladimir Klitschko 2. Samuel Peter 3. Ruslan Chagev 4. Nicolai Valuev 5. Sultan Ibragimov 6. Alexander Povetkin 7. Oleg Maskaev 8. Vladimir Virchis 9. James Toney 10. John Ruiz 11. Tony Thompson 12. Serguei Lyakhovich 13. Evander Holyfield 14. Lamon Brewester 15. Andrew Golota 16. Calvin Brock 17. David Tua 18. Michael Moorer 19. David Haye 20. Chris Byrd 21. Juan Carlos Gomez 22. Chris Arreola 23. Alexander Dimitrenko 24. Matt Skelton 25. Hassim Rahman 26. Eddie Chambers 27. Jameel McCline 28. Michael Sprott 29. Danny Williams 30. Joe Mesi 31. Shannon Briggs 32. Fres Oquendo 33. Travis Walker 34. Oliver McCall 35. Sinam Sam 36. Kali Meehan 37. Henry Akinwande 38. Kevin Johnson 39. Albert Sosnowski 40. Chazz Witherspoon 41. Luan Krasniqi 42. Roman Greenberg 43. Oleg Platov 44. Monte Barrett 45. Tye Fields 46. Timor Ibragimov 47. Brian Minto 48. Mike Mollo 49. Michael Grant 50. Malik Scott 51. Dominick Guinn 52. Friday Ahunanya 53. Taras Bidenko 54. Fabio Moli 55. Robert Hawkins 56. Alonzo Butler 57. DaVarryl Williamson 58. Paolo Vidoz 59. Timo Hoffman 60. Jean Bergeron 61. Michael Marrone 62. Richel Hersisia 63. Odlanier Solis 64. Jason Estrada In next week’s installment, I reveal the four regional brackets & matchups, and will stage the first round of bouts that eliminate the first 32. Discuss these Topics - Go to the forums For Questions or Comments E-Mail Marty Mulcahey at mmulcahey@elpasotel.net