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Requiem for a Heavyweight Division (New Substandard!)

Britain's Anthony Joshua throws a punch at Ukraine's Wladimir Klitschko during the tenth round of their IBF, IBO and WBA, world Heavyweight title fight at Wembley Stadium in north west London

I was shocked—not "shocked, shocked!" like Captain Renault; actually, literally, eyebrows-raised-and-legitimately-surprised shocked—to find out that there was a big heavyweight fight this weekend in London. The biggest fight in the heavyweight division in years, maybe a decade. The fight was fought in one of the world's biggest arenas, in front of 90,000 screaming fans on hand to watch one of the all-time great champions make his final stand. It was a great fight, a vicious-but-intelligent battle between two skilled opponents. It was the end of an age, the end of an era.

And it was on Showtime. At 4 p.m. On a random Saturday. With little in the way of promotion or advertising or excitement.

In other words, the heavyweight division is dead—and JVL, Vic, and I chatted for a bit about why that might be on the latest mini-episode of the Substandard. (Subscribe! Leave a review!)

The fight itself, which we didn't get much of a chance to discuss on the show, was pretty fantastic. I'm not really a sportswriter and I don't have that special touch needed to bring the majesty of a prizefight to life—me bad at writing words—but it's worth noting the way in which Wladimir Klitshko, king of the ring for the last decade or so, simply looked uncomfortable going up against a guy his own size and own reach. I'm so used to watching Wladimir and his brother, Vitali, punching down at opponents that it was a bit jarring to see him have to throw jabs horizontal to the mat, rather than angled 10 or 15 degrees south. Lord only knows how Wladimir felt.

Anyway, Klitschko-Joshua was a great fight and I'd happily pay for a PPV rematch. Fortunately for me—and unfortunately for the sport—that might not be necessary. Hopefully someone on Twitter will remind me to catch the replay on HBO at 11.