does anyone else sense a shift in the heavyweight scene?

with the almost certain retirement of vitali, and the freeing up of a genuine world title, and the recent success of a few unbeaten heavyweights i can see the heavyweight scene really livening up. you have a few fighters who could beat wlad in my opinon. wilder is a obvious candidate, knocking out everyone he's faced, and slowly increasing his opposition level. you have perez who won a huge contest, in the most exciting and brutal fights of the year, fury is also gaining a head of steam and if he does what i expect him to and KO haye he will be right up there, strivene is also a skilled big hitter and his win over arreola put him on the map to. pulev is also looking good and easily handled thompson, showing he is a level above the normal oppostion too.

another reason i think the division might take off is the fact that the opposition availble out there is actually quite large fighters like chisora, browne, haye, solis, helenius, povetkin, povetkin and adamek all offer credable opposition and there are a few sort of untested unbeaten fighters like boystov, glazkov, jenning etc who also offer a interesting test.

the division might finally start to live up to expectation again, and a final mention needs to go to anthony joshua, who i didnt rate at the olympics but has look good ever since.

No one out there even comes close to Wlad.

If Vitali retires I am guessing Haye will win the WBC belt. He is the best of the rest and if he beats Fury then surely he would be 1st in line for a shot at a vacated belt.

Wlad beats everyone you've mentioned on the same night. Wilder has slowly upped his opposition from unknown cans to slightly known cans, maybe he has potential, maybe he doesn't, Wlad will retire before Wilder is ready willing and able. Perez is a potential opponent and won't see half way. Fury will get KO'd big by Hate before the half way stage so has zero title chances right now. Stiverne is very limited and would never trouble Wlad even the slightest. I think Pulev and Haye are the best of the rest right now and one has already been dealt with by near shut out and Pulev wouldn't do any better.

The heavyweights may get more exciting in the near future in a Post Wlad era but not actually any better.

is there anything stopping wlad from fighting for the vacant WBC title?

I assume if he doesn't fight for the vacant title then a unification fight would happen and wlad would win it that way.

They'd strip him Champagne. WBC dont accept their champions holding any other belts

Short answer is no. Wlad is head and shoulders above everyone else. Wilder is a business that is risk adverse as opposed to a sportsman. The rest have all been shown to be well behind.

The best thing that could happen is vitali stick around because he is now beatable and I expect haye/pulev would beat him . Problem is no one is beating wlad hes too good and is allowed to hold and lean hes way through fights which makes a potential super fight a none event ie haye/povetkin . Although I dont rate fury and he will get ko by haye at least he could play wlad at his own game due to hes size. ( for as long as it lasted)

No, it's still a very poor division.

There's no clamour for any fights to get made, which says it all really.

It desperately needs 2 or 3 US stars to make waves in the division.

People should be praying Wilder can amount to something. The division badly lacks talent but Wilder could deliver the kind of excitement and knockouts that could regenerate interest back in it again. We need shot of the Klitschkos, Haye and the rest of the dullards who have made heavyweight boxing such a poor spectacle in recent years. And circus acts like Fury wont go far. Seeing Klitschkos last fight I wasnt impressed at all with him and I would really like to see Wilder have a go. He may have no chin and not be technically as good as Klitschko but he has the raw power and athleticism that could really cause Klitschko problems. When you look at how Klitschko reacted to a tubby, short and relatively light hitting heavyweight attacking him in the last fight then if Wilder can attack him in a similar manner we might actually see something interesting.

Definately a shift. I suspect Vitali does want one more and really really wants Haye as a finale, and I suspect it's those around him possibly try to dissuade him ( as he's been inactive and 42 ) along with the political career taking precedence.

After that, it's more open....

what will may happen though is Wladimir will suddenly become a mandatory for Vitali's vacated belt...on the grounds that brothers don't fight each other which is again another example of being bigger than the sport.

I do look forward to both brothers being retired as it's just a production line at present - shame, as a really heavyweight should be a joy to watch, but Grabimir Klinchko is not that

PS- Read Lennox Lewis article Boxing news weekly magazine ( prob last week though ) - scathing about the quality of Wlads fight with Povetkin.