Article on Wlad vs. past greats

Bowe beat a great heavyweight Champion in Evander Holyfield. He's a tough fighter regardless how his overall career panned out. Going life and death with him isn't a knock. I think I would favor the more consistent and sound brothers over him, but his durability and punching is always going to make him a threat.

 

Does Bowe make your top 15 ?
If he doesn't, he is somewhere in the middle of the past champs ,is he not ? So by definition he would be average. I didn't knock Bowe, I prefer him to both Klits , and would rate him above them.

 

Mcvey you know i like you and critice Bowe quite allot but Bowe isn't near 'average'. Bowe would give plenty of HWs in your top15 life and death. In terms of achievement he pretty much did as much as Frazier/Schmelling/Foreman/Liston, better best wins than Dempsey, arguably did as much as Marciano when you compare their best 2 wins and the fact Ricky didn't rack up that many defenses himself.

I could actually see Wlad outboxing Bowe given his stuggles with Tubbs and Golota and Holy when he boxed instead of brawled. But then again Bowe may soak it

 

I didn't mean Bowe was an average fighter ,but an average champion ,I rationalise that because he doesn't make my top 15, so he is somewhere in the middle, in other words average.
How many heavyweight Champs have we had? If Bowe is somewhere in the middle of them he is average, imo.

 

An average champ to me is someone who's head to head average. Bowe had a poor work ethic and some stylistic limitations that saw him have a short reign. But as a H2H heavy he ranks high, think he could beat Frazier, Schmelling, Patterson, Dempsey allot of the smaller HWs actually because they'd all fall into the Holyfield trap. I'd love to see a Bowe-Liston fight too, favour Bowe their too.

 

this is mostly right imo . wlad smokes most of em including ali . i believe holy wud manage wlad. holmes. tyson. rest of em wud get beat :good

 

W wud lse 2 mst of thm, imo xre,& evn 5kdhlms tsn ndhly.

 

I like how he uses a 36 year old Holyfields struggles with Lewis as an example of why he doesn't beat Wlad.

Never mind Lewis and Wlad being different fighters to begin with but Holyfield had a lot of success against Lewis in the rematch and landed heaps on Bowe another naturally larger man.

Prime Holyfield landed hard and often on everyone he fought and I doubt whether Wladimir with his questionable stamina and chin issues would have what it takes to last the distance against a terrier like Evander.

 

Granted Holyfield struggled with Lewis's jab in the first fight but in the second fight he made adjustments and doubled up on his own jab and also jabbed to Lewis's chest which took away a lot of the effectiveness of Lennox's jab. Where Lennox had success in the rematch was with his right uppercut a punch he landed hard and often when Evander shortened the distance between them. Bowe likewise had success in close with the uppercut a punch Evander was always open to.

Wlad to me has never shown an as effective inside game as either Lewis or Bowe (though I'm not saying he doesn't have one) and Holyfield when he kept his head and boxed instead of brawled showed with his handspeed and mobility the ability to outbox and control much larger men from the outside (as evidenced by the second Bowe fight and portions of Lewis 2).

Whilst I agree that Wlad could beat Holyfield just saying he automatically wins because he's taller is over simplifying things (just as saying Ali,Holmes and Tyson automatically beat Wlad because they're faster as the articles author did).

I certainly think a prime Holyfield would give Wlad the sort of stern test that he hasn't faced since at least 2004 and I'm not sure Manny Steward has dealt with all the flaws a great like Holyfield is sure to exploit in Wlad.

 

Lyle had a better chin than Wlad.

Bowe beats both Klitoris's.:good

 

Wlad doesn't have the fighters mentality neccessary to defeat Holyfield.

 

-No

-You clarified what you meant in a later post, but I don't see it as a knock
against Wlad. Plenty average non-Champions have gave life and death struggles to greats based on style advantages, rare inspired performances..etc.

-I would only rank him above Vitali and not by much.

 

Well your opinion is as valid as mine , I probably worded it wrong ,average for Bowe does seem harsh. I see him as a might have been actually, and thought he would have given Lewis a great fight. Bowe was a great inside fighter for a big man.