Is Wlad an All Time Great?

Of course Lennox avenged both of his losses and never lost to a journeyman either ;-)

Lennoxs opposition is way, way, way superior, he also faced more punchers than any HW champion in history IMO.

 

It's not as good as any of Lewis' best wins IMO. Definitely not Tua, who had one loss at that point, in a war with Ibeabuchi, and had wins over Maskaev, Rahman and Ruiz, and was a genuine HW puncher.

Is it even as good as Lewis' win over Briggs?

 

A quick Google threw up some HW contenders from the 1980's.

How many of these would have a chance against Wlad?


Tyrell Biggs 30(20)-10-0

James Tillis 42(31)-22-1

Greg Page 58(48)-17-1

Tim Witherspoon 55(38)-13-1

Tony Tubbs 47(25)-10-0

Trevor Berbick 49(33)-11-1

Renaldo Snipes 39(22)-8-1

Buster Douglas 38(25)-6-1

Frank Bruno 40(38)-5-0

Jerry Cooney 28(24)-3-0

Bonecrusher Smith 44(32)-17-1

Pinklon Thomas 43(34)-7-1

Razor Ruddock 38(29)-5-1

Mitch Green 19(12)-6-1

Tony Tucker 57(47)-7-0

Carl Williams 30(16)-6-0

 

1. Audley Harrison
2. David Haye
3. Muhammad Ali
4. Rocky Marciano
5. Joe Louis
6. Lennox Lewis
7. Vitali Klitschko
8. Wladimir Klitschko
9. George Foreman
10. Joe Frazier

 

Tucker, Bruno, Ruddock, in that order.

Bonecrusher and Snipes were both better Heavyweight offensive fighters than Haye IMO.

 

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I reckon Jerry Cooney at 6'6 would not be kept at the end of Wlad's jab. He also knew how to be the aggressor and was ruthless. He didn't share Wlads reluctance for violence.

Witherspoon and Douglas at their best had the potential to do it.

 

True, but Cooney could be hit and hurt, unless he bombs Wlad out early doors I reckon he'd get slowed down and Wlad would either win on points or stop him late.

How would Mike Spinks, who had two close contests with a peak Larry Holmes and stopped Cooney, get on with Wlad?

 

Cooney gave Holmes a good run and he would throw that left hook at Wlads head until he ran out of juice. Wlad wouldn't survive if that punch connected. Wlad's experience would probably carry him through though.

Spinks would be interesting considering he had great skills but coming up from 175lb to fight Wlad would have been difficult. I wouldn't put it past Spinks cause he was great.


I wasn't that overly impressed with Wlad last night. He doesn't like being hit and get very nervous when he gets a good dig. That no fighter can get close to beating him shows how bad things have been at HW.

There is no way Wlad would have put 10 defences together in the 60's/70's/80/90's.

 

If you were to create a hypothetical 'league' with all the greats fighting each other prime for prime.... I think Wlad would surprise a few people with how well he would do in that.

He's a lot bigger than most of the greats, well drilled, with good technical skills. I'm not saying he'd beat them all, we all know he wouldn't, but he gives any heavyweight of any era things to think about, and even would take some of the greats scalps along the way.

Same applies to Vitali too, who due to being a little bit tougher, I think would do even better than his brother when pitted against the all time greats.

I genuinely believe Wlad is actually a bit underrated by people in the UK/USA, probably due to the way he lost his fights, reputation of German based fighters and his boring style. Fact is, poor era or not, this guy hardly loses a round anymore, let alone loses a fight.

 

In my opinion there should be a different weight category for these giants.

 

If the Klitschkos retire tomorrow, the HW division actually becomes fairly interesting. Take them away, and you've got a good few fighters with not that much between them fighting for the titles. I'm not saying the standard would be amazing, but you've suddenly got plenty even(ish), meaningful title fights that can be made.

 

Yes it's cheating having these big men in the HEAVYweight division. :roll:


Did you feel the same way when Lewis was in his prime by the way?

 

Wlad will be an ATG imo. His real life career wins eclipse his fantasy match up losses.

 

If Tyson is top 10 then Wlad is top 5.

The reality is Tyson is about top 20th and Wlad is 15th.