Frazier could ko Wlad in a heartbeat. yes a big size difference but Frazier fought even smaller than he was for a reason. Ali had as long if not longer reach than Wlad and miles better reflexes and technique. Watch how Frazier bobs and weaves then when in range his hooks were ridiculous. Could Frazier hurt Wlad absolutely. i watched Ali Frazier 1 recently god that was a real heavyweight fight.
you need to get a grip of reality. Ross Purrity would get raped by Frazier if he was 300 lbs of iron. Wlad struggled with a blown up Cruiser weight who didnt want to engage.
Or they heard somewhere that Frazier was fragile along with being undersized and haven't actually bothered to watch him. :yep
I can see why some think Frazier would lose to Wlad. Prob because of what Foreman did to Joe. But it's not the same for many reasons. One of which is that Joe did land a few on George. If those landed on Wlad, he'd likely have gone down. Frazier via KO vs Vlad. Same re Liston and Foreman Holmes via Dec or KO. And prime Ali of course prob via KO. Some others prob also would defeat Wlad, but are not "sure things. " Many wins the K bros have are vs old or fat guys. weren't many in the 60's like that. So any top HW might have a shot. Except Shavers who had such bad stamina prob because he put everything into all his punches. One of which would have KOed Wlad if it connected.
He'd beat most of them. But whats more important is, he'd not be 6'6 245lbs of ripped muscle, physically able to do what he does these days.
I can see Frazier from the FOTC beating Vlad and Foreman beating him too but Leon Spinks would never beat him - I would say a toss up between Vlad and the Holmes that beat Ali - and Vlad would beat the past prime Liston Ali beat Everyone else I would favour Vlad
I think Vitali would have had more success. He has the mental toughness and chin to bang with guys like Quarry, Lyle, and Foreman. Refs back then didn't let guys hold nearly as much as Wlad does, so that could give him some problems. He would be forced to fight much more than he likes to. That being said, he is huge and has decent technique. Wlad would be competitive.
If some ESB members could just use Boxrec a little, we would have all these stupid posts around here like "Ali had a longer reach than Wladimir!" or "Frazier was bigger than Ross Purrity!"atsch
Not so much. However: At that time the HW champ was the most famous, most admired athlete in the universe and you had MUCH higher quality big athletes going into boxing. The heavyweight division is unique in that really big, agile guys have a lot of options when it comes to what sport they're going to choose and realistically boxing has to be one of the LEAST appealing choices. Most guys get their brains beat in with a better than even chance of crippling physical and mental disabilities in the future and a much LESS than even chance of becoming famous and making serious money. Therefore, the best big athletes are playing baseball, hoops and football when they're young instead of boxing. This wasn't the case in the 70's. The lower weights keep on getting better and better. When you weigh 150 lbs sopping wet, your choices are limited when it comes to being a pro athlete. When you're 6'3 and a rock hard 215, 220 and cat quick, you have some choices. And the choice these days usually isn't boxing. There's also the simple fact that butthurt Englishmen don't seem to want to recognize: Wlad just isn't that great. His chin is shaky and he's susceptible to mental pressure. Vitaly is truly a badass, I dunno why you brits don't just jump on his very respectable bandwagon instead of trying to hero-worship his much weaker brother.
I think this is a good point. Boxing is in many ways one of the most dangerous combat sports, with Parkinson and stuff like that beeing very common after retirement. It makes sense to stay away from it. I doubt MMA-fighters take the same amount of punishment to the brain, even if MMA altogether is a more brutal sport. While it is true that Wlad seems to suffer from a mental weakness, perhaps still possible to exploit, he is much more talented than Vitaly. Very fluid, very fast, very good reflexes. And he can bang. Vitaly has some power, but nothing special for a SHW.