Wladimir Klitschko passes Larry Holmes to become the 2nd longest-reigning HW champion

Wladimir Klitschko is now the 2nd longest reigning Heavyweight Champion of all time and has the 3rd most consecutive title defenses at 14.

 

How can he be the Heavyweight Champion when he never held the WBC belt in his life and never beat another real unified champion .
He made 14 defences of the IBF belt and has never been undisputed lineal champion.

 

WBC does not allow unifications, and he beat #1 Chris Byrd to be lineal.

So he is the 2nd longest reigning HW champ. Yeah

 

Great job, champ! Living legend!

 

surely the actual amount of defences is the most important thing?

 

If Wlad has been HW champ since 2006 then Vitali also has been champ since he became WBC champ in 2008.
How can Wlad be the champ if Vitali is also the champ.
Answer- both are just title holders. Nothing more.

 

please give me a break

 

LOL. Or like how Holmes only held the WBC for all those yrs, and never fought the WBA title holder how can he be champ. Or how can Lewis be champ, if he never once held the WBO title his entire career.

http://static.foxsports.com/content/fscom/img/2011/11/08/110811-Boxing-Wladimir-Klitschko-PI_20111108175429353_660_320.JPGdealdeal

 

So by your logic, Floyd Mayweather have never been champ? Because he never had all the belts, an therefor is a title holder?

 

not only that, he has never even had 1 unification fight to combine 2 belts

 

:rofl

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_reigning_heavyweight_champions

 

longer reigning yet 6 less defenses

 

You've got remember he has had two injuries during his reign, A left arm problem after the Chagaev fight and abdominal injury in between his Peter/Haye fights. Also that Haye and Povetkin continual contract ploys and pull outs stalled earlier returns to the ring.

Also that Holmes was selling out 5-9k seat forums, with the exception of a few( Conney or Ali ) fights here or there. While Klitschko consistently sells out stadiums of 40+k.. So in a sense if you are only attracting that few in attendance, it helps your pocket to fight more often. While if you bringing in 40k and so is your brother, it helps build interest and attendance if the fights are spread out a bit, so its not an every day type thing. Promoting also takes more time if your flying back and forth from country to country, something Holmes didn't have to do.. So if you think about it, after Wlads fight vs. Povetkin, which he wanted done earlier in the year, but since he lost the purse bid, is now out of his control. He will only be 5 behind Holmes. Not that bad considering the circumstances. I think we can all agree Mayweather is an ATG, and he only fights once a year, so whats the difference.

Finally Joe Louis had a 4.5yr longer reign the Holmes yet only had 5 more defenses, And he had "the bum of the month club"

 

Holmes was stripped by the WBC