Is Wladimir Klitschko a top ten heavyweight alltime?

Even though people claim that HW boxing era is weak these days, it's still the strongest era. A Jason Gavern could easily knockout Ali. Wlad is the number one, a 2013/2014 Wlad is unbeatable.

 

Exactly, just as it's unfair to judge fighters record from the past who could have over 10 losses or more during their career but then fought over 200 times, to today's fighters who may retire with less than 50 fights in total.

Tennis players in general play more games in one year than most fighters do in their entire careers. Djokovic is currently 37-4 for this year so far and those 4 losses were to Nadal, Federer twice and Warinka not some unknown player outside of the top 100.

 

The point is an unbeaten string isnt necessarily that impressive.

Marciano? Apart from Bob Baker, Nino Valdes,Clarence Henry, Bob Satterfield, Coley Wallace,Earl Walls,Jimmy Slade,Bob Dunlop.

 

And even Ali had to cheat once to not being KO'd by what he himself called a "bum" with a somewhere around 25-7 record.
It happens, and certainly in the HW division where one big punch from a huge guy that can't box still can put your lights out for quite some time.

 

Here's a question: Does anybody genuinely believe Vitali helped Wladimir during his reign some how? Who exactly was Wlad obligated to fight that Vitali fought? Vitali did squat for Wlad except keep him away from unifying all four titles. Since Wlad started his ten years unbeaten streak Vitali didn't even fight once in four different calendar years leading up to this one, which saw his retirement. Man, I bet Wlad really lucked out not having to face Kevin Johnson. I'm sure that was historically significant. And gee, Wlad sure would've matched up badly with Adamek. Silliest thing I hear repeated about Wlad's time as champ is that Vitali was helping him. lol Big help. "Other champions didn't have their big brother helping them out." Neither did Wlad. Sorry to burst your bubble.

 

Arguably best heavyweight post lennox lewis....top ten is a tall order though. Lennox might not even make everyone's top ten...let alone either klitschko brother.

 

He reigns a weak era but so did holmes, tyson and many more. The only difference is, Klitschko does it in the most dominat fashion imaginable.

 

Pulev is his 66th fight and Wlad's winning percentage is 95%. That fits right in with any heavyweight great you may pick out of a hat from Joe Louis on, and will surpass the majority of them.

1 loss every 22 fights for a career that spends that long and that many fights at the championship level isn't a drawback. You fight long enough, it's going to happen.

 

This.

I'm really unsure if he makes it to the top 10, but there's no denying that he's up there somewhere.

 

I think Lewis is a top 10. I could see why some people wouldn't though.

 

By career's end he should be. greater than dempsey, who is generally regarded as a top 10 atg and Wlad should take his place when he is through IMO

 

Vitali was #2 in the division forever, and Wlad never fought him. Of course it hurts his legacy when you never fight a guy who would've been your best Win

 

Holmes and Tyson did it in exciting and impressive fashion. Wlad didn't.

Dominat in Klitschko land means going 12 rounds with walking heavy bag -Mariuz Wach. And 12 rounds bear hugging the life out of Povetkin.

 

Hard sell that this list of mainly second-tier contenders is better than the champions of the era, Louis, Walcott, and Charles, as well as the light-heavy champion Moore.

"an unbeaten string isn't necessarily that impressive"

I think Marciano's is. To compare a man who became champion, defended his title several times, and defeated men who were champions from the 1930's to the 1960's (including the longest reigning heavyweight and light-heavyweight champions of the 20th century) with a man who beat only preliminary boys out in the boondocks and was stopped by the first main-event fighter he met, goes beyond a weak argument into a bizarre one.

How impressive Wlad's streak is is what is being debated, I guess.

 

so how come it didn't happen to ali