Who is greater, Wlad or Lewis?

Tony Thompson>Tommy Morrison

 

There is no debate. I have never seen a list by a credible journalist or magazine which ranks Wlad higher than Lewis. Clearly, Lewis has the better resume.

 

Despite being a few years older than the average contender, Tony Thompson was easily as credible as Zelkjo Mavrovic (who lasted the full 12 rounds with prime Lewis), way more credible than Phil Jackson (who lasted into the 8th), easily as deserving of a title shot as was Frans Botha.
There are very few Lewis challengers who would be considered undoubtedly and definitively more deserving than Thompson.

Heavyweights were getting title shots on very weak credentials in the 1990s too, let's not kid ourselves or try to re-write history on that point.
Frank Bruno, as an example, came into the Lewis fight by beating a badly faded Jose Ribalta (who was on 3 straight losses), Pierre Coetzer (coming off a loss to Bowe) and a washed-up Carl Williams (coming off a loss to Tommy Morrison and a loss to Jerry Jones a few fights previous). Bruno had been KO'd 3 times already himself. And Bruno's being cited in these discussions as one of Lewis's better challengers ! (which is probably corrrect)

 

Pulev, Povetkin and Chambers would stand out as being very credible opponents in the 1990s too.
They had better credentials than lots of these names being put forward to "prove" Lewis fought "far better" opposition than Wlad.
The overrating of Tommy Morrison is probably the biggest joke of all. Blasted out by Michael Bentt, brutally destroyed by Ray Mercer, jaw broken by Joe Hipp, decked twice by a washed-up Truth Williams ..... wins over credible live contenders: ZERO.

 

What if Wlad stops Joshua on a cut while being well behind on the cards and runs away from any ordered rematch. Does he get full tko6 credit?

 

Morrison is one of the most maligned HWs on the forum. Nobody is overrating Morrison. The only joke regarding Morrison is how badly criticised he is as this post shows.
According to people on here Alex Leapai is better than Morrison.
Foreman may have been old but he was certainly live.
Guys on Wlad record foreman would have utterly destroyed-
Peter
Chaggy
Haye
Brock
Austin.. Lets cut this short, he'd beat them all.

Wlads opponents had 0% athletic ability and all moved forward in a direct line. Every one of them. None of them knew the meaning of foot speed or boxing off the back foot.
All would walk into George and all would be flattened.
Morrison beat Foreman in a very impressive display of pure boxing. He got up and bombed out past prime Williams. Wlad couldn't do the same against past prime Sanders when he was bombed out in the first two rounds.

 

Firstly, enough with the accusations of hypocrisy I wasn’t singling out a Wlad opponent at random. I was referring to NoNeck’s comment: “I disagree with any belief that Ruddock, Bruno, Mercer, etc. were clearly better than the guys Wlad beat.”

The point I made originally was obvious and two-fold. If one is going to attempt to discredit Lewis’ ledger then try not to use Lewis opponents, who subsequently went on to compete with Wlad, especially when they are, by then, in their forties with no business in a championship ring.

You then pipe up with: “Some say Lewis lost to Mercer. Wlad completely destroyed Mercer in a clinical execution, it wasn't even a fight”, which is a clear attempt at trying to balance the respective Lewis and Wlad victories over Mercer - or worse still, an effort to elevate Wlad’s win over Mercer above that of Lewis. And, that’s what I called you out on.


So you have decided to take examples of Lewis opponents and try to make the argument I have made for Lewis and Wlad with Mercer - and make the same fit - the absurdity of the extent you go to is referring to a 29 year old Golota as being the "remains" of Bowe.


And you call my attempts at explaining your error "desperate". Utterly laughable.


So your retort is made up your very own definition of "long-dead" and convincing yourself you're using the same logic, in a woeful attempt at fitting a list of Lewis opponents, into the same argument I have made for the difference between the Lewis and Wlad wins over Mercer. Well done!

I’ve already explained why the Lewis opponents you use in rebuttal are not an equivalent Wlad's taking on of Mercer - but, you're just happy to ignore this contrast to reiterate your irrelevant, half-baked points and imply some sort of victory in the debate -

- None of your 'rebuttal' opponents were in their 40s when they fought Lewis
- Mercer was 41 when he faced Wlad
- Mercer had not fought a ranked opponent in over 5 years
- Mercer was not Wlad's domestic rival
- Mercer was not ordered to fight Wlad
- Mercer wasn't a unified champ when he faced Wlad
- And, Mercer wasn't even a title fight for Lewis.

In short, there is no comparison between the version of Mercer, who fought Wlad and the version who fought Lewis. There is no comparison between the list of Lewis opponents you bring up in an attempt to equate them to Mercer when he fought Wlad. I have clearly explained why you are wrong in this comparison.

Mercer was long-dead, as a viable challenger, having been killed off by both Holyfield and Lewis, 6 years earlier than by the time Wlad selected him as a title defense.

 

I am not sure anybody on Wlad's record is better than Morrison. Peter and Haye come the closest.

 

Lewis easily. He was just better in every department. Much better depth to his resume in a far tougher era. Avenged his only two losses emphatically. Even old, fat Lennox beat the better Klitschko.

H2H Lewis destroys Wlad and early.

 

Peter with no head movement and zero defence would be layed out cold against Morrison. Tommy wasn't any ATG but he was a clear level above Wlads comp.
Povetkin and Brewster are two guys who could possibly have taken him out.

 

Mavrovic was unbeaten and the European Champion ,he had a near 80% ko record we have no idea how good he may have become because he never fought again.Jackson had lost just 1 fight to Razor Ruddock for the IBF title, both were credible defences and challenegrs.Bruno had lost 3 fights, all to men who held versions of the world title which he himself would later go on to win.

 

In my view, Morrison was a more skilled fighter than Brewster.

 

Are you saying Zeljko Mavrovic and Phil Jackson were more credible than Tony Thompson ?
Would you say they were more credible than Pulev, Chambers, Chagaev ?

I'm not in any hurry to criticize or picking holes in any fighter but that's exactly what people are doing when they dismiss 10 year's worth of heavyweight challengers on Wlad's resume. To redress the balance, I will point out that most of Lewis's challengers can be picked apart just as easily.

 

According to you, Wlad has 4 meaningful fights worth talking about on his entire resume : the 4 losses.
Let's be honest here, you reckon Tommy Morrison at his best would destroy Wladimir Klitschko at his best too, right ?
I'll let others decide how reasonable you are regarding Wladimir Klitschko.

 

You're missing the point.

I don't recall Lewis, after beating him once was, waiting for Mavrovic (who was a young European HW Champ in his prime) to hit his forties and then rematch him for something to do, years later.

Please explain why Wlad's rematch with Thompson was credible.