Wladimir Klitschkos Legacy

Wladimir's come off the floor to win fights before, and in all his KO losses he'd gone down fighting, either gassed or getting punch down for multiple KDs.
I'm surprised so many people seem surprised that he fought like a warrior the other night. He's always been a warrior.

 

When was the last time Wlad picked himself up off the deck to win?
How many times has he done that during his Championship reign?

EDIT: I can only think of Peter I, off the top of my head, when Wlad came off the canvas to win. There may well have been some earlier bouts too but I can't recall them. Did Sam Peter have him down in their second tussle, as well? I honestly can't recall any instances of this occurring during 2006 -2015.

In general, my perspective on Wlad is that when he got tagged good, the fight ended with him losing. But, I'm prepared to be corrected.

 

It took greater effort to follow the division, but there has never been any shortage of entertaining scraps and match ups.

 

23 total title defenses
18 consecutive title defenses
Longest reign next to Joe Louis
Fighting the best the division has to offer at 39 (Fury) and 41 (Joshua)

I have Wlad rated higher than most because I value long dominant reigns. He's top 7 for me.

I will say his style left lot to be desired. Steward fixed him to be dominant at the expense of being exciting. It turned off a lot of people.

If you go just by the numbers he's clearly top 10.
And when you fight as long as he did the "weak era" argument just doesn't hold up.

 

I think it was 2005 the last time, against Sam Peter.

In his championship reign 2006-2015 he was never knocked down.

 

Thats not how it works. His standing can only go up if he had beat Joshua..

 

Ah - I thought so.

I was adding an edit to my previous post, with this in mind.

He's not had to be a warrior too often then, during his reign. The opposition just hasn't been there to force the issue, in my opinion.

 

I think there are at least 15 Heavyweights with legacies, which would contest Wlad's place in the top 10-15, let alone top 7.

 

He is definitely a top 10 all time great , maybe even in the top 5 h2h , i can't think of many heavyweights who would have beaten him , he would be great in any era.

He was beautiful to watch in the fight with Anthony Joshua and he has shown over his career that he has one
of the best jabs , straight right hands and left hooks in the history of the sport , only his uppercut is average and
he doesn't throw it a lot , but overall he has one of the best punching techniques ever p4p in boxing , his footwork
is great as well.

 

What is this mythical prime Joshua?

 

Who are they then?

 

Top 10 no doubt.

His resume is underrated, he has longevity and is H2H one of the best of all time.

 

Yeah, obviously no one ever should get floored just to remind everyone they can get off the deck to win.
Wlad was too good for them.

I'm just surprised people seem surprised that he was capable of showing what he showed the other night. It's the same old Wlad.

 

Wrong. At age 41 out of the ring for 1.5 years, Wlad put on a performance no one else could do, and almost had him out. If Wlad was younger, he would have thrown more punches early, had better speed / timing, etc...

If Joshua goes on to a long title run, a performance like this at this can certainly raise his stock.

 

I can think of four, who could have beaten him, right now...

- Joshua
- Fury
- Brewster
- Sanders

Oh wait... ...they did.