Wlad absolutely an ATG without a doubt. His longevity alone not to mention his great power, conditioning and discipline. H2H Wlad was a specialized fighter. He only had one plan: the Jab and Grab. Great at taking out smaller and slower fighters. Wlad's greatest flaw was the inability to adapt during the fight. You saw this vs Joshua when AJ was there to be taken out, but Wlad kept throwing the same left hook from the same angle and missing all night long. He couldn't adapt. You saw this when Tyson Fury completely bamboozled him with just a little bit of reach combined with movement. You saw how he struggled against Jennings when the ref actually enforced the rules and wouldn't let him jab and grab. You even saw it earlier in his career (before Manny Steward turned him into Giant-Sized-John-Ruiz) when Corrie Sander's took away his jab and stopped him. Couldn't adapt. This is why I rate Vitali higher than his brother. Vitali could adapt, throw punches from different angles. He could brawl or box when needed.
Would favour vits personally. Great counter puncher with weird shots. Heavier handed, more aggressive fury. I reckon wlad would end up scared to throw, vits tko
I think Wladimir will only continue to be underrated in the USA, because American’s don’t really care about boxing now it is more a world sport, so they like to look back on it fondly to when they were looked on as the best at it. In Britain and Europe Wladimir is definitely looked on as one of the best ever, his reign is only second to Joe Louis, and Wladimir is the longest reigning champion when it comes to combined reigns.
Why do Europeans continue to spew this "it's more global now" as if it's a fact. Europe has been involved in pro boxing for over 100 years. So has south America and the carribean islands. Youth boxing is almost non existent in America and that's why your seeing success from other countries on the global scene surge. Acting as if all of this hidden talent just decided to show up is a fairy tale. Your hero's simply stepped into a gap America left because we no longer care. That's why ee presence in all other sports is non existent. We have the most mma champions right now. When we stop giving a **** I'm guessing mma will all the sudden have a surge of European champions as well
Your right, he wasn't. Sam peter was a **** boxer who gave wlad all he could handle. Ruiz would have pushed wlads **** in
Right. American youth boxing in the late 80s. Crazy coincidence isn't it that ee success surged in the 00s inst it
Definitely not the worst era. Haye, Chagaev, Iggy, Byrd, Povetkin and Pulev would lay waste to most of the contenders pre-Ali and plenty of the champions too.
The most successful amateur heavyweight was Cuban and not allowed to compete in pro boxing. I’m not looking at other medal winners right now, but people like Wlad, Vitali, Lomo and Uysik would not be allowed to compete back then, so that does explain USA success back when boxing was less of a world sport.