I think that's an overstatement. You can argue that Parker has regressed, but imo Chisora was always going to be a hard style match up for him. Ruiz was out of the ring for more than a year but still won convincingly (albeit unimpressively) Whyte didn't look any worse in the Povetkin rematch to me Ortiz has only fought one round since the second Wilder loss so I don't know for sure if he's badly declined since then Povetkin did look poor in both Whyte fights though
Exactly this. A great era doesn't necessarily need to be filled with the best H2H fighters the sport has ever seen, but it needs to be deep and it needs to be clearly defined. No paper champs hiding out from the rest of the division, no coddled contenders padding their record with bums in order to secure a mandatory, no lazy sluggards going through the motions or blowhards spending more time insulting each other on Instagram than actually negotiating a fight to settle their differences in the ring. It's not about who would beat who in which fantasy fights; it's about actual fights happening when they should happen and both fighters giving it their all both in the ring and in the gym. I consider prime Wlad a H2H nightmare for almost anyone, but his era sucked because outside of the Klits we had no idea who was where in the hierarchy as no one fought each other. It was all about manufactured contenders taking turns to cashout against one of the brothers like an endless production line. There was plenty of talent floating around but it rarely got put on display or stuck around for long.
Really makes me realize that McCall and Rahman blasting prime Lewis out cold is underrated considering how Lewis destroyed Vitali, who schooled young versions of Chisora and Arreola which a decade later Ruiz and Parker are still struggling with.
Has he improved though? He showed in the Ruiz fight that he can approach a fight differently, with a new game plan, but he’s hardly a different fighter. Ah, what do I know; I thought he looked better under Simms.
Lewis destroy Pfff Lewis destroyed Mike Tyson in his previous fight which was billed as "Greatest Fighter Of The Era" and was losing on all three scorecards to Vitali and chose to retire rather than earn 30 million for a rematch he promised to give.
Mike Tyson was shot. Even the stupidest people saw that to be the case. It was clear Lewis was slower compared to his other pervious fights. But since Mike Tyson was way past his prime it didn't matter. Lewis was also loosing on the cards against Frank Bruno until round 7 Lewis TKO 6
Against Pulev he was lighter, better on his feet, more fluid and had a better and more varied defense
& K2.. their crowd are still cleaning the clocks of some of the top 10 heavyweights.. Povetkin, Arreola, Chisora etc.. even old WK himself nearly sparked Joshua.. hilarious, & only a couple of years ago people were saying how great the division is now they have gone et cetera
Ya but that was a last minute fight & Vitalis reputation was still reeling a bit from the Byrd loss.. Lewis was a heavy favourite & Vitali gave him hell, but his face got tore up .. if a rematch had happened with Lewis being a bit older again & Vitali having more time to prepare it could well have gone in Vitalis favour that time considering he was clearly capable of hanging with Lewis. But that's been done to death anyway.
he was from Ukraine and therefore A.J doesn't sucks because he needed more time to finish 39 y.o Pulev than for over the hill old Wlad had been needed to deal with prime Pulev because you care about eras like this: If boxer champ is from proper countries, then era is better with feeded by U.S and U.K promoters old uncles beaters from PROPER coruntries. Like A.J who is not much better than Wilder or Fury. 1 boxer with pulse from real top 10 Wilder ever in his all life had in the ring was named in Tyson Fury. A.J is with decent experience to fight in hometown and he is Canelo No2 only for U.K and he does cherry picks like Canelo and is cash cow like Canelo, just for different market. Fury had in the ring lethargic Wlad and this was not his fault at all. Okey, he did not had rematch with him but I respect him more than Lewis kid.
Povetkin was rag dolled by glass chinned timid WK and went life and death with Eddie Chambers and Huck...........he never dominated or cleaned out anything on PED's or not..............Tyson/Bowe/Lewis would literally decapitate him if he would have fought in their era. Fact.
