Emanuel Steward's Wlad (Chris Byrd fight and later) wins. That's how long it took Emmanuel Steward to build a defensive machine that doesn't take many risks but wins. Clean or dirty. Not even peak Holjfield (Bowe 2) could knock out Wlad, who was not knocked out until the last fight of his career. Pre Emanuel Steward's Wlad could lose Brewster/Sanders style. Wlad wins on points.
Klitschko obviously. He basically dominated a decade. Now as to who was better to watch and more exciting, well, Holy easily.
If we're talking H2H then I agree. I don't think Holy has the durability to go the Brewster / Puritty route and he doesn't have the firepower and speed of Sanders. He's gonna have to box Wlad and then it becomes a jab n grab contest. Only one winner here.
Holyfield from the 1990's for sure. To my best knowledge, i've never seen a top 10 heavyweights list where Wlad is ranked higher. I mean evander was the undisputed champion of the division at one point and fought 5 hall of famers, beating four of them whereas wladimir didn't manage to hold all the belts at the same time and didn't fight any hall of famers during that time. Of course, it's not just the hall of famers, you also should take a look at the other top ranked contenders that they fought, but even then, i think the ones holyfield beat were probably better and more talented. Both of them were great fighters, but one of them hit his prime in a much bette era.
Easy. Holyfield from the ‘90s! Wlad beat a bunch a guys that people, other than his hardcore following, already struggle to remember the names of. Holyfield fought better.
I think people are selling Holyfield a bit short here, I mean he did push a prime Lewis to brink in their 2nd fight whilst being in his late 30s. And Lewis had similar attributes to Wladimir regarding size.
