Wladimir or Holyfield?

Holyfield and it's not even close.

 

Wladimir.

To expand on this: Wlad dominated his era. Holyfield did not. Wlad has 64 wins and 5 losses. Holyfield has 44 wins and 10 losses. Wlad actually has more KO wins than Holy has wins.

Holyfield has some good names on his resume, like Tyson and Bowe. I'd argue that those names are good because Holyfield let them grow. Wlad crushed all opposition. Guys like Povetkin would be much more revered today if they hadn't been ruthlessly chopped down by Wlad.

 

Both great resume s, both impressive for different reasons.
Holyfield for beating the bigger, younger guys of his generation.
Wlad for coming back from hard losses then having a near record, lot of title defense s.

 

Sadly in the public perception, it is W.K.

Holyfield boxed much better competition, overcame so many resistances. He had legendary battles with ATG's where he was more than tested.
Wlad never went to war, fouled a lot, defended against journeymen or way past their prime challengers.

 

Imo:

• Holyfield clearly fought the superior opposition from a p4p perspective, including his CW career
• Holyfield also fought the superior opposition just at HW
• Wlad ranks as the greater HW due to his decade of domination from 2004-2014, whereas Holyfield was never anything like as dominant
• Holyfield ranks as the greater boxer P4P, when factoring in - 1) His CW career; and 2) His size when evaluating his HW career

 

The Klitschko fans love to mention that Evander Holyfield is 1-4 against skilled heavyweights, which makes me laugh.

Wlad had such good longevity to his own credit so he really wasn’t much past it against Fury and Joshua. But he was soundly outpointed against Fury, so the argument that Wlad was some elite ring general, impossible to beat on points comes into question.

And then in his next fight, he's down on the cards against the limited stiff bodybuilder of all people, who himself was out on his feet gassing for about 4 rounds, totally unable to fight at any sort of high pace. And Wlad still got blown out!

To criticise Holyfield for not dominating is fine, but if Wlad had to get in the ring against Lewis and Bowe 5 times who are both much better than AJ, he probably would've been outpointed and blown out all 5 times! I wouldn't even be surprised if a 96 Tyson or old Foreman got to Wlad either.

And Vitali lol. He had his face carved open because he couldn't defend himself against a sliding lewis, so forget putting him in with Bowe.

Wlad and Vitali were good fighters but they weren't much better than Holyfield if at all. And resume and p4p wise it isn't close.

 

Resume. If I understand correctly what "resume" is - it is a list of the best fighters that a boxer has defeated.
This is a better list IMO:
- Dwight Muhammad Qawi
- Carlos De Leon
- Pinklon Thomas
- Michael Dokes
- James Douglas (I know, but this is still a win for the undisputed and lineal HW champion; and that's not insignificant)
- George Foreman
- Larry Holmes
- Riddick Bowe
- Michael Moorer
- Ray Mercer
- Mike Tyson
- Hasim Rahman

 

Most of those fighters were past their sell by date and are worth 'name value' only.

I mean let's put it like this: Holyfield - OLD Holyfield - wanted to fight either of the Klitschkos. If Wlad had spanked him, as he undoubtedly would have, what weight do we put on Holyfield as a name on Wlad's resume? Myself, very little, because it would have been washed up Holy. Likewise names like Foreman, Holmes etc mean little on Holyfield's resume since we are talking about the shadows of their former selves.

 

Journeymen Boxer from the era of Ali or Holmes have better resumes than Klitschko.
Not to mention Holyfield.
Who was the best opponent that Klitschko beat? Haye? Well, I don't care.

 

Seriously? Maybe in the Ukraine and with a few idiots in Germany, but worldwide, Holyfield is more recognized.

 

Holyfield´s wins over Tyson were great, great wins, resume discussions has a habit of forgetting what was the overall thought before the fact...

Almost everyone thought Tyson would run over Holyfield.. now we gonna say "You know, Tyson was shot and done, so...."
no, you can't do that.

Wlad has no resume, he beat guys that he should beat as a champion, his greatness is all about his dominance...

 

Pound for pound ? Evander

At heavyweight only ? Wladimir

 

I love Evander Holyfield but Klitschko’s record at heavyweight is too long and too deep for Holyfield to rank higher. Sure Holyfield showed a ton of heart and was in a lot of exciting fights with some big names but I can’t rank him higher on that alone. Klit ruled the division for a good decade

 

Is holyfield able to use steroids here?
If no, he loses badly
If yes, he wins easily