Wladimir Klitschko is the longest reigning Heavyweight Champ - Not Joe Louis

I don't think Vitali is the clear second best of the era that would be Fury. But even then you have guys like Wilder and Povetkin who have an argument for being better as well.

You can make the same argument for many champions. Tyson's best challenger was Holyfield who he never beat. For Holyfield it was Lewis, etc.

 

GOAT.

 

Vitali retired in 2012. Fury beat Wlad in 2015. If it wasn't blindingly obvious i don't remotely consider Fury part of Vitali's era. Vitali's been retired 12 years and Fury is the current lineal champion of the world. Wilder is Fury's era. Povetkin's resume is below Vitali's.

 

But he is part of Wladimir's era pretty clearly. Tyson Fury was a top 10 heavyweight a full 4 years before Wladimir retired and could have conceivably fought him years before he actually did. And the Klitschko era was where we saw Fury at his physical peak before her became a flabby fatty. Some of Wilder's most memorable knockouts happened during Wlad's reign and he was ranked in the top 10 again years before Wlad lost his title. Mike Tyson is still considered an 80s heavyweight despite not appearing on the scene until 1986.

With Povetkin Vitali only has an edge in quality not quantity. He didn't beat better fighters than Povetkin in fact Chagaev is probably better than anyone Vitali beat and Vitali's losses seem worse. That's not enough to say he's better with any confidence. If it was you should be able to point to guys Vitali beat you would favor over Povetkin.

 

Holmes was a top 10 heavyweight for some years before Ali retired to. Do you see people saying they are same era? Overlapping means shyte. Holmes was in the top 10 in 1995. Lewis was world champ the year before. Do you see people putting Holmes in the same era as Lewis? Tyson was world champ a full 9 years prior!!!! Again, era's overlapping means little. Lewis and Wlad overlapped but Wlad was champ forever after Lewis went. One doesn't see them competing for best of their era as Lewis has his as did Wlad.

At some point simple common sense comes into the equation.

Mate if you want to rate Povetkin over Vitali go for your life. It's not something i'd spent double digit minutes of my life arguing.

You should start a thread about who was better.....with a poll. I've never seen anyone rate Povetkin above him except you but maybe I've missed 20 or 30 occasions where they did lol