Greater fighter: Thomas Hearns or Wladimir Klitschko

Peter I? Pulev?

 

HW Championship Reign
Wladimir Klitschko Joe Louis
12 Years / 4,382 days 11 years, 8 months, 8 days / 4,270 days

 

That's pretty silly. I'd rather be HW champ of the world than some "P4P" great. Boxing / Wrestling / MMA are the only sports in the world where you get to be saved by divisions.

Maybe the NBA should have an under 6' tall division. Or the NFL should have a less than 200 pound division.

Regardless, let's look at Hearns' record:

Goes 1-2-1 against the Horsemen. Can't beat Barkley in 2 fights. Has a reach advantage in all of his big fights and usually a height advantage as well.

0-2 against Barkley
0-1 against Hagler
0-1-1 against SRL
0-1 against Grant
1-0 against Duran
1-0 against Benitez
1-0 against Hill
1-0 against Kinchen
1-0 against Roldan

 

When did Wlad have a 12-year reign?

Even if we focus on alphabet strap reigns, rather than lineal/ring magazine, Wlad's longest "reign" was from beating Sam Peter in September 2005 until he lost to Tyson Fury in November2015, I.e. 10-years and 2-months.

 

It was a weirdly intriguing fight. Pulev was actually having success in moments outside of when Wlad was blasting him him to the canvas.

 

Wlad held the WBO strap when he beat Byrd (the 1st time) from 10/14/00 to 3/8/03.

 

Which is just over two years.

I think you're operating under a miscomprehension as to the definition of a "reign", which is singular, not cumulative. The longest Wlad "reigned" for (as one of multiple titlests, not THE champion) was 10-years, 2-months. Louis reigned (incidentally, as THE champion) for longer.

 

How is it a silly thing to say ?

Wladimir was in one of the most unremarkable forgettable Heavyweight era's of all time.

It's widely considered arguably the most boring Heavyweight era of all time.

Wladimir had very few stand out opponents to fight and had no real rival except his brother who he could never fight.

Hearns was in great fights, a great era, had numerous great opponents to fight, and his P4P achievements from Welterweight to Cruiserweight are more impressive.

Realistically it's 2-2 against the FAB 4 because no one considers the draw vs Leonard as legit as even Leonard admitted himself that Hearns won the rematch.

Those fighters are also ATG's did Wladimir even come close to fighting an ATG ? no.

So it seems strange you're critcizing Hearns for doing very respectable against 3 ATG's. Considering Wladimir never even beat a single opponent that would be considered a great let alone an ATG.

Wladimir lost to Puritty ? Brewster ? 2 opponents who would be considered worse than Barkley by a considerable margin.

Not to mention getting crushed by Sanders without remotely being competitive.

Wladimir also had size and reach advantage over alot of his opponents aswell ?

As for your list.

I love how you leave out the likes of Cuevas, Miller, Shuler, Andries.

And you have the audacity to list Uriah Grant when Hearns was 42 years old and lost the fight because of a badly sprained ankle.

 

You make great threads, Flo. Always appreciate the thought you put into them.

 

Yeah, only ten years, what a mug...

 

I'm unsure as to the purpose of this post. Are you disputing something I've posted? Or just chiming in to express your opinion that Wlad's 10-year alphabet reign is a significant achievement?

FYI, I agree it is, I rank Wlad #7 all time at HW, higher than most on this forum.

 

I cannot understand how anyone can disparage Wlad's achievements, sorry if that was not clear. I have him in my top ten HW ATG and H2H lists, and higher than most probably.

 

I don't see in any of the dictionaries where it mentions reign as a being singular. Where did you come up with this?

Additionally, there are sources that combine both of Wlad's time as champion / title holder. Wlad's claim is as good as anyone else since Lennox would eventually lose the following year (2001) and Ruiz would lose his WBA title before Wlad lost his.

 

Are you under the impression I have disparaged his achievements?