30 title defenses automatically becomes the greatest of all time ?

There was 11-years between Sanders stopping Wlad and his loss to Fury.

There was 10-years between Brewster stopping Wlad and his loss to Fury.

Neither Sanders nor Brewster were ever the best in the world.

Wlad was demonstrably, categorically not the best HW for 12-years.

He was clearly the best HW for several years, the thick end of a decade, an amazing achievement, which you detract from when artificially inflating it.

 

2000-2003

 

**** you could've put Jack Roper in the mix and he would've become #2, who wouldn't thrive in the era of Vaughn Shake & Bean and Samuel Peter

 

I always saw Wlad's run as 06-15.

With a question mark he didn't run through Vitali at somepoint in 09-12 time (even for notable reasons) but most top tier greats missed someone in there era which is also true.

 

1. Your mental arithmetic needs a little work.

2. Wlad lost to Sanders in 2003.

3. Lennox Lewis was the champion 2000-2003.

 

Wlad picked up his belt (WBO) in October 2000. LL lost 6 months later to Rahman (WBC & IBF). Holyfield lost his belt (WBA) to Ruiz a month earlier. Wlad held onto his belt for longer than Ruiz had his.

And you need to add that WK was the #1 contender to LL in 2001 & 2002.

He has as good as anyone's claim to being the #1 HW in the world.

 

No. Aside from a brief interlude between the Rahman fights, during which Rahman was ring and Lineal champion, Lewis was Lineal and Ring champion between 2000 and 2003.

Whilst Wlad was improving during this time, he lost to Sanders in 2003 and Brewster in 2004. He imporved further and later developed into the best HW in the world.

There is no argument for Wlad being the best HW for 12 years that stands up under even the most gentle of scrutiny, or frankly, the passes the laughter test.

 

He was The Ring champion but the coronation wasn't accepted by the public. After he came back from retirement it would be for Vitali to beat Wlad if he wanted to lay the claim to be the champion. He didn't. Wlad cleaned out the division when he was away with Chagaev being the missing piece. He got the missing piece out of the way and gained universal recognition.

 

But Vitaly wasn't away when he beat Chagaev. Vitaly was already then a clearly more formidable opponent.

And again, when since Dempsey has a lineal HW champ gone so long without facing the other top guy?

If he was lineal, it was weak. Until the main challenger to it retired.

"One of the strongest ever" talk is as convincing as saying he had 20 title defences.

 

Depends how you look at things - Chagaev had better wins than Vitali at that point. It's hard to argue beating Peter and Gomez catapulted him over Ruslan.

It doesn't matter to the discussion of being lineal that he didn't face Vitali for 3 years after that. He already was the champion. Plus Vitali didn't want to face him, you can't blame Wlad he didn't beat the guy who didn't want to fight. He beat the next best thing twice.

One of the strongest ever includes the wins after Vitali retired.

 

You still didn't answer the question.

Wlad didn't want to face Vitaly any more than vice versa. But that's neither here nor there. He didn't face the best guy out there for more than half of the time you refer to as his lineal reign.

The reign post Vitaly was good but it was only two years.

 

If someone could put together 30 consecutive successful defenses of the same undisputed world title - yes, very possibly.

But it won’t happen. Louis’s record is completely safe.

 

Also worth noting that Louis had a two and half year break in his title reign and was 21 defenses through with 18 KOs before that break. He might have made 30 straight defenses himself over the time he was in the army had he continued his reign uninterrupted by the war.

 

Which question?

Wlad was consensus number 1 when Vitali returned. So it was for Vitali to prove that he's the player in the race for the crown. You don't do it by beating Peter and Gomez, while Wlad and Chagaev are out there.

It was over 3 years, as Vitali was inactive since September 2012. Then you have over 2 years before Vitali came back, where Wlad beat the best HW in the world (which Vitali never done) and unified the titles for the first time since they were held by Lewis.

 

He probably could have gone above 30 even.