Yeah he was pretty skilled, by Super Heavyweight standards he might as well be their version of a Sugar Ray. Not as skilled as Louis and Ali though, and the former was certainly not flashy and cute with silly footwork.
On this forum particularly, you can make a pretty good case for Tua and Corrie Sanders on a given day.
Wlad is definitely up there. I've seen people put him in the top 3 despite the fact he got smashed all over the place several times by journeymen/fringe world-level opposition, then readjusted his entire style around the fact he couldn't take a good shot. All of which culminated in the Fury circus rolling into town and Wlad losing his title in one of the worst HW fights of all time to one of the worst champions of all time.
I am going to take a different tact on this. Right now everybody seems to be thinking the gap is about them being worse than people think and that they’re overrated. I’m going the other way. At this point in time I think that Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey are much better than so many people think they were. Over the last three decades, I watched these two men go from what we’re considered two of the very best ever to after thoughts. They’re incredibly underrated.
This is true today. Earlier in the timeline it wasn't. Pretty much everyone could make HW and MW and since those were the most prestigious weight class's talent got funneled upwards. If you look at your great 140/147/154's todays in the 50s or earlier they would have been 175s or HW's.
How is Bowe more naturally talented? Vitali would have never gotten outboxed by Golota. Not once, but twice. Bowe gets too much credit for beating up on a former CW. His defense was terrible. People get a little too crazy with his in-fighting - it was good - not amazing.
He was, and still is, severely underestimated at time's. Lewis never ducked anyone and faced the best.
When did that timeline stop being true? There's a very real reason why the likes of Ray Robinson didn't just jump up and contest a Joe Louis or Hagler didn't look for Spinks, let alone Holmes.
This is a good distinction - Lewis did many things more technically correct than Ali, but didn't come close to his footwork, balance, rhythm and timing. Joe Louis - forget about it - he's possibly the greatest skilled HW of the ATGs by a considerable distance - his defence, subtle slipping, catching and carrying skills are only really rivalled or exceeded by the likes of Charles and we all know about the greatness of Ezz. Louis being up there as one of the greatest punchers ever as a HW fighter considering what we know about the law of diminishing returns is insane. He's like an oversized Ike Williams, with better discipline and more clinical brutality. Interestingly, in terms of being somewhat complete and skilled at all ranges, Liston and Holyfield resemble Louis' tendencies in many ways and don't in others - add in his ferocious power and ability to string the shots together - forget about it!
Listen, I'm hot, but in a very specific cute-but-sassy way, like the lead singer of Letters to Cleo in the Here and Now video. But you just know someone like Vitali would think he was too good for me. And that's how I know that he is the right answer.
He gets rated top 3 by a small minority. I would say top 10 is possibly a 50-50% split on this forum not sure.
Obvious answer is Rocky. 2nd most obvious answer is Tyson. 3rd most obvious answer is Foreman. If anyone's ever said "X punches Y once and Y gets KTFO" then the gulf between their perceived ability and their actual ability is too high imo. (Unless their name is Julian Jackson)