The heavyweight division in a few years

It comes down to how you define a great fighter. In my opinion it's not about beating as many poor opponents as possible. It's about proving yourself against great fighters. Wlad never fought any of the greats of his era and now there are none left for him to show his skills against. Like it or not, in my mind he can never be great fighting bums and average level guys.

 

Well, what does he have to do then in your view? Who should he beat? What should he have done differently in his career? What is he doing wrong now? If you were Steward, what would you do with Wlad?

 

He shouldn't have padded his record for so long. Especially considering his amateur pedigree. He then shouldn't have lost so badly to guys like Purrity and Sanders and then not rematched them. After those losses there was a feeling like he'd been found out and I think that really hurt his career and legacy.

I'm not saying he is a great HW, but look at what Haye achieved at cruiser in 20 or so fights. There aren't many top HWs that were seen as badly as Wlad for their first 40 fights and then suddenly became ATG's after 50. He's good but not great.

Wlad is coming to the end of his career now. It's kind of pointless to say what can he do now to be an ATG. I think he missed his window.

 

Sorry, dude, you're stuck in the past.:-(
Using your logic, there will never again in boxing be an ATG because in order to be the great you need to defeat the great, and since there are no greats around there's no chance for new greats to emerge.

 

Now I understand:rofl

 

he has 3 losses already, so he cant stay undefeated

 

Yes, but that was in the past. How about now in the future? What are the names that you feel Wlad must beat that would increase his rank, and how long should he stay on top? What must he do? What if he stayed, let's say, active for five or six more years and remained undefeated at the top?

 

There ar no great fighters, in the heavyweight era at the moment, he has been facing the best available imo. haye wont fight him yet, his brother wont.

Who else should he have faced in this weak era.

Why is joe louis an ATG he fought more bums then wlad apart from a select few.?

Because he was dominant for many many years just like wlad has potential to be:good

 

wait a minute. theres a hw division in boxing now?

 

HW boxing goes through luls and has always been cyclical. There will be great fighters again. Wlad just isn't one of them.

Also, Haye is nowhere near being great either and he's definietly not at a higher level than Wlad. I mentioned his cruiser record cos he was an example of someone who aggressively went after big fights and wanted to unify his division as quickly as possible. I'm absolutley not saying he's better than Wlad.

 

Joe had his big wins though. Wlad doesn't. Joe also dominated guys in the ring. Wlad has a lot of wins but he doesn't out-class and beat bum fighters like Joe did. Also, Joe didn't get dominated by nothing fighters in his physical Prime like Wlad was. If you're gonna talk history and ATG's these things have to count against Wlad.

 

Isn't Wlad outclassing all the bums right now? I mean, you can count with one hand the rounds he lost since he became the man at heavyweight in 2006. Peter, Chambers, Rahman, Brock, Byrd, weren't all of them outclassed and dominated? And all but one by KO or TKO?

Or am I wrong and that all of them were close fights that could have gone the other way?

 

Whatever. For me, Wlad Klitschko fights are history in the making.

 

It's just the different way we view things. You obviously like to look at stats and rounds won for dominance, whereas I look at fighters in the ring. I see horrible challengers like Chambers, Ibragimov and Peter going 10 or 12 rounds without landing a punch and wonder why Wlad doesn't TKO them early. Domination is not about winning rounds with height, reach and clinches. It's about using punches to damage your opponent. Wlad generally doesn't do this until his opponent is gassed. I will never call that dominance in an ATG sense. Just my opinion.

 

Are you serious? Wlad doesnt dominate his fighters? As far as I know he didn't lose a round in years, won everysingle fight for 5 years now. How is that not dominating?
Also you could argue that Wlad wasnt ih his prime in his losses. Id say hes more close to his prime now.