If WAldo was to unify all 4 belts beating say, Chag, Ibrag, Peter/Maskaev. And say also beat Povetkin, then retire, would any of you rank him higher on an ATG level than LL?
IF he were to unify the belts, an beat two solid guys with amatuer and pro accomplishments in Chag and Sultan, I would give him respect as a great. Not better than Lewis. Lewis beat Tyson, Holyfield, Vitklit, Briggs, Mccal, Rahmen, Golota, and any number of other good heavies you can name. Unless he gets himslef intoa series of matches with another young fighter he can share the era with in a kind of Frazier-Ali series, he simply cannot beat enought good guys fast enough to surpass Lewis.
I agree. If Wladimir wants to even compete with LL's legacy WALDO is going to needs a legitimate threat to bring him to that upper level and it doesn't look to me like Mr. Babyfat Povetkin is going to fill that void.
The difference between Lewis and Wlad, or anyone else in this era for that matter, is that Lewis fought as if he was fighting for his place in history. Lewis fought the best, anywhere, anytime. He collected belts, and avenged his two defeats. If he had a obvious weakness, he worked to elminate it. He fought often. Sadly, I do not know if we will in the near future see such a champion.
Exactly. And your list does not include Ruddock, Bruno, Tua, Morrison, Mercer....**** even guys like Gary Mason and Henry Akinwande are better than 95% of the heavyweights today. It is funny if you put Bruno and Mason in todays scene they would both be heavyweight world champions with only Wlad better than them, and both would have a serious chance of KOing Wlad too.
I remember watching that Ruddock fight on HBO. I actually picked Lennox to win because I had been a fan of his since he stopped Bowe in the Olympics, but I was SHOCKED to see it go down like that after Rudock had showed such an iron chin against Tyson, Bonecrusher, Mike Weaver. Its hard to believe that a lot of people don't give LL his due.
I raised the question to attempt to slaughter any Waldo nuthuggers who might have dared to say yes, and to highlight the **** poor resume of Wlad, and the awful comnpetition in the division right now. I think it also shows what a golden era for the heavies the 90's was.
I was never a fan of the notion that Lewis wouldn't fight Byrd or Ruiz, who had a pretty strong claim to the throne during the 90s. If Waldo can get all the belts in the ring and win them all I can't see why his undisputed status wouldn't rival Lewis. And you all know that I'm not a Waldo fan. Chances of him actually achieving undisputed status among the likes of Sam Peter, Alexander Povetkin and Ruslan Chagaev are pretty low.
Would he be a top 25 (maybe even top 20) great in my book? Yes. Better than Lewis? No. I rank Lewis in the top 5. That said, I think Wlad already has a much better resume than his brother. As far as career paths go- and taking into account that everyone loses- you can't really fault Wlad's career. He was active early on, came back from his losses to fight dangerous opponents, and picks worthy mandatories.
Tyson: Past his prime..( McBride and Williams do it also) Holyfied: Past his prime Briggs: who.. Golota: Barely, beat sick Bowe..(sorry,lost) Rahman:? Klitchko: good one Mercer: barely..but good win