Wladimir Klitschko Retires - Where Does He Rank ?

Yeah, his last two bouts/losses have aged like wine. Going the full 12 and then losing a back and forth with 2 of the current top 3 HW's is pretty awesome.

 

The truth is that I feel the very best fighters are interchangeable depending on the criteria you use. I can see Louis at #1 if you value his longevity and iron rule of his era. Ali fought and beat better fighters ... but hang on, some of those fights were really close and he maybe should have lost a couple. What now? Wlad Klitchko had almost as many defences as Louis but he too gets slated by critics for the quality of some of his wins. On the OTHER hand, you could compare the guys he fought to the guys Louis fought and come to the conclusion that Klitschko's opponents were actually better. So now where are we? That's to say nothing of Holmes and Lewis who are waiting in the wings. I personally have Wlad at 5. You could argue him up or down depending on what is important to you. IMHO.

 

Eh...his loss to Fury was an underwhelming performance, gave away the titles without really trying to win because he was too afraid to risk it even though he knew he was down on the cards. A fight that demonstrates a glaring lack of a true champions mentality.

Joshua has lost twice already. Got knocked out by Butterbean lite and outclassed by a great cruiserweight. Wlad went out guns blazing so kudos for that.

 

I mean he was 39 lol, let Wlad from the Chambers fight in there and it'd be a different story. Fury always woulda been a tough fight but I think he can edge it. Joshua may not be the next long reigning HW champ but he's still one of the top (3) guys in the division.

 

How many men at 39 were the Champion of their division , ranked high on the P4P list and hadn't taken a loss in ten years? None , thats how many.
So its not being honest to compare him to other guys at that age because he was an anomaly , therefore Fury is in a unique position where his win has more value than any other win against a fighter of that age.

 

No Floyd was older , less prime and more damaged than Pacquaio. What Pacman went onto achieve proves beyond doubt who was more prime when they fought

 

And Lewis was 38 fat and with shot reflexes when he fought Vitali. And once he realized he wasnt winning a boxing match he showed a champions grit and stopped the big guy...Wlad could have done the same, he had enough power to KO Fury and its not like Fury is packing serious leather...but he was too cowardly, too one dimensional to really do that and just coasted to a dec loss. It is what it is.

 

Well that's why Lewis is generally rated higher than Wlad, he always had that extra gear to crank up in tough battles.
KO'ing Fury would be a tall order, I'd lean towards a decision being the likely outcome for either man prime for prime.

 

Top 10.

 

What elite HW did Wlad beat? He got KOed twice by mid level opposition. That would never happen to an actual ATG.

So then the late great Emmanuel Steward comes up with a punchy huggy strategy that is only enabled with paid off referees and utilising his size. He was certainly far from his best when he fought the similar sized Fury who outboxed him in a close but clear decision.

No way is he top 10. This is not a bikini contest (how he looks), nor is it a h2h matchup comparison, it is a resume contest, and his does not stack up. If he fought Lennox and won I could move him up.

 

And a very good win it was. But It would also be a stretch to say that he was anywhere near prime

 

Fury was not prime either and Wlad having a ref that banned inside fighting kinda leveled the playing field.

 

Some long-time, well-respected posters in here talking about maybe top 50/top 60 but I gotta be honest. I think that is way too low. Wlad's got to be much closer to 30 than 60. I just don't see anywhere around this. The devil gotta be given his glue.

 

I’m curious as to why you say Fury wasn’t prime

 

Inexperienced at championship level and trained by a man who never produced another champion. Under weight and under powered.
Manny Steward said himself guys of Furys level were ill-equipped to deal with the pressures of facing Wlad in Germany so there's that as well