Wladimir Klitschko knocked out Chris Byrd in the 7th round to kickstart the second longest reign in heavyweight history. This content is protected
And then went on an epic run beating legends who were old, short, mediocre or blown up cruiserweights (or a natural middlweight/super middleweight like Byrd), almost exclusively on his adopted home turf with dodgy contracts full of weird clauses.
People argue over what has caused the decline in boxing's popularity, I think it would be silly to only attribute it to one factor, but if I had to pick one fighter who has done more damage to the sport than any other, I would have to pick Wlad (yes, even over Floyd). The way he fought was so unwatchable, so disgusting, so against the very core essence of the sport, that I cannot bring myself to rank him among the top heavyweights of all time just out of sheer principle. As far as I'm concerned the Klitschko era was the worst era of heavyweight boxing in history and I'm not sure the sport will ever recover.
Haters gonna hate but he's one of the greatest ever without question and most professional hw we've seen.
I thought this at the time, and still think it was unfortunate for the mass popularity of boxing that he and Floyd overlapped so much, but really he couldn't help being born into a weak era that followed a strong era.
Your criteria as for usual boxing fans is with hypocrite basis and you do have dual standards depending from fighter's origin and passport. Yeah, I did not had noticed that you had been worried here about xx fighters who are putting their opponents on clauses, fights only in hometown country and his promoter's promotions or at least their promoter's promotional companies are event's co promoters. If this is western boxer, no problem for you. Wlad had defeated 12 previously undefeated professional boxers and had fought in 29 world title fights. A lot of boxers he had defeated were younger than he or the same age or just 1 year older than he. You still attempt to " sell " him as some specialist to beat up over the hill uncles. Not all boxers he had fought were lighter than he, actually some boxers had vs him weight advantage. I know you most likely hate Wlad and worship for example A.J who really is specialist to beat over the hill boxers, attempt to beat up fat boxers, fights only in his backyard and struggles with fat panda and together with ref they managed to defeat Parker.
Oh, yeah, I do know casual flowchart for forums posts: if the boxer isn't from " proper " country then " era is weak ", " division is bad " . Good divisions and eras are when champs are from U.S, U.K or Mexico. Casual thing.
I'm sure it's Byrd's wife or GF shouting between rounds five and six 'Chris you need to fight smart, you're fighting stoopid'
Ah cry me a f***ing River with this post, I'm a fan of wlad and think he's an all time great (understand those that disagree, but that's my opinion) but the reason people say the era was weak isn't because wlad was eastern European. Wlad beat (and for the most part absolutely dominated) the best fighters around , including the best westerners. However, even these western contenders were mainly weak contenders, so people aren't just saying "eastern European champ = weak era", they're saying "no decent challengers from east or west = weak era". Would you really like to make the case that the Klitschko era was a high quality era? The two best heavies were both eastern - and both called Klitschko. Never fought each other obviously, and aside from those two there were no stand out talents REGARDLESS OF WHERE THEY'RE FROM = weak era
Well, 1 st example: then undefeated 33 y.o Pulev was a challenger vs 37 y.o aging Wlad. This era: 39 y.o Pulev fought for IBF World Title vs A.J. What had changed or improved there? 2 nd example: top 10 boxers fight vs Chisora who had lost vs Vitali ( 40 y.o Vitali ). Chisora is boxer who had fought recently vs Usyk, he also had fought vs A.J and Fury, Whyte. What had changed or improved there? These both boxers recently had notable fights. Povetkin? Cool, 34 y.o Povetkin did not had beat 37 y.o Wlad. Now A.J had beat 39 y.o? Povetkin and Whyte had beated up 41 years 6 months old Povetkin. Ofc I agree that there are not 70 ies and not 30 ies for sure. Era looks almost with the same top fighters. Beat up from Klits and now they are fighting modern top boxers. Not a sign for strong era.
Great fighter and great run, but his final five years were rough. The Povetkin fight was a disgrace. But he's hardly to blame for the gradual decline in boxing. That's due to any number of factors, mostly U.S.-specific as the sport appears to be doing well elsewhere in the world.