1988 Tyson vs 2010 Wlad Klitschko

No way... Not by a long shot... Not with some of those dull performances he's had.. I am American and there are some things about Wlad that I can appreciate such as his devotion to conditioning, longevity and good use of the jab. But being someone who generally isn't partial to region, nationality or otherwise, I still can't imagine myself finding more excitement or appreciation in Wlad than guys like Louis, Ali, Tyson or Holyfield. At BEST he's the comparable of Larry Holmes and that's actually being generous. I don't have anything "personal" against Klitschko, but he's just too goddamn boring to enjoy.

 

Perhaps you're right...I do think he'd be a bigger name in the States (maybe much bigger) were he born there. That's a fair comment.
Still, plenty of foreigners have made it big there like Duran, Paquiao and others.

Even Lewis (whom many Americans were extremely begrudging to give credit) had a fairly large US fanbase, and is now rightly hailed as an ATG by the majority of US fight fans. Vitali as been warmly received over there too.

But true, fighting in Germany for the majority of his career hasn't given him great exposure. I do feel that's partly his own fault though.

 

mocks American fighters, claims not be racist
atsch

 

Wlad would be somewhat a bigger name, but boxing just isn't a big sport in America. It's a niche sport.

Larry Holmes was not a big star, and he was involved in more fan-friendly fights than Wlad. Holmes was often called boring despite being in pretty exciting fights with Norton, Shavers, Snipes, Cooney, Witherspoon, Weaver...Evander Holyfield had so many good action fights, but he wasn't a big star either. People respected him, but he was never a huge star like Tyson. Look at his fights against Qawi, Dokes, Bowe, Stewart 1, Foreman, Cooper, Mercer, Moorer 2, etc....I see little reason why Wlad would be some huge star like Tyson, who was a highlight reel of KOs, or the charismatic motormouth Ali.

 

Wlad sucks pretty much that's why nobody likes him, its got nothing to do with his race ot skin colour. however a large portion of his fans ARE racist

 

says the guy who creates a new alt for each Tyson thread

 

Yes, that's very unfortunate. But true. I was watching some Wlad on youtube the other day and was quite appalled at some of the comments, many referring to the black opponent as a '******' or 'savage' or some other derogatory name.

I'm a huge believer in creed and colour playing no part in sport, but I cannot deny that a portion of his fanbase is undeniably racist.

That should not be a reflection on the fighter though, who most likely would hang his head in shame and be deeply embarrassed to be some sort of weird paragon or avatar for racists.

 

I agree with everything that you and Azzar just wrote. But if we're honest, every fighter has racist fans.

 

We're not debating who was the most exciting fighter, Tyson wins hands down in that department. Seriously though, don't you think a younger Wlad with his more exciting style would have caused a lot of excitement and impressed against the opponents Tyson fought in his reign??

He might have taken longer to knockout certain opponents but I think he would have finished opponents such as Tillis, Smith and co.

The division is poor at the minute but he's beating everyone put in front of him, I think he'd have beaten everybody in the 90's aswell barring Lewis and Holyfiled, those fights could go either way.

 

Wlad has achieved more and is a more dominant champion, but he will never rank above Tyson in my eyes since I see Tyson as being the superior fighter.