6 more defences and Wladimir beats Louis' record.

Er No.

 

Technically "yes", he'd hold the most defenses of the heavyweight title...

Louis's streak however wouldn't be broken

Louis holds both the longest STREAK and the MOST defences which I think is what some folk are getting confused about

 

So you consider kilrain to have been hw champ? Who preceeded him? You can find newsclippings referring to john l as the champion from 82.

That's exactly the point. Boxing is fragmented today. Unless someone unifies all 5 belts they are not undisputed. You have, usually, a bunch of guys with a claim. It's upto the media and boxing public to determine who holds the best claim. By having the top spot as well as a sanctioned world title round his waist, wlad has been without question the champion.

Dawson did that already. He beat johnson and tarver, then lost to pascal. The winner was rightly top man. Today's top man is hopkins.

Vitali made it abundantly clear he wasn't challenging wlad's position. He's settled for second best.

You go on about opinion a lot, lineage is just another opinion. Who oversees it? Who mandates legitimate defences? Who ranks contenders? Who awards the belt? The answer to all these, as you know, is noone. It's a mythical title.

 

Ali was a paper champion by the late 70's. He got a gift against young and norton. When young and norton faced off, they were clearly the top two hw's. When holmes beat shavers and norton beat young we again had the two best out there mixing it up whilst ali was wasting time with a "never was". It's absolutely prudent to count each of larry's defences from beating norton since only ali's status as champion was highly questionable.

 

Great post. This is EXACTLY why the division is viewed as less than stellar. The K2 are soooo much better than the rest of the planet, that the comp is relegated to being weak, when it reality it is simply that the K2 are so strong.:deal

 

it's all about balance.

 

That is controversial.

Ali won the title in 1974 against Foreman. Then he lost it and regained it again. I think we should respect the fact that he was champion until he decided to retire.

 

are you saying Louis should have stayed in America fighting whilst his pals put their lives on the line for against the threat of an evil Nazi empire takeover?

oh yeah, the world title is more important than that. oh dear.


(America was a pretty 'nazi-like' place for men like Lewis back then too but thats besides the point)

 

Have you seen the fights against young and norton?

Watch them first before deciding how worthy a champion ali actually was. He was a media darling making defences based on sentiment as opposed to skill.

 

The Klitschko's are damn good, but the division does suck aside from them. No way around it.