It's been 6 years now that Wlad has lost a fight and a lot of users have begun appreciating his skill, his determination, his discipline and his text book style which isn't always a pleasure to watch but apparently very effective and hard to master considering how very few boxers who were insulted as being "robotic" managed to climb on top. But Wlad did. From 2003 to 2004 his career was close to an end but the allegedly exposed gold medalist from 1996 rose from the ashes, took on betting fav Peter only one fight after his Brewster loss and went on to become one of the most devastating punchers and most feared fighters in the history of the division. As I said, 6 years have passed since his last loss, 5 years since Peter dropped him who was the only one to lay glove on him as close to his prime as it gets. On longevity alone a significant amount of users have started to rank him amongst the 20 or even 15 best heavies of all time which I love to see as a Wlad supporter but comparing him to his ATG rank neighbors there's one thing he obviously lacks: A marquee win. A fighter who's universally considered famous, skilled, competent & dangerous and who has actually achieved something. Prime Byrd who went on to defeat Tua was a good win for Wlad and so were Chagaev, Ibragimov, Chambers, Thompson, Peter I & II, Byrd II, Mercer, Schulz, Brewster II (he was not as shot as people claim, seriously) and Brock but to be honest hardly any of them had the tools to beat Wlad in the first place. Sure, Brewster managed to defeat him once after being inferior for 90% of the fight but this was like a 1 out of 10 victory he scored and should not be over analyzed. Now let's talk Haye. He was one hell of a CW (probably the best H2H CW of the past decade), hasn't lost in six years either and has stopped virtually every opponent put in front of him except iron chinned Ismailov and Valuev. Adding 10-20lbs seemed to have no effect on his speed, whatsoever. It appears like he's gone up in weight retaining his slickness and increasing his power which was tremendous to begin with. Having a look at Wlad's resume you'll notice he's not fought a single boxer who combined speed with power - it was either the former (Byrd, Chagaev, Chambers) or the latter (Brock, Brewster, Thompson, Peter). In Haye we have a fighter who's faster than anyone Wlad's ever faced and who hits approximately as hard as the likes of Peter, Sanders and so on. This is Wlad's last chance to improve his resume enormously because there's nobody on the horizon who brings anything to the table comparable to Haye. In Haye Wladimir Klitschko has found his nemesis which is a substantial prerequisite to greatness and once he's got rid of Haye Wlad could as well retire the day after and consider himself a legit ATG because he'd climbed the top then. If Wladimir finishes Haye off early critics will crawl out of their caves and cry about Haye being a bum like any Wlad opponent but this time that point is invalid. If two fighters with fragile chins and crazy power enter the ring an early stoppage is far from unlikely. tl:dr Haye, despite not being an ATG himself, would cement Wlad's resume as ATG worthy because he'd be Wlad's biggest challenge as of now.
Most of the guys both Klitchkos have beaten were fat, slow, lazy bums fighting at a significant size disadvantage. You're talking shite. Their best win is a loss to Lewis. That says it all. Wlad in particular has conned the fans for years by fighting boring, safety first fights against guys who he has every advantage over. The best heavyweights of the 60's and 70s would have beaten Wlad and Vitali on the same night.
Here's a question for you: What for his legacy if it turns out he loses to, as you put it, the only fighter he's fought with speed and power?
He can't afford losing, simple as that. Losing against Haye would have a devastating effect on his legacy and people would throw him out of their HW ATG lists and rightly so. And if you allow me to correct my initial statement: Sanders actually was powerful and had a good hand speed. A very unique fighter.
No afraid not, nearly all the delusional Klit fans say Haye isnt even worthy of being in the ring with their beloved hero so unfortunately using their logic this fight does absolutely nothing for Wlads legacy should he win.
Fanboy trash talk is irrelevant. You'd be a fool to deny Haye's skill. Having David Haye on your resume is a great achievement and something Wlad could be forever proud of.
atschroll: didnt your mom say "get off the computer and go play outside"? you better listen to her:hi:
How did you come up with that conclusion? Actually most Klitchko fans think of Haye as worthy opponent. There are few delusional ones but you can't just generalize like that. There are also delusion Brits who think Klitchko fight will be like a walk in a park for Haye.I actually think Haye has a really good chance. (about 40%). Haye has been seriously hyped(for good reason? we will see) and so many think he is a savior of HW division that beating him will actually do WK legacy lots of good.
I personally don't think Haye has a good enough track record at heavy to get a fair assessment of where he stands. For all we know he could be all hype, and beating Valuev doesn't count for much when by all rights Holyfield pretty much did the same thing. To me, anyway, he's just not all that impressive yet. If he had about 4-5 more quality wins over top tier fighters I'd give the outcome of this fight a lot more consideration, but as things stand now, no reason for anyone to think Wlad don't win this fight rather convincingly.
