Can Wlad Break Joe Louiss Record Of 25 Title Defences? Manny Steward says he can!!

If he can match the "past-present-future" success that Louis did, I might think of supplanting him, but I'd have to wait and see.

 

Do you think he'll fight a great opponent in those 14 fights? If so, who? Because they should already be active and yet I don't see anything like potential greatness out there.

If not, how can anyone justify a top 3 position when the fighter in question hasn't ever beaten a great opponent?

 

Joe Bugner is next up in May. Marvis Frazier in June, it should be no problem.:good

 

I cannot predict the future.

The guy who seemingly had the most potential, imo, was solis.

I'd justify a top 3 position based on the most dominant championship run in history (assuming he's still beating top 5 opponents regularly).

If to become great, you have to beat a great, how did the cycle begin? who was the first great person and how did they become so?

Either way, if you weren't to recognise him as top 3, assuming he did get 14 more meaningful defences in with a good percentage against top 5 opposition, then we'd have different criteria for greatness :good

 

Unification means nothing. He'll have 4 belts to hold his pants up, whoop-de-doo. 4 x [bullsh*t] = [bullsh*t].

What's with all this affirmative action for champions? Is boxing that desperate? A fighter fights -he should never be "appointed" champion just because most think he's the best out there.

How can a champion become the real thing without fighting the number one guy if he's number two or the the number two guy if he's number one?

Wlad has yet to faced the next best when he was the best or second best and the throne was empty. Until he does, Lennox remains the last true champ. Wlad has his fool's gold in the form of idiotic belts but he has yet to fight the number one contender. Until he does, whether it is his brother or not, he isn't what Louis was.

Look at Joe Calzaghe. By my model, he did not become the true champion until he defeated Kessler at the end of 2007. Kessler was the second best for 2 1/2 years before Joe finally fought him. Was Joe better than Kessler in 2005? He was in theory alone. But the last time I checked, this isn't a "virtual" sport.

Now, the Klitschko brothers insist on behaving unnaturally. They listen to mommy and refuse to fight each other. Because they behave like no pair of brothers I ever met in my life, then the best thing that we can hope for is that someone comes along and beats Vitali, becomes the number one guy, and fights Wlad.

 

Wlads embarassing losses(the latter two) and level of opposition(unless hte division gets better and he keeps winning well) should keep him out of a top 5, regardless of title defence number imo.Unless you think he's one of the very best head to head\ at peak and that plays a big part in your criteria(as it does with mine nowadays).

 

When Vitali is on record as saying "I don't want to fight Wlad" and saying **** like "I don't dispute his championship claim" Then you either have to accpet that Wlad is doing all he can by repeatedly fighting the number 3 guy (iggy, chagaev, haye) or you relegate Vitali in the rankings.

Either way it's semantics.

Even if it wasn't, what does it matter? Wlad has been number one sicne 06. In that period he's made 11 defences. He's still 14 away from Louis, if he breaks it, then brilliant, we are witnessing a great fighter dominate a division.

 

that's a hindsight viewpoint though. Chagaev was well deserving of his number 3 spot at the time of the fight.

 

Many ATG HW fighters have embarassing losses (e.g. - Holmes v. Spinks 1 & 2, Ali with his controversial decisions over Doug Jones and Jimmy Young, Tyson v. Douglas, Lewis v. Rahman/McCall, Frazier v. Foreman) and subpar opponents at times (e.g. - "Bum of the Month", Tyson's opponents in the 80's).

Title defenses is as consistent as you can get. It exhibits fighting the best opponents available (i.e. - at the championship level).

 

He is not going to break it with 2 or 3 fights a year.

Louis build that record up with 5 or 6 fights a year and once in a while did the 7 defenses in a year. Wlad has the talent edge over his era to do it, but he is not out there faceing 5 guys a year to break it.

 

Exactly. Wlad isn't the only heavyweight hall of famer with embarassing loses.

With that said, I don't think he will break Louis' record. In my book, he needs 15 more title defenses to do it. Time won't allow it. We are in another context.