>>> Get your facts straight, Wlad only has *3* title defenses...

Before retiring for four long years.

 

Like I said Vitali got the benefit of the doubt, even though Wlad and to some extent Povetkin were collecting better wins.

 

The opinion that the #1 and #2 fighter are in the ring together is the only way to establish a true champion. Forget unifying titles and dominating every relevant contender for 10 years.

 

Owned.good

 

Vitali never beat a RING champion to become champion himself. And neither did Wlad. They both got there by other means.

That said, when Vitali Klitschko vacated the WBC belt due to injuries that he kept suffering in the gym, he was THE RING CHAMPION.

And, when he made his comeback, there was no RING champion.

No one had replaced him in the eyes of Ring Magazine.

So, there's a very good argument that since he never lost his RING title in the boxing ring, and he was returning to fight for the WBC belt he vacated (and regained it easily), that he should've been rated by Ring as - at worst - the number-one contender.

By all rights, when he returned, he should've still been considered the RING champion.

He didn't lose it to anyone, after all. Right?

The Ring hadn't named one since he was gone, right?

I posted about this the other day in this thread, the Ring is as much at fault in the confusion around the heavyweight division in the last decade as both Klitschkos are.

The Ring changed its rules after Lewis retired and said they would recognize in some instances a match between their #1 and #3 contenders as the new RING champion. They ALSO announced, in those rules changes, that they'd strip a fighter of his RING title if he announced his retirement.

That decision complicated everything.

Everyone assumed Vitali would return. He wasn't an old man when he left. He hadn't lost. In the years he was gone, a Ring #1 and a Ring #2 never faced off. (As was the case with Sharkey-Schmeling, Patterson-Moore, Frazier-Ellis).

There was no pressure to fill his vacancy.

In fact, when he returned to the ring, the magazine left their Heavyweight Champion as vacant. And, a year after Vitali's return, the magazine made the bizarre decision to make the winner of Wlad #1 and Chagaev #3 the LINEAL champ ... even though the last RING lineal champ Vitali was active and hadn't lost.

That confusion is ALL on Ring Magazine. All of it.

The Klitschkos refusing to fight each other screwed up everything. The sport needs the two best to fight. I understand why they didn't, but their decision left a monster hole in the sport. When the two best heavyweights don't fight for a decade, which had never happened in the history of boxing, it damaged the division incredibly.

But Ring Magazine changing its rules and trying to name champs on its own, because the Klitschkos wouldn't fight, just compounded the problem.

Vitali was the best heavyweight when Lewis retired. (He may have been the best heavyweight before Lewis retired, but that's another discussion.)

Wlad was well on his way to clearing up matters on his own before Vitali returned. But he hadn't done it yet.

Wlad was clearly the best when Vitali left a second time and Wlad was clearly the best when Fury signed to fight him.

The Ring's decisions to name both RING champs and the Klitschkos' decisions to "share" the title because it was profitable for their company left the heavyweight division in a huge hole that will take some time to climb out of.

 

Exactly. Cos why unify when there is only one champion. :good