Has there ever been a long tenured heavyweight champion who avoided no particular opp

people can just never bring themselves to put all things together equal, can they?

hard and regular fights put years on you, and you can't say what you say unless you look at it all ways?

first before you even get there, Wlad and modern HWs ARE Super-HWs and he's the best of them, and there are only a handful around at any given time that are in his class, the rest are a whole class behind.

but more to the point I'm making, fight every months or two and see how long it takes you to suffer a few defeats and multiply this by years. that changes it for ALL the Wlads, Bhops, Calzaghe's, RJJ's and PBF's...

we can guess quite easily that this would happen.

but fast forward the Joe Louis', the SRR's, the Peps, and all the rest who fought and conquered in such demanding work environments and allow them the luxury of 2 maybe 3 fights in a year, or even just 1 fight in a year or more... well they ain't losing, are they, they already proved their worth while the demands weighed heavy.

so you can't compare, unless you are willing to recognise the facts of the matter.

Tiger Woods and co are driving golf ***** nearly 400 yards, the Clubs have improved, the golf ***** too, but guess what they haven't made the Holes or the Courses any longer have they!

 

In his first reign of 3 plus years Ali didn't duck anyone. In his second reign the only fighter he arguably ducked was Holmes. But Ali was a shell be the time Larry was ready for a title shot so that was smart.

 

Eh, Wlad didn't fight Vitaly. Understandable reason, sure, but the fact is that he didn't fight the best fighter out there besides himself.

That can't be said of either Louis or Ali.

And I can't see who Louis avoided. Ali avoided some rematches, that's true, but I don't think there was anyone that Louis can be said to have avoided. There were probably those that would have merited a title shot had he fought more frequently after coming back from WWII, but who did he avoid or step around you mean?

 

Ali didn't duck Holmes. Holmes only stepped up among the top contenders after beating Shavers, and that was after Ali had lost his title to Leon Spinks.

Ali didn't give Foreman a rematch when he was his mandatory, though. Neither did he give rematches to Young and Norton, despite the controversy surrounding the decisions.

 

Wlad avoided the second-best heavyweight of his generation - Vitali Klitschko.

I know why he did. I understand they are brothers. They love each other. I understand how awful it would be if they had fought and one brother physically or permanently damaged the other. I know family is bigger than sport.

But Wlad Klitschko is one of THE ONLY heavyweight champions to TOTALLY AVOID HIS MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGER.

Neither Wlad nor Vitali should ever be held up as a champ who fought "everyone."

Wlad fought everyone from the Third-best heavyweight in his era on down.

However, he ACTIVELY AVOIDED the fighter (Vitali) who at times was number-two to Wlad ... and at other times was clearly number-one ahead of Wlad.

Wlad DUCKED Vitali happily ... and vice versa.

They both admit it. They're both proud of it.

That's not to say they should've fought. It's just a fact.

Wlad most certainly avoided a particular fighter. He is IN NO WAY a long-tenured champion who avoided no opponent.

He avoided his toughest opponent year after year.

 

I agree completely.

 

No way in hell does either one of those legacies get tarnished because they didn't face each other, they can both be proud that they were both the best of the division.

 

a LL rematch would have been in order, though LL's team was probably more responsible for that not happening.

 

Joe Louis fought the man that beat most of the feared Black men of the Era Jersey Joe Walcott and Tony Galento also beat a lot of the tough black guys of the era so I would have to say Brown Bomber fought the best.

Holmes did very poor, never rematched a tough or controversial fight never unified and avoided Tate, Coetzee,Dokes,Weaver,Thomas,Page, and did not rematch Williams,Witherspoon,Norton and Weaver and had many chances to unify but was happy not to. Vlad is head and shoulders over Holmes in terms of fighting the best and unifying.

I would have loved to see Vlad rematch Sanders and Purity but in all fairness they were more risk than a valued win and did not stay in any form of contention post Vlad.

Dempsey was inactive for 3 years but did fight Greb beater Tunney and Wills beater Sharkey so inactivity was his main issue, he could have fought Wills earlier though and I think he tried so cant really blame JD

 

None of them were ever his mandatory or in any way universally recognized as his best possible opponent.

I agree that blacks had fewer opportunities making it to the top at the time, but I don't think Louis can be blamed for using this like Dempsey used it to avoid facing Wills for example

What do they base this on? When was he ever nr 1/mandatory?

Haven't claimed differently

He did face everyone of note, though. But failed in some cases to give rematches.

No, but he failed to face the other top HW out there. This can't be said of Louis or Ali. And you know you can't deny this simple fact.

 

Stop this.

Wlad ducked:

Sanders rematch
Williamson rematch
James Toney
Tua
Lennox Lewis
Valaeuv
Derrick Chisora (blatantly)

 

No one has said that Wlad should have faced Vitaly. I fully understand the reason as to why he didn't. But the fact remains that Vitaly was the most dangerous possible opponent for Wlad and that Wlad didn't face him.

A pretty simple concept.