In Years To Come, How Will The Klitschko Era Be Seen?

Wladimir vs Mercer is probably one of the better showings of an aggressive Wladimir if you've never seen it.

 

This (though I have Marciano ahead of Wlad).

 

I agree. The division was chock full of a lot of good, solid fighters - there just was a huge gap in class between them & the 2 top dawgs, which deprived the division of any drama. Fighters like Povetkin & Chisora are still viewed as dangerous even among today's era of HWs, yet they were both "just another day at the office" for even old versions of the Klitschkos.

 

In general I think they're good guys. I'm definitely a bigger fan of Vitali, who I think would have beaten Wlad if they ever fought, but being brothers I don't hold it against them.

 

Poor era. There was some real talent, but they were guys who were significantly smaller (Ibragimov, Chageav, Povetkin, Haye...)

Wlad will always suffer from early losses, lack of a big win over a big, talented puncher, lack of a great fighter on his resume, and the fact that the second best guy was his brother.

Despite his 17 defenses, 23 if you count the WBO years, I have a very hard time putting Wlad on the top ten. Top 15 guy for sure, though.

 

I'm sorry they didn't fight peak Lennox Lewis vs. peak Wlad, so let's evaluate the "Klitschko era".

 

Cherry Picking & Boring.

 

Wlad didn't cherry pick that much. Not more than any other long reigning champion at least. Vitali on the other hand... Yeah, he cherry picked as hell.

 

This really depends on the outcome of the war.

 

Peter?

 

Yes but you see if the Klitschkos weren’t there many of these solid fighters would have had HOF careers in their absence. That’s what’s so problematic about a dominant champ is that they make loads of their competitors look less than they are because they never get a title so never have a reign or defences or are able to establish their own legacies. It’s why you see so many casuals claim that Louis fought bums after a brisk check of his BoxRec. Because he was so good that even great opponents were unable to establish themselves as top talents or HOF calibre fighters. That’s why I think Ali’s 3 year exile was so beneficial for him in how he’s viewed historically. Thanks to his exile Frazier was able to establish and legitimise his own reign and become an ATG then Foreman beat Frazier and was able to use that win and his subsequent brief reign to establish himself as an ATG. Had Ali not had his exile and been another very dominant champ, a green late 60s Frazier might have just been a random contender who gave Ali more trouble than most first thought he would and Foreman would have just been the guy Ali ran circles around, whose ears he boxed off, and who he knocked out (assuming he would have his legs without exile and never had to deal with the oppressive Zaïre heat). For all the niceties that may be said over the unimportance of world titles the fact is that we still use them to attribute value to fighters. A world champion will always be more revered than a mere contender no matter how much anybody on here may wax lyrical about Langford (who I think is overrated anyway but that’s a conversation for a different thread). Who knows, maybe if the Klitchkos weren’t born we’d be talking about the Pulev era right now.

 

Better than it is now. How much better? I don't know. But i feel confident saying thats the direction the wind will be blowing.

 

I think several of the standout fighters of the current era, like Parker & Ruiz, would be indistinguishable from fighters that the Klitschkos dominated in their era. Conversely, I think fighters like Wilder & Joshua would have their hands full w/ at least a few fighters that the Klit Bros. wiped their @$$es with.

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I agree and don’t worry, I’ll be making a thread called ‘Langford is overrated’ soon for everybody to get mad at me for and tell me that I DKSAB.