No, Id have him as a HOF fighter but I would struggle to say that either him or Wladimir are ATG heavyweights
Come on, that's going a bit OTT... :nono Vitali is certainly not going to be regarded as a great by boxing historians in the decades to come, but he is much, much better than you are giving him credit for.
let me see now....in chronological order since winning the WBO title: Hide (wins belt) Mahone Sullivan Byrd (LOSS) Hoffmann Norris Puritty Bean Donald Lewis (LOSS) Kirk Johnson Sanders Williams Peter Gomez Arreola Kevin Johnson Sosnowski Briggs ATG????
In the future, his dominance and returning after a long lay off will be respected. He lost to Byrd, Lewis and he never fought his brother or Haye so it is inevitable that he'll never be ranked in that elite group - Ali, Louis etc
Since the retirement of Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko beat Johnson, Sanders and Danny Williams and then retired for four years. Wlad has been the dominant champion post Lewis.
He might never be ranked in the elite group of Ali & Louis, etc. But I dont think not fighting David Haye has any significance at all. Haye is a paper champion - who would add to Vitalis legacy - but not make it ATG worthy - based on just knocking out Haye. Solis would be just a good a win - but maybe not so much credit will be given because Solis has no World title. He fought Lennox Lewis - thats the main one - he lost - but he performed with alot of credit. So even if the Lewis and Holyfields and Bowes and Tysons are ranked ahead of him - he is ranked maybe a notch behind them.
GazOC once went to some dinner function or something and said in his own words........... This content is protected I seen Bunce standing next to Haye once - and Bunce was alot bigger than Haye - in terms of body size. And Vitali dwarfs Bunce. Obviously - no-one is bigger than Valuev - but the difference is - Valuev was a poor super big fighter - while vitali is a very good and very big fighter.