It's time to finally appreciate Wlad's class as the champion

Never dropped a belt. Fought every mandatory contender, even after an upset win. Beat every top fighter of his era who was willing to face him. Even at 39 took on Tyson Fury and planned to fight Deontay Wilder after that. At 41 he fought prime AJ trying to regain part of the HW crown.

Now compare him to Holmes dropping the WBC belt not to fight Greg Page and taking on Marvis Frazier instead. Or to Lennox Lewis dropping the IBF belt not to fight Chris Byrd chasing the rematch with Mike Tyson whom he just destroyed. Or Riddick Bowe dumping a belt in the trash avoiding Lennox Lewis, fighting Michael Dokes who was 10 years past his prime. Or, the elephant in the room, Oleksandr Usyk dropping the WBO belt not to fight Fabio Wardley and scheduling a fight with a freaking kickboxer.

 

I can surely compare Wlad to Lewis. Wlad reigned for longer and had more title defences. They both beat 15 Top 10 HWs. They both had some embarrassing losses. Plenty of ATGs (better than Lewis) didn't beat everyone their faced. Lewis ducked Chris Byrd trying to get a rematch with Mike Tyson. Wlad never dropped a belt.

 

Well, a lot of people weren't happy with Lewis at his time, but came to love him after 10-20 years. And yes, Wlad fought lower level opposition, but it was between his mandatories and fights with top rated contenders. Vitali was only active for 4 out of almost 10 years of Wlad's reign and only took Adamek and Arreola from the list of contenders at the time.

 

Wlad did avenge 1 of his losses.

I'm not saying Wlad is better. But suggesting that you can't compare them with each other is ridiculous. They are on the similar ATG level. Vitali isn't even in this conversation.

BTW, I wouldn't call McCall having a mental breakdown in the ring avenging a loss. Not Lewis' fault tho

 

There are things you can critisize about Wlad's reign for sure, but not fighting mandatories and top contenders just isn't one of them.