Langford v Wlad?

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Louis was the ruler of a weak division. Even Ring Magazine, who is rather North American in terms of its thinking, said the 30's was the worst heavyweight division ever. Bert Sugar who loved Joe Louis said the same thing.

Braddock was a journeyman who had not fought in two years. He would not sniff the top 5 today.

Sharkey way past his prime.

Uzcudun, way past his prime. I think it was his last fight.

Primo, past his prime.

Levinsky and Pastor are solid wins, but neither man would be in the top 5 today at heavyweight. And Pastor made Louis look slow in their first fight.

Baer was a very good win. Schemling was past his best in the re-match.

You really compare the above fighters to Tyson or Holyfield?

 

Generalizing the 30s or an unspecificed "era" is a waste of time. You have to zero in on the specific time period Louis was active and what he was doing. In my post I specifically laid down Louis' tough road to the Championship from 35-37.

You have in turn criticized Louis' opposition during this time with a breakdown of buzzwords. For starters, breaking these guys down opponent by opponent is not the point. The point was that it was a though collection of opponents in a short time frame.

Difficult to dismiss Primo as past his prime when he was only a fight removed from his Championship and looked like himself on film. This was a huge step up for Louis in 35. Uzcudun was an impressive destruction of one of the divisions most durable fighters and long time staples, had Louis not finally cracked his chin, he probably would have still hung around the fringes as a tough steppoing stone. Sharkey was well past his prime but the faded all time great technican was an interesting test after the Schemling disaster.

Levinsky and Pastor not in the top 5 today? During Wlad's reign we've seen Shannon Briggs, Sergei, Oleg, Valuev, Arreola, a faded Chageav and as of this week, Bermane Stiverne occupy top 5 spots. I think Levinsky, Braddock, and Pastor could get in. And Braddock was a journeyman who became a Champion with experience and good health.

Does it matter if Tyson or Holyfield are better than these guys since Wlad didn't fight them anyway? And yes in 2000, Evander and Tyson were what you would dismiss as "past prime" and "way past prime". I find no fault in my analogy.

 

Vitali has been removed from the rankings as of last week.

Wlad vs Povektin will be Champion vs #1 contender.

Vitali was never really #1 contender to Wlad anyway, as he declinded to face his baby brother. He's been a largely irrelevant belt holder save the Adamek fight, his reign is barely a step up from Foreman's so called "lineal" reign while Holyfield was really King. Wlad faced all his real #1 contenders in Haye, Chageav, and Chambers.

 

Quit pretending they aren't brothers. Do you really expect to see these two go in the ring and slug it out? It's not happening.

If Vitali suddenly disappeared from the rankings as he just did, the fights between Chageav and Haye are suddenly no longer just Wlad and the #2 or #3, but this rather flowerly concept you've described of once a generational tests.

 

Ring ranks Povetkin as #1.

Oh, that's just technical loops and ladders. Wlad already dominated Haye, Haye suddenly doesn't become a more relevant better fighter Wlad needs to beat to clarifiy his position just because Vitali is gone from the rankings. And Povetkin doesn't either, I'm just pointing out how fruitless this way of thinking is.

 

Would love to see him beat Haye, and I give him a good chance, but my head says Haye deserves to be a slight favourite.

 

Since coming back I'm frankly done with this arguing the proper semantics of ultimately meaningless "buzz words"

I'm not going to argue the definition of "cleaning out the division. "

What you've just laid out anyway is an impossbility for any fighter of any era, as rankings are constantly shuffling from year to year and only so many fights can be made. I will say Povetkin is meaningful in that he's the one top 2-3 mainstay since his acsension behind his brother that he hasn't fought yet.