(PRIME) Lennox Lewis vs. (PRIME) Wladimir Klitschko

tell me you're a wlad fanboi w/o telling me you're a wlad fanboi...we all have our blindspots

 

Let's put it like this: if you stacked Wlad's competition H2H against Louis' who is most people's #1 or #2, Wlad's competition cleans out Louis' without breaking a sweat.

 

you're trying to out-nerd me here . maybe you're the ghost of bert sugar or something. there are serious nerds around here. that said, i don't think you can make that declaration with much authority. having seen wlad's competition and some of THEIR competition when the fights happened, i'll dispute that claim. especially if the fights were 15 rounders and they had to fight every other week or something.

nah...what you said is bull****

it's past 2 am here. i'm out for the night. if you really wanna' educate me, link me some fights. i'll watch em' if i haven't already.

 

Fury has arrived

 

Steward said Wlad hit harder, but was less willing to let his hands go.

 

Ol Salty knows he's wrong and is currently trying to construct an argument as to why Wlad's competition "doesn't count"

 

Lewis inside 2 or 3 too nasty and horrible for Wlad who has the mental constitution of a whelk, remember he lost to Fury who dressed up as Batman and got in his head.

I see a scenario like Golata when he feels the pain he folds

 

Two hard punchers with glass jaws, what more can we ask for? It would be the Hamed-Kelley of the Heavyweight division, down to the end as Lewis in his prime was a monster and he'd found the way to overcome Wlad. I dont hate the Klitschko's as much as some others here do (In fact I dont hate any Hall of Famers or world champions for that matter, Im a fan of them all, IBF, WBC, WBA, WBO, unified, regular. Whatever. I admire all of them) my point being Im saying this with the utmost respect for Wlad but Lennox was technically better IMO and he still had those wrecking balls for fists..(so did Wladimir but..)

 

i don't think lennox's chin even matters.

wlad was competent and big, lennox was world class and big. (t)ko 6

 

Really?

 

no I just wrote that to **** with you

 

Lewis does not have a glass jaw.

 

He got ko'd twice so at least, suspect.

 

Yes - Primarily, because I do find the Klitschko era to be down there amongst the lowest points in Heavyweight history. It might even be the worst since it was such a long period, devoid of any real talent. The irony being that the longevity for which Wlad receives so much credit is also the basis for why I think it was a dire time for the Heavyweight division.

This is not to say that Wlad does not deserve any recognition for the period. But there are limits to how far one can celebrate dominance over relative mediocrity.

Wlad currently sits in my Top-20, but this is purely due to the factor of longevity and on what passed for ranked opposition of the times. I don't rate him highly head-to-head. Losses to unrated opposition and his curious hesitancy against Fury tell me that he was comparatively vulnerable and, effectively, had to rely on his Jab, Grab and Lean method (which is, effectively, premeditated fouling) in order to survive. (Wlad is the only Heavyweight I can recall who looked as though he was employing feints to set up the clinches.)

Additionally - I find it an interesting and a quite telling side note that post-Lewis (2004 onward) until 2015 (when Fury beat Wlad) not one Heavyweight Fight was awarded 'The Ring Magazine Fight of the Year'; not one Heavyweight was awarded 'The Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year', and no Heavyweight bouts yielded 'The Ring Magazine Knockout of the Year', either.

Fury was Fighter of the Year in 2015 and Wlad would, of course, be the losing participant in the Fight of the Year in 2017.

Following that, Wilder wins Knockout of the Year (2019); Fury wins Fighter of the Year again (2020, shared with Teófimo López); Tyson Fury/Deontay Wilder (III) wins Fight of the Year (2021).

 

Fair enough.

We agree on many things with regards to the relative merits of Lewis and Wlad. Even where we have different perspectives on Wlad and his career, they don't appear to be wildly different, and I don't find anything you've written to be unreasonable.