Who were the most dangerous punchers Wlad faced during his championship run?

People weren't clamouring for Fury-Wilder 3 but it was still a far bigger fight by any metric than Fury vs Pianeta, one of Wlad's lightly regarded defences. People also weren't clamouring for Wlad's rematches with Carlos Monroe, Everett Martin or Tony Thompson but he was more than willing to grant them.

 

This is like arguing that there was no more demand for Fury-Wilder 3 than Fury-Schwarz. Despite public reservations the former was far more lucrative and prestigious, it shouldn't even need to be said.

The exact same is true of Wlad-Haye 2 or Wlad-Povetkin 2 (fairly officiated) compared to the veritable who's who of gatekeepers and outright bums that Wlad was fighting in five of those seven fights from 2011-2014.

Wlad was clearly very worried about 6'2, 213 lbs Haye or 6'1, 226 lbs Povetkin chinning him and that's that. Hence he was happy to coast for years as champion fighting the worst opposition possible for far less money.

 

Peter and Brewster had taken multiple beatings and losses by the time Wlad came calling for rematches, it was widely acknowledged before those fights that they were spent forces and they did nothing after to convince anyone otherwise.

The era was stronger than Wlad's title record would suggest. Wlad was happy to coast fighting the worst opposition possible, hence a seven fight streak that included Mormeck, Thompson 2, Wach, Pianeta and Leapai. Most of those guys were less known and certainly less marketable as opponents than Luis Ortiz was, yet he never got a call for some reason. The only reason why he didn't rematch Haye and Povetkin after their wins over Chisora and Takam was because he was worried about getting his chin smashed.