Win or Lose, come Saturday What is Wlad's legacy

History won't be kind I'm afraid. He will be remembered as a fan-unfriendly fighter, who reigned in a weak era and never fought the other dominant champion of the time. His knockout losses, to average fighters, will also count against him as well as the fact he visited the canvas on numerous occasions.

 

Are you of the impression that only a handful of Heavyweights in the history of boxing would have been able to decision David Haye that night ?

 

Right now, I'd say you could have I'm anywhere from 8-15 in atg HW rankings.

 

Hard to place him based on the competition in his era not being as tough as previous ones. The most important thing is he dominated his own era for a hell of a long time based on that alone hes an ATG.

 

Wrong spin.

 

Of course not, I was impressed with Wlad's speed and concentration in that fight. He was practically as fast as a career cruiser, and his footwork was excellent.

 

My sentiments exactly. Never fought or beat a hof fighter and lost to journeymen in his prime. Putting him just inside the top twenty seems about right to me.

 

Win will push him amongst the greatest for sure

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It's interesting people say he was boring and fan-unfriendly.
I'm not saying he was the most exciting fighter, and he certainly produced some snoozefests. But he packed stadiums in Germany year upon year. He was obviously pleasing some fans.
Also, in his early fights, in fact for the first 7 or 8 years of his career, he was often a destructive animal, not too dissimilar to what AJ is now, he threw loads of punches. After that he became a bit more cautious and for it he became far more effective, less vulnerable.

People forget how many people he knocked out. A lot of those KOs were devastating spectacles, demonstrations of frightening power and speed.

His boringness was often just a result of him being so much better than the competition, let's be honest.

 

Wlad deserves to be ranked higher than his brother for sure

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In the 60s and 70's, the Klits would have been low top 10 contenders, with Vitali ranked higher. In the 80's Tyson would have just retired them. In the 90's, one of them might have cracked the top 5. After Lewis retired, it's just been a **** era for heavyweights.

After they're gone, the public will barely remember them. Even today, they're only known by Europeans, and judging by their fans on this site, primarily homosexuals.

 

Who is his best win?

 

Vitali is better than Wlad imo, and more of an exciting fighter too.

 

A loss here wouldn't change his legacy. He's an inactive, old and probably shot fighter who is expected to lose. Beating Joshua however would add bonus points.

 

Name the 25-30 HWs you rank above him.