Without a doubt, The Greatest Heavyweight Champ ever

I have followed boxing for over 45yrs. i have a fight-film collection of thousands of fights. I have over 1500 books and magazines, so i know a little about the sport of boxing. Recently i have been watching the bouts of Wladimir Klitschko and in my opinion, he beats every champion in history. No previous champion would have faced a challenger, as good as Wladimir. Wladimir is fitter than any previous champion. Wladimir is more agile than 95% of all previous champions. Wladimir is more skilled than 98% of all previous champions. Wladimir will soon be the longest reigning champion in history. At age 39 years of age, Wladimir Klitschko is incredible. Wladimir is better than any 39 years old Heavyweight who ever lived. Wladimir Klitschko is the Greates Heavyweight Champion of the World EVER!

 

the greatest didn't get koed in seconds by a retired failure.

and the next 25 ranked below the greatest didn't either.

 

Thousands!

 

I did agree at first but after doing a bit of research I discovered that actually

Rocky Marciano is the greatest because he was undefeated and more than that:

He beat Moore, who beat Rademacher, who beat Chuvalo, who beat Quarry, who beat Shavers, who beat Young, who beat Foreman, who beat Moorer, who beat Holyfield, who beat Rahman, who beat Sanders, who beat Wlad (the man who I did think was the greatest before my bit of research)

 

Wladamir Klitschko is one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, but there is simply no way that he could be considered the greatest.

I suspect that his final position is all but settled now anyway.

 

Totally agree with everything here. It's not like Louis who beat the best that came before him and the best that came after. It's more like Holmes who has a poor championship ledger but displayed longevity and dominance, limited to anywhere from 3-30 imo with the variance depending on your view of h2h ability of his opposition.

 

nice post

 

You can make a nice case for Vlad. Seriously. I would never say with absolute certainty that someone was the best of all time, but considering that Ali was washed up at age 34, it's not that unreasonable to be impressed with Vlad's credentials.

 

They seem legit.

 

Brilliant!

 

But a few days ago you wrote that Clay was the greatest heavyweight of all time... :think

http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?p=17572441#post17572441

 

Cassius Clay was the greatest fighter of all time..

No fighters record stacks up as good as Wladimir Klitschko. At 39yrs of age he is incredible. skilfull, athletic, powerful, agile and still undisputed champion of the world. Has any other champion taken on so many undefeated, unexposed contenders as Wladimir?

 

He hadn't been following boxing as long and hadn't read any of his books yet.

 

Depends how you evaluate fighters' records. Wladimir has been stopped by journeymen. A lot of folks would regard that as a bad stain on his record. Another problem is that most of those "undefeated, unexposed contenders" are also unaccomplished. Would be easier to make a case for him as the greatest of all time if some of the men he beat were better and had more impressive heavyweight careers themselves.