Wlad getting closer to top 10 ATG status?

Wlad is excellent, but a long, long, long, long etc way from being great.

It could be argued that there have only been two truly great Heavies (Ali and Louis) and Wlad clearly is not in that league.

A significant period of domination as champion following his brothers retirement may get Wlad a top 20 spot.

 

He's flat out better than Bowe, Frazier and Johnson in any dimension or context. Why do Wlad's three losses count against him, but Johnson's almost innumerable shoddy performances do nothing to his lofty position? Liston has one of the worst reigns in history, folding like a house of cards. Head to head, Marciano is no comparison to Wlad.

I see him in the argument. Time moves on and heavyweights get better.

 

Barring the emergence of some awesome competition I don't think Wlad can establish himself in the top 10. Maybe h2h you could make an argument, but he just came along during the wrong era.

It wouldn't hurt if he'd KO guys early and decisively instead of giving us these boring, drawn out fights.

 

14-2, 12 KO's.

That's his record in title fights. If he runs that to over 20 wins, I honestly don't see how he wouldn't deserve a spot. The overall era isn't that good, but he's consistently taking on the best of it and building a respectable resume for himself in the process.

The biggest problem for him now is that the better he performs, the worse people interpret the division as. In that regard, it's like Joe Louis' title reign all over again.

 

Which would you have him above (in no order)

Ali
Frazier
Foreman
Dempsey
MArciano
Tyson
Lennox Lewis
Holyfield
Bowe
Wills
Jeffries
Jack Johnson
Ezzrd Charles
Walcott
Larry Holmes
Liston
Patterson
Louis
Norton

Personally (and this many not be popular) I see him as potentially rating over Norton, Patterson, Walcott, Charles, Jeffries, Wills, Bowe. That puts him in the top 15. He even has a chance to surpass even more. If he beats Povetkin, Valuev and beats a Haye thats beaten Vitali he may just may scrape the top10 (thats is reliant on Vitali losing and Wlad beating his conqueror)

If he gets beat in his next 2-3 fights that maybe reconsidered though

 

His three KO losses seriously hamper him when you get to talking him into the top 12-15, combined with the fact he has no rivals. I currently rank him around 20th.

Wlad's chance for greatness is serious longevity. He's already more than halfway there arguably, if he is champion for another 5-6 years (more than possible imo) and tallies up 12-15 defenses, than yes we would be looking at a top ten ATG imo. Especially considering that there is a new crop of talented HW's around in Dimitrenko, Povetkin, Arreola, Boystov, Haye, and even Chambers that could add a lot to his legacy.

 

Here's an interesting question, how much does his legacy take a hit if he loses his next fight? It depends on who it is to obviously but no matter who it was, his ranking would absolutely plummet imo.

 

I understand Wlad has lost three times, two of which to big time punchers. Is three losses in 50+ fights at heavyweight that bad? Of course not.

Ok if Wlad is at #19 in your book, then Walcott who lost 17 times, was Ko'd more often should surely rate behind him. Fair and balanced as always.

 

WHo has the better wins Walcott or WLad?

Walcott - Louis, Prime Charles, Elmer Ray, Jimmy Bivins, Harold Johnson
Wlad - Byrd, Peter, Chagaev, Brewster, Ibragimov

So Walcotts wins are better, yes he has more losses but he did fight under more difficult conditions, such as being semi-pro, hungry and possibly taking dives.

 

Walcott did not beat Louis. Wlad beat Byrd 2x. I would say Wlad has better wins. Sure Wlcott beat Chalres, but only after Chalres began to slip a little. The first two matches were easy wins for Chalres.

I would add in Brewster among Wlad's best wins.

Wlad has already passed Walcott.

 

I think Wlad has already passed Chalres, Walcott, and Patterson. Likely Norton too. Up next if he keeps winning is Bowe.

 

What he does better is go to war. I'm not saying the current version of Vitali would beat the current version of Wlad, but the version that Lewis fought would likely beat any version of Wlad that I've seen. There is a different between a boxer and a fighter alhtough some can be both but Wlad is a boxer, and Vitali is a fighter.

 

Wlad is an accident waiting to happen. His defeats have been emphatic and against mediocre fighters. He is dominating his era, but his era is poor. To the guy who thinks he would have beaten Frazier, are you saying Frazier would not land on Wlad ? I say he would land and if he did land its over.