Wladimir Klitschko: how highly do you rate him?

I think you're being a little harsh, and here's why:
1)99% of fighters lose at some point in time.

2)Although Wlad doesn't have a win over a HOF fighter, he's shown a willingness to fight everyone out there regardless of the styles matchups. That he's willing to put his weaknesses on the line counts for something. You never hear of Wlad ducking anyone- tall southpaws, tall counterpunchers, short counterpunchers, slick defenders, sluggers...he's fought and beat nearly every style of fighter out there. That proves that, despite looking one dimensional to some, he's proven his diversity as a fighter. Most of the times he wins, sometimes he loses.

3) He's beaten alot of top 10, top 5 caliber guys, and although he hasn't been as exciting lately, he really doesn't lose many rounds anymore, let alone whole fights. I don't look at the HW era out there as harshly as some though, since I think this is more or less what the HW era is most of the time when there's not a huge name out there to generate mainstream hype for US fans. It took a long time for Larry Holmes to get his due because he was in an era like that, having his prime after Ali but before Tyson.

I'm with you and some of the critics in that it'd be nice to see him take more risks in the course of the fight, but I don't begrudge him for fighting smart since the "safe route" is still producing wins that aren't even close over competition that is the best of what's there right now. I do think we'll see a more action packed fight vs Povetkin, just because I don't think Povetkin will take just being beaten at range for 12 rounds and he leaves himself open more than a guy like Thompson or Ibragimov does.

It's tough for me to rate him now on a 20 year list, but I do put him at the lower end of my P4P for now, usually between 8-12.

 

Brewer is a beast!!!!

Yeah why would you want to see him after that? He's won 9 straight fights, most over top 5 opponents, 3 of them were undefeated. He definitely SUCKS ASS!


****.

 

****? thats a new one.
i said i aint seen him much, cos i don't ****in like the way he fights.
why am i defending myself against someone who says" **** " ?

 

And yet you still won't even look at his record since he fought "Brewer." I bet you didn't know he rematched Brewer and kicked the crap out of him right?

 

yes i did know that . i watched the first fight on holiday and thought he was a ****ing joke, blew himself out and looked shocking. so forgive me but i dont follow his career with my pad and paper at the ready.

 

The guys name is Brewster. :good

 

i dont care

 

You seemed like you cared in your threatening PM to me about 30 minutes ago.

 

Resume wise there may not be enough good fighters active for him to reverse/significantly improve upon the negative kudos he gets for his embarrasssing losses. IMO the only way he could become a great in the current dire heaveyweight scene is to get way more active (4 or 5 fights a year) and literally clean the division out.

 

Sure he lost a few, hell Ali lost 5, but Vlad has a better record and KO% than Ali (noticed how Sanders and Purrity refused to give him a rematch) so I give him a great deal of credit as you said future wins don't count!

 

Very fair, and an extremely well thoughtout post!! Bottom line is he is very fortunate to have been fighting in this era of no more than average heavyweights. Vitali was the better of the two but would have had a difficult time in another era when the heavyweight division was much much better. My rating of the division today would be a C-.

 

LOL.. Ok you win. 9 straight wins over top opponents is ****, especially over undefeated heavyweights.

You win.