Wladimir Klitschko retires from boxing.

Its not a criticism , its a fact.

Why was it unrealistic? I seem to recall Vitali fighting Lewis and he turned pro in the same year.

The reason Vitali fought that fight is because he was positioned towards Lewis because he was the better brother. Wlad was being protected and he still ended up getting pasted out of contention.

Nice skewing of facts but it won't wash. He can't fight himself? Thats nice dear.. You know who he could have fought? The Champ - Lennox Lewis.
Thats usually what #1 contenders do. But was wasn't steered in that direction by Universum.

Incorrect , Wlad had to RE-ENTER the rankings since giving up another loss knocked him clean out of the top 10.

So the reasons he never fought anybody during the first 10 years of his career are-

1.set-back by losing to a journeyman
2. hid behind his brother from Lewis
3. got knocked off the rankings by Sanders and Brewster.

Instead of immediately rematching those two losses like any real ATG would , he outright ducked both by going the IBF route instead of the reclaiming WBO from Brewster and choosing not to trigger his rematch clause against Sanders.

He then took an eliminator for Byrd against Williamson and was on the way to another loss before the fight was prematurely stopped due to the head clash.
He had to take another elimanator because he refused to rematch Williamson after the IBF chose not to drop him down the rankings due to the bogus nature of the stoppage.
Thats 3 rematch's he ran from that were entirely warranted. Schools out.

 

He always gives first class insightful interviews.