I've seen some discussions regarding this topic, so let's make a poll, shall we? Sometimes we are not quite sure when the lineal champion gains universal recognition. We don't know when exactly John L. Sullivan, Ezzard Charles or Larry became THE heavyweight champions of the world. We just know ultimately they earned that distinction especially looking retrospectively. Similar with Wladimir Klitschko. There is no doubt about that he was recognized as the king of division, even tho recently folks are trying to rewrite history just to take the lineal claim away from Tyson Fury. I don't like the guy that much, but it's pretty stupid in my view. So, when did Wladimir became the man in your book? 1. Chris Byrd fight in April 2006 when you could argue they were 2 best heavyweights in the world. 2. Sultan Ibragimov fight in February 2008 when Wladimir became the first unified heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis. 3. Ruslan Chagaev fight in June 2009 when Wlad earned the distiction as The Ring Magazine champion and which was ultimately viewed as the official coronation by Boxing Scene, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Cyber Boxing Zone and Bad Left Hook. 4. David Haye fight in July 2011 when he captured the third out of 4 major alphabet belts. 5. Alexander Povetkin fight in October 2013. Vitali was inactive for over a year and he soon retired. Povetkin was therefore number 2 active heavyweight in the world. This is when TBRB crowned Wlad as the champion. 6. December 2013 when Vitali retired and for 5 months Wladimir was practically the undisputed champion. 7. Kubrat Pulev fight in November 2014 - Vitali's long gone and Kubrat Pulev was the number 1 contender to Wlad's title.
I would go Ibragimov fight but understood waiting until the Chagaev fight. Wlad didn't win the WBA belt in the Chagaev fight but Chagaev was the WBA champ in recess with a win over the WBA champ in Valuev. So in that 2nd Valuev reign Wlad didn't have 3 of the 4 belts but he had an aggreggate level of legitamacy to if he did? I always struggle to find words to phrase what I'm trying to say here.
I always look at it like this: When Vitali retired in December 2005, Wladimir and Chagaev emerged as Top 2 heavyweights. They beat most of the the top fighers among each other. Wlad beat Chris Byrd, Samuel Peter, Hasim Rahman, Sultan Ibragimov & Lamon Brewster while Chagaev beat Nikolay Valuev and John Ruiz. If you look this in terms of sort of a unofficial tournament, other top heavyweights Oleg Maskaev and James Toney were beat by Peter (whom Wlad defeated), Siarhei Liakhovich was beat by Nikolay Valuev (whom Chagaev beat) and Shannon Briggs got beat by Sultan Ibragimov (who was beat by Wlad). Even Monte Barret lost to Hasim Rahman who lost to Wlad. No matter how you slice it, all roads led to Wlad and Chagaev.
