Wladimir Klitschkos Legacy

Can't argue with that, if I did I'd have him lower

 

The last time I saw a collection of tomato cans like that I was shooting them from 25 yards with a pistol

 

Wlads legacy is a fighter who was a master at using his size advantage. He was very limited in his offence but had very underestimated defense. When pressured properly he became unglued and didn't know what to do. He was never very good at fighting on the fly. He had to set up everything. That's what separated him from most of the greats.

 

Pro wins over Lennox Lewis, Michael Grant, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko, Andrew Golota, Evander Holyfield, David Tua, Shannon Briggs,..etc.

A unified Cruiserweight Champion, Multiple Olympians.

If that's a tomato can line up, you are welcome to your ignorant opinion.

 

I see you have chosen the path of an old woman. Not a drop of testosterone in you.

You have to 24 hours to apologize or I will put you on my ignore list. No more replies to you, and don't act like it won't hurt, you beg for my attention.

 

If that was the case he wouldn't have been able to beat Jefferson, McCline, Thompson, Jennings, Pulev, Austin, Wach...

He was an exceptional big man with speed and two fisted power.

 

That doesn't mean that he wasn't a master at using a size advantage that he had for most of his fights now does it?

 

All the nostalgists are in full force right now, trying to demean the great Wlad king. Let me guess, Jack Dempsey knocks out Wlad with one jab

 

Thats funny coming from the guy who acted like prissy little queen in the Sanders thread. You hid yourself behind that 'post 82' like a pure sissy boy.
Do what you gotta do. I'll challenge your posts anyway.
Makes no difference to me if you defend them or not

 

Great champion...mastered the height/reach advantage under steward. Just unfortunate their was no real great big men around his reign till the end. All the big guys he fought we,rent great fighters. He needed that to bring out the best in him. Tbh i think his careers been wasted to an extent but the problems been with the level of challengers nothing he could have done really. Almost been too good for his own good. We never got to see the best of him. So glad he gave us the joshua fight...i think it showed what he was all about when the chips were down. Fury just outboxed him...it happens. Out of his prime...had got too used to using the height/reach advantage.

 

Every champion in existence besides a few like Tyson or Marciano has had a general size advantage over the rest of the division.


Yeah.

 

^Is this code for "I know how to polish a turd"?

 

Do you agree with the statement that Chris Byrd, Rahman, McCline, Povetkin, Peter, Haye, Chambers..etc are Tomato Cans?

Tomato Can by definition is a fighter without any prestige, usually has a poor record by their contemporary standards and not regarded as being able compete at a high level. They are below journeyman and fringe contender level, the worst of the worst.

I cannot agree that these men are tomato cans. If these top fighters are the tomato cans, who were the genuine fighters from the last 20 years? Can you enlighten this poor turd polisher?

Demetrice King and Gabe Brown are two of the best known Tomato Cans of the 2000s.

 

It means he had more going for them than "being bigger" than his opposition.

 

So a boxer's prime is only when he's winning fights, eh?

No... that's not how things work. A fighter can lose at any point during their career.

Let's toss some of this fanatical bias aside for a moment and put some of this into perspective.

In Wladimir's case, he had stoppage losses by the time he was 27 years old (the same age AJ is now)... but there are three MAJOR differences here:

1). Wladimir had been boxing since he was a child, whereas AJ entered the sport relatively late.

2). Wladimir had a much longer amateur career than Joshua.

3). Wladimir had been in 41 professional fights by the time he faced Sanders in '03.

The point here is, Wladimir Klitschko had losses that came at various segments of his career. The Puritty TKO loss is the only one I'd chalk up to "pre-prime" inexperience, even though Wlad had already been in 24 fights then.

In retrospect, I will say that Wladimir's post-2004 run was noteworthy, primarily due to several factors... one being his discipline when it came to always showing up in shape. We never once saw him coming in ill-prepared for a contest -- he clearly did not engage in any hemorrhagic behaviors outside of the ring, which definitely increased his longevity.

Emanuel Steward (may he R.I.P.) came in and helped Wlad steer his career back from the brink of what many believed to be a fatal shipwreck at the time. Outside of mandatories, Manny was also picking his fighter's opponents; his involvement was not just in getting Wladimir ready to face them. Manny was instrumental in Wlad's 'post-Brewster I' run. But the presence of Vitali Klitschko was also a huge factor... and it is one that is too often overlooked.

Vitali was active during some of the most critical years while the 'Wladimir-Steward train' was rolling. The heavyweight division was already "limited" when it came to the rest of the field's dedication, conditioning, amateur pedigree, and overall boxing skill following Lennox Lewis virtually cleaning it out prior to his retirement. Vitali Klitschko was the one who took over the reigns immediately post-Lewis... and he & Wladimir being brothers (who understandably vowed to never fight each other) pretty much tag-teamed a hapless division until Vittles was hit by injuries.

By that point, with the best HW in the world being a guy he'd never be able to fight, Wladimir was able to regain his confidence fighting the division's remnants... and stylistically, he was "fighting to not lose" in often overmatched fights that many people -including networks- were vehemently critical of when it came to their entertainment value. Make no mistake about it -- the run was noteworthy. He was doing what he did for quite a while. However, some of the complete history of that run has been either ignored, swept under the rug, or glossed over.

The thing that is most unfortunate about Wladimir's accomplished career is that his opposition only got better towards the tail end of it. Therefore, legacy defining fights for him are harder to pin down. I strongly believe that Wladimir would fight ANYONE (which he has done in Steward's absence) but after Steward's passing, there was no one around to tell Wladimir that fighting a guy like Fury was a bad idea.

I've come to the realization that a fit, focused, and motivated Tyson Fury is a guy Wlad would always have problems with, and I believe -in hindsight- that Emanuel Steward thought so too. What we saw in that fight was the total nullification and befuddlement of Wladimir to a different degree compared to all of his previous losses, but too many people choose not to acknowledge this, either due to obvious bias or their "lack of being entertained" by the fight. No one had ever come close to even nicking a 12 Round decision win against Wladimir in his career... until Fury won a (wide) UD against him.

As for Joshua, well... he was "green enough" that I think he would've been viewed by Steward as just another "undefeated" opponent to pad his fighter's record with, even though the AJ who Wladimir just faced had not fought anyone of note until last Saturday night. What we actually saw was indeed an inexperienced Joshua almost losing a fight he had in the bag due to mismanaging his gas tank. AJ is the one who proved more in that fight overall, but Wladimir going out there and being willing to go out on his shield was a well-deserved career highlight. Both guys left it all in the ring.

Wladimir Klitschko can (and should) be proud of himself for giving it his all and going for broke Saturday night. I truly believe he felt he was the better man... and it is clear that he thought he was for sure, prior to the fight. I picked him to win (and was wrong). But the goalpost moving -regarding when a fighter's prime is- needs to be scaled back a bit.

The *past prime excuse* works both ways, because the AJ that just beat Wladimir isn't even in his prime yet. Anthony Joshua has had only 18 fights and has a lot less experience, being a late entry into the sport. And yet... here he is getting up off of the canvas to grind out a stoppage win over a highly motivated, vastly more experienced, and supremely conditioned Klitschko... in a fight where so much pressure was on him.

Some of the bias being shown on this forum has been repulsive following such a display of heart and determination between these two guys. The people who are doing this know who they are. Having said all of this, there is no truly credible way to deny Wladimir Klitschko's status as being a Top 15 HW all-time. If so, then you better have an airtight case to make.