Wladimir Klitschko's Title Reign

I concur with the rating: 9/10. The biggest misses for me are Nikolay Valuev and a rising Deontay Wilder.

Btw, here it the greatest feature of Wladimir's resume - he defended his title against challengers of different nationalities.

USA - Brock, Austin, Brewster, Rahman, Thompson, Chambers, Jennings
Russia - Ibragimov, Povetkin
UK - Haye
Uzbekistan - Chagaev
Nigeria - Peter
France - Mormec
Poland - Wach
Italy - Pianeta
Australia - Leapai
Bulgaria - Pulev.

That is ten different nationalities across five continents. Wladimir Klitschko was the first true 'world' champion.

 

9/10, and the guys from this era show how hard it is to recreate what he did.

Fury--Has/had the talent, but rarely stayed active and likes fighting bums.
Joshua and Wilder--Not good enough.
Usyk--Too old and less dominant.

 

Valuev? Hell no! Wlad easily beat two guys who kicked Valuev's ass. Plus it was Valuev who ducked Wlad like a plague, not the other way around.

 

It was extraordinarily mediocre. I would give it about a 6.

 

I did it for Muhammad Ali and it looks good:

USA - Liston, Patterson, Frazier, Norton, Lyle, Shavers, Williams, Terrell, Folley, Wepner, Young.
UK - Cooper, London, Dunn
Germany - Mildenberger
Canada - Chuvalo
Belgium - Coopman
Hungary - Bugner
Uruguay - Evangelista

Seven countries and three continents. If we call him Aussie Bugner, then its four continents.

 

This. Wlad would've badly hurt Valuev. Valuev had a chance to fight Vitali, but he basically wanted a retirement fund from Vitali, since he knew what was going to happen in the ring. Valuev's reasoning for turning down the fight was that he had to agree to two rematch clauses with Vitali. If he managed to beat Vitali he would have to rematch Vitali and if he managed to beat Vitali a second time he'd have to fight Wlad. A guy like Zhang would've jumped at the opportunity if given such an offer.

Here is a piece on Vitali commenting on Valuev turning down his $2.5 million offer to fight.

WBC world heavyweight champion Vitali “Dr. Iron Fist” Klitschko called former two-time WBA heavyweight titlist Nikolai Valuev a “chicken” this week for rejecting a $2.5 million contract offer to fight this spring.

Instead of scrapping the enormous Russian Valuev (50-2-0-1, 34 KOs), Klitschko (39-2, 37 KOs) will defend his crown versus Polish pugilist Albert Sosnowski (45-2-1, 27 KOs) on May 29 in Germany.

“I don’t want to speak bad about him, but I gave Valuev the biggest financial proposal of his career,” said Klitschko, 38, a Ukrainian who has the highest knockout percentage (94.9 percent) of any heavyweight champion ever.

“He [Valuev] told me ‘No, four.’ There are two reasons why he’s done this. Firstly, he wanted to say no anyway. Four million is unrealistic for someone who has just lost their title. The second point is that he understands if the loses to me straight after losing his title, that’s it for him. Valuev is a chicken.”

Russian immigrant Alex Yuzhakov stated that he agrees with Klitschko that Valuev is indeed a coward.

“Klitschko is right, Valuev is a chicken,” said Yuzhakov, 28, who was born in Moscow and currently resides in Somerville. “For a Russian man to turn down $2.5 million a lot of fear must have been involved. Maybe he’s waiting for a more opportune time to fight Klitschko. No matter, he will never beat the true ex-Soviet beast.”

Valuev squandered his belt last November when he lost a close majority decision to Englishman David “The Hayemaker” Haye (23-1, 21KOs).
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/361065-vitali-klitschko-calls-russian-giant-nikolai-valuev-a-chicken

 

Wladinski was not very fan-friendly but you couldn't ask more from him.
Also Valuev is mid and arguably lost to shot Oldiefield.

 

I would have liked a fight between Wlad & Sergei Liahkovich back in 2006 after Sergei beat Lamon Brewster. It would have been a title unification, and Sergei looked brilliant beating Brewster in a scorching fight

But all in all, I agree with the 9/10 rating

He cleaned out the division almost as well as anyone

 

Klitschko wanted to fight Wilder.... AFTER he defended against Fury.

A day after Wilder won the title, Wlad VS Jennings was announced. Immediately following Wlad's win, he announced he wanted to defend against Fury.

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After his bout with Fury (contingent on a win), only then was a unification bout with Wilder viable https://www.boxingnews24.com/2015/0...-wilder-can-happen-at-the-start-of-next-year/

I know we all hate Wilder, but there was no viable timeline for Wilder to duck Wlad even if he wanted to.

 

Saying they waned a few fights before fighting Wlad is not ducking lol. Wilder’s team was looking forward to the unification bout in early ‘16 as well.

Please tell me when was there a viable time for them to have had a unification bout prior to Wlad’s retirement. There literally was none.