Wlad's all-time status?

For me the problem that I have is the upcoming punchers who could possibly beat Wlad are all to green to seriously have a chance. Take Haye of instance, how many heavyweight wins has he had? And Arreola is still relatively green as well. Hell even Povetkin is only 17-0, it's not like he's had 25-30 fights as a professional under his belt. So even if Wlad beats them, I think that's more or less the status quo, as I would punish his rating if he lost, but winning against this type of opposition, doesn't mean a hell of a lot because it's expected.

As to my vote, I picked a handful of wins to merit him consideration, but it would depend on the level of competition. Personally I think he's got a reasonable shot at making the top 15 and a less than 50% change of cracking the top 10 even if he wins his next 5-7 fights.

Basically he has to major strikes against him. No legacy fights, and 3 terrible losses. On the flip side he's dominated those who have knocked him out as few others ever have, and he's got amazing skills in terms of outside fighting ability, but he's yet to show much inside skills or actually fighting ability (as opposed to boxing ability) the difference being the Lewis-Vitali fight for example. Lewis didn't outbox Vitali, he out fought him and there's a difference. The great fighters can do both.

 

Thats basically what I said too. Those guys havent established themselves enough to merit any big accomplishment on Wlad's part for beating them, but I suspect if one of them can get under Wlads jab and inside, it will confirm that Wlad still has that major flaw of drowning when the fight is not on his terms.

 

People want to see Wlad stand in the pocket and swing, Lewis could box, move and do all that but but if he needed to man up, get down and slug, he would do it and take chances on the inside to get the uppercuts off. Take some shots and come back. AT the moment everyone thinks Wlad would crumble in such a situation. Only a tall guy can lure him into such a fight and there arent any around other than the 2nd ranked guy in the division who he is refusing to fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emfS1S2SXkI

 

Obviously, Wlad could make the top ten but it is highly unlikely. I think he'd have to keep up this winning streak for another 7-8 fights against solid fighters without losing and I doubt he can do that. Right now he is simply rolling through his competition and I don't think he loses yet. But he is 33 and probably slowing down physically. Sometime in the next year or two he loses again.

I think Wlad will wind up comfortably in the top 20-15 range. He scores well with longevity, number of title defenses, consistenly facing top fighters, one of the best jabs in heavyweight history, and he should wind up his career with a pretty good record.

What hurts Wlad is his three losses, an average division, and his panic attacks. Of his three losses I'd cut him some slack on the Puritty fight. The Brewster loss hurts him less then the Sanders defeat. Brewster pulled down a few good wins in his career while Sanders has Wlad and then a bunch of c-level guys. All three hurt him but Sanders the most.

There are a few fighters out there that could help boost Wlad's legacy. But they all need to do a little more than what they already have. Haye, Arreola, Povetkin, Chambers, and Dimitrenko all need to pick up another quality win or two to elevate their status. If one of those guys could become Wlad's rival then that could really bolster his resume.

Basically, I see Wlad rolling over his competition for another 3-5 fights before someone finally beats him. At that point I wouldn't be surprised to see Wlad hang em up. He'll make the top 20 but not the top 10.

 

Wlad's dominance cannot be ignored. But IMO it's more to do with his size and reach than anything else. His boxing ability is inferior to many smaller scale fringe-dwellers.

Top 10 ATG = definate no. Top 10 ATG in future = maybe, but I doubt he'll hang around long enough, or if he does, may actually fall away fairly quickly.