Wlad's best wins

Byrd 1: 24 years old, world title debut, never gone 12 rounds before, considerable step up in level of opponent, 12 round shut out UD with two KD’s against a very small but skilled and experienced southpaw heavyweight champion and future 2x heavyweight champion with 4 consecutive defences, immediately “avenged” Vitali’s defeat, the only time Byrd was outpointed in 47 pro fights

Peter 1: world title eliminator, written off by many, fighting in America as a betting underdog against a strong, heavy, hard hitting, iron chinned, determined, aggressive, rough, experienced, heavily hyped, 24-0 future heavyweight champion, career on the line; one fight removed from being dropped by Williamson and getting a 5 round split technical decision, two fights removed from being counted twice and stopped in 5 rounds by Brewster and five fights removed from being dropped four times and blown out in 2 rounds by Sanders, was advised by his team to swerve Peter after having been implored to retire by Vitali, had to climb off the canvas three times to win a 12 round UD, having not gone the distance in almost 5 years

Haye: world title unification, 10th consecutive title defence, father near death in hospital with cancer, clear 12 round UD against an athletic, explosive punching, experienced, heavily hyped heavyweight and former unified cruiserweight champion with 1 defence at cruiserweight and 2 defences at heavyweight, the only time Haye was outpointed in 32 pro fights

Pulev: 38 years old, 17th consecutive title defence, brutal 5th round KO with three additional KD’s against a rangy, strong, heavy, determined, skilled, rough, experienced, 20-0 contender and future 2x world title challenger

 

The Povetkin fight wasn't really a boxing match and tainted Wlad's legacy. I've never seen anything like it.

Ibragimov was on the verge of retirement and cashing out, didn't try to win even after he realised mid way that he was going to lose if things stayed the same and his career best win was a relatively competitive decision over a 45 year old Holyfield in Russia. Sultan managed to go all 12 rounds and even be mildly competitive with a mature Wlad, despite posing very little offensive threat.

 

Ruiz would have no chance but Usyk would have a very good chance of outboxing him judging from the Sultan and Thompson fights. It would depend on officiating though: if Wlad was allowed to get away with Povetkin tactics then he might be favoured.

 

If the Klitschkos hadn't been around I suspect a lot of cruisers would have moved up (Lebedev) moved up sooner (Cunningham) or stuck around (Briedis) and Povetkin was fortunate to get the decision over Huck, so the HW landscape may have been dramatically different. The division would have been fiercely competitive, with Povetkin, Pulev, Haye and Ortiz probably being the hardest to beat until Fury and Wilder entered the picture.