Would Klitschko have just been another second tier HW if he he came along in the era of the 4 Kings?

You're heavily understimatin Wlad op

 

I mean, Wilder ran from him...outright turned him down.

He lost to Fury and AJ when he was 40-41, so I am not sure what that proves.

I am not a huge fan of Wlad, but he demolishes Wilder and the other two are competitive. I like AJ better, and my feelings on Fury are complex.

 

There must have been an offer made for him to turn it down. There was never an offer made.

 

His team said flat out they wouldn't take it. No need to make an offer.

 

If he was a difficult rival for them at the age of 40, I think that at the age of 30 it would be a bit easier for him. Today he would have more good rivals, so he would have to slightly modify his style to be a more interesting fighter. I think he would still be the best, although he would not dominate so clearly.

 

Joyce and Zhang are huge but aren't too speedy and Wlad was actually dominant against other bigger guys who aren't totally unskilled like Thompson/Pulev/Jefferson/McCline and only narrowly lost to AJ at 41 years old where he didn't quite have his peak physicality but fought with a bigger drive and motivation than most of career before. Even though Wlad had his flaws so do fighters today and Wlad has certain tools to take advantages of those as well.

I agree Wlad would have more trouble if he was around today in particular with Fury and Uysk.

 

I would also add in today's era you have had Wilder defend the WBC belt like what 10 times? AJ also had quite a lot of defenses as well before he ran into Uysk so I don't think it's as impossible as claimed.

 

I think judging Wlad on two fights at the end of his career is disingenuous. I think the best Wlad can potentially beat any top ten ATG, and might even be favoured to do so in some cases. His size, style and power make him a hard nights work for any heavyweight in history. Some serious revisionism going on when ranking the brothers K for me, criminally underrated.

 

He had a far longer run of form than any of them.

This woudl have been apparent, and it would also have told at some point.

What I am saying is that he could loose to some of them, and still end up as the standout of the group.

 

Prime Vs. Prime Wlad beats AJ and Wilder. Wlad loses to Usyk (I don't think clinch would work), and I'm not sure about Fury.

 

The AJ fight was near even anyway. Fury yeah that was Fury clearly dominating Wlad but not many heavyweights have Fury's style which is clearly one of the hardest for Wlad to deal with as he was able to move like that while being taller and bigger negating a lot of Wlad's strengths and we didn't see a rematch either.

 

There was no offer make from K2 to wilder.
The WBC positioned Wlad #1 in the rankings to make him mandatory challenger. K2 never acted on it. Never once challenged wilder. Never once ever expressed any interest to fight Wilder.

 

There doesn't have to be. His manager outright said that Wilder wouldn't fight him.

You are getting hung up on something that is pretty obvious.