You cannot just clump the Klits's resumes together and call them both ATGs

yesterday about amir khan

 

At least I spelled it correctly.

Lol...

 

lmao @ "prejudist"

 

all h2h fight scenarios are pure conjecture. your brit leanings are silly.

 

like you have room to critcise anyones spelling.

 

Hahhaha right you're not .

 

Wlad is an ATG, Hits isn't. It's pretty simple really.

 

Yes, and you'll never get mistaken for a Genius...

 

I know this isn't how everybody operates, but the way I tend to "rank" fighters as ATGs is by dividing boxing divisions into eras or generations (I don't think you can divide boxing as a whole in generations because different divisions came into being at different times, and boxers of all different ages and points in their career hold titles at any given time). For each division's "era", the dominant fighter of that division's era is automatically an ATG.

On average, I've counted about 20 eras for the original eight divisions, and varying amounts for the others.

From there, there are elements of art and science that I use to determine the other ATGs within a given era. There aren't many eras with two ATGs within a division, but it happens.

Anyway, that comes out to about 150 boxers on my list of ATGs, and it continues to grow. I don't believe in static lists of 100 ATGs or anything like that, because doing so makes the criteria much more restrictive as time goes on, and it doesn't seem fair for the bar to be higher just because the HOF has more names in it today than 50 years ago.

I say all of that to say that Wladmir is the dominant heavyweight of this era, and as such, he should be recognized as an ATG heavyweight. Vitali is definitely a future Hall of Famer, but I'm a little bit more torn on whether he should be considered an ATG. I'm leaning "yes" because of how dominant he has been in his era, but in many respects the Klitschkos hurt each other because their careers were in parallel and really split the best opponents of the era with not much overlap.

 

Another point I'll make - I try never to hold the perceived quality of an era's division against its champion because it's often difficult to accurately assess the quality of an era. A thoroughly dominant champion will make his opponents look ordinary. It doesn't necessarily mean they are ordinary. For example, if we took both Vitali and Wlad out of the equation, one could argue that the division, especially a few years ago, was "stacked". But what we mean by "stacked" is that there is a good degree of parity there. I would have hard a hard time picking between Chris Byrd, Kevin Johnson, Calvin Brock, and Eddie Chambers if they all fought each other back in, say, 2004. Several years back, there was a large amount of talent at around the same level in the tier below the Klitschkos. The problem was that the Klitschkos made it obvious none of them measured up. I wonder if we would have known that if the Klits never existed? And I wonder if we would have perceived the era more positively as a result.

 

Chisora bullied Vitali like Rios bullied Pacquiao. But I would agree with the sentiment that lumping them together gives Wladimir the crap end of the stick and overflatters Vitali's very good but not ATG career.

 

I have all of Vitali and Vlad's fights on tape, watched Vlad win the gold medal in Atlanta, GA back in 1996. I enjoy watching both fight. Vitali is a real mean heavyweight, excellent with a rock chin. Vlad is very naturally talented, the shortest left hook I have ever seen was the one Vlad knocked Shufford out with in Vegas years ago. Vlad has everything, truly awesome. After their fights, both Vitali and Vlad give interviews in, at least, four languages. Void can't even speak English! After Provodnikov got through with Bradley, Bradley had trouble thinking, talking, etc. Klitschkos are the very best!!!

 

This is the best argument for the Klits bros and yes they will be seen as ATG but neither will be i the top 10

 

No the era would have still been perceived as crap but the klits bros trained harder and wanted greatness more than the rest. Neither comes in overweight or underprepared. The same cannot always be said for lennox lewis who on 2 or more occasions took opponents lightly and got sparked as a result.