Is Wladimir Klitschko a top 5 all-time great?

[bojangles1987]

Top 10-15. No way is he top 5. As dominating as his run was, the actual wins he picked up were terrible. Not completely his fault, but I'm not going to give him credit over heavyweights with better wins. It would be different if he at least put up incredible performances against his best opponents, but his best opponents usually made for his worst fights. That hurts him quite a bit as well when he looks like garbage against the best of a bad era.

Now beating Joshua next year would possibly change this argument. Much the same way an old Lennox beating Vitali has made his legacy much better over time, Wlad beating Joshua might really increase his as well. Depending on Joshua's career after, of course.

[bojangles1987]

Ali is the no.1 on most lists including mine.

Easily the best resume at HW.

1.Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Foreman
4. Holmes
5. Holyfield

I know people like to sometimes put Louis above Ali, but man, how? Ali's resume is so freaking untouchable by anyone at heavyweight, and he had the skills and big performances to match. He should be as consensus a #1 as there is in any division.

[daggum]

no. he's not good at boxing. jabbing shorter opponents then holding them when they get close is not boxing. his resume sucks anyway.

[JimRaynor]

Top 5 is being generous, especially with guys like Ali, Holmes, Foreman, Tyson, Lewis, hovering around, but then again Wlad ruled from 2004-2015, virtually dominated in that time, and that in itself speaks volumes. Definitely in my top 10, but he'll need to beat Joshua, and Wilder and maybe perhaps avenge his loss to Fury and finish as the oldest heavyweight champ (past Foreman) and then he'd be a bonafide top 5 in my book, probably top 3.

[Tom Cruise]

I know people like to sometimes put Louis above Ali, but man, how? Ali's resume is so freaking untouchable by anyone at heavyweight, and he had the skills and big performances to match. He should be as consensus a #1 as there is in any division.

He has 3 of the top 10 atg HWs on his resume, in or close to their primes. Pretty astonishing really.

IIRC He is also top in terms of top 10 ranked opposition faced, with Joe louis being close (but without the atg quality wins).

Pretty much untouchable at HW.

[Prince Madison]

lol you gotta be kidding me did you just start watching boxing 5 years ago.. I can name 30 better all time heavyweights, the division has too rich of a history, his bro is even greater than him.

agreed ^.......

[VG_Addict]

I think Vitali was better H2H.

If Vitali hadn't retired for 4 years, I think he'd have a better legacy than Wlad.

[Fury4daWIN]

He's done enough now to be rated well within the top ten. His last few fights hurt his resume though. The Povetkin fiasco was a disgrace and made me retroactively evaluate Wlad's H2H dominance over the years, as well as opening my eyes to just how limited he was as a fighter.

Still, his consistent performances and willingness to face all the top guys in the division can't be ignored, regardless of what you think of those fighters. And personally I think wins over Byrd x2, Haye, Povetkin, Chagaev, Ibragimov, Brewster and Pulev isn't that shabby at all.

[HWChampion]

1.Joe Loius
2.Ali
3.Jack Johnson
4.Lennox
5.Sonny Liston
6.Iron Mike
7.Larry Holmes
8.Foreman
9.Dempsey
10.Frazier
11.Marciano
12.Ezarrd Charles
13.Hollyfield
14.Archie Moore
15.Floyd Patterson
16.Max shmeling
17.Ken Norton
18.VITALI
19.Riddick Bowe
20.Michael Spinks
21. WLAD CLIT


so I guess hes top 21 but after his next ko loss we can get him top 30 when its all said and done