By Lyle Fitzsimmons

This just in: Wladimir Klitschko is pretty damned good.

And anyone who doesn’t believe that is, well… just wrong.

At the very least, it seems those late to the acknowledgement party will force the mammoth Ukrainian’s acclaim to wait until he’s either five years beyond his last punch for pay – and planning a summertime trip to the hall of fame in central New York – or six feet under terra firma in a pine box.

No matter when it comes, though, it’ll be far too late to celebrate a guy who’s done nothing less than reduce a series of musclebound gloved men, some admittedly more threatening than others, to so much concussed, red-faced top dress since he was last vanquished a few days more than a decade ago.

Then and only then will we all be aware of what we’ve been fortunate enough to witness.

Sure, he’s get neither the in-ring artistry nor the vocal stylings of Muhammad Ali. And when it comes to sheer can’t-turn-away train-wreck violence, he’s more than a few ladder rungs below Mike Tyson.

That said, though, his signature combination of size and skill is unlike any the world has known.

He towers over all but a few who’ve ever claimed even a tenuous connection to a world heavyweight championship belt, and the qualities he brings besides sheer size – speed, power and conditioning – quickly elevate him from the ranks of giant-sized pretender to all-time elite contender.

The loudest of the naysayers would be severely challenged in naming a fighter prior to the last 50 years who’d give him more than a midget-sized hiccup. In fact, in a series of eras where the heaviest of the heavyweight champions barely scraped 200 pounds, a 6-foot-6 behemoth with single-digit body fat at 245 pounds would be as unstoppable as Butterbean at an all you can eat.

Klitschko, in that sense, is not your father’s Primo Carnera.

And even in the stretch that began in 1964, it’s nearly as difficult to conceive of a championship-level fighter sturdy enough to stretch him to the late rounds, skilled enough to out-do him in a technical match or tough enough to withstand his shots to get close enough to land a go-home punch of his own.

Could all-timers like Ali and Holmes have done it? Potentially.

Could big men like Foreman, Lewis or Bowe managed on their best nights? Perhaps.

Should anyone else be legitimately considered as a threat? Not a chance.

British-based loudmouth Tyson Fury figures to become the latest in a series of discarded challengers later this month in Germany, where he’ll try to provide more than a chatty speed bump en route to Klitschko’s 19th successful defense of the IBF and IBO belts he won by poleaxing Chris Byrd in 2006.

And though some choose to stubbornly deny Klitschko his historical due because of the limits of his challengers, they do so while conveniently ignoring the fact that the majority of Joe Louis’s divisional record of 25 successful defenses came against guys propped up as crash-test dummies for cameos in the champion’s “Bum of the Month” club.

And the only other man to enjoy as many consecutive successes as Klitschko—late ’70s to mid ’80s kingpin Holmes—had his share of breathers among 20 straight wins as well, melding no-hopers like Scott Frank, Lucien Rodriguez and Tex Cobb in with the Earnie Shavers and Carl Williams of the world.

You want to say the division is down? Fine. No one’s arguing.

But it’s through no fault of Klitschko, who’s done exactly what a champion is supposed to do – convincingly beat the guy in front of him – whether that guy is Alex Leapai, Mariusz Wach or one of the eight reigning or former champions—seven heavyweight, one cruiserweight—he’s beaten since 2006.

Lest anyone forget, Louis was nearly dethroned by Billy Conn and received what most consider a gift in his first go-round with Jersey Joe Wolcott. Holmes, for his part, was dropped in a heap by both Shavers and the far lesser-heralded Renaldo Snipes. But Klitschko, since hammering then-champ Byrd into bloody submission in their rematch, has beaten each subsequent foe with a prolonged decisiveness heretofore unseen among the sport’s biggest men.

For an entire decade, he’s never lost a fight, he’s barely lost a round and he’s rarely lost an exchange.

“Every fighter finds someone whose style he cannot contend with,” HBO’s Jim Lampley said immediately following the overthrow of Byrd, who’d beaten all but one foe before Klitschko. “In 19 rounds against Wladimir Klitschko, Chris Byrd barely scratched in the box score. He’s never had that kind of difficulty against anybody else.”

Saluting Klitschko’s greatness before it’s gone would do the rest of us a lot good, too.

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This week’s title-fight schedule:

WEDNESDAY
IBF/IBO junior welterweight titles – Kazan, Russia
Cesar Cuenca (IBF champ/No. 6 IWBR) vs. Eduard Troyanovsky (IBO champ/No. 21 IWBR)
Cuenca (48-0, 2 KO): First title defense; Second fight outside Argentina (1-0, 0 KO)
Troyanovsky (22-0, 19 KO): First title defense; Twelve straight wins by stoppage (48 rounds)
Fitzbitz says: “There’s a great chance that a stylist with 48 straight wins makes the Russian look strategically silly, but it feels more likely that the slugger’s power will decide things.” Troyanovsky in 9

IBO cruiserweight title -- Kazan, Russia
Rakhim Chakhkiev (champion/No. 6 IWBR) vs. Ola Afolabi (No. 20 IBO/No. 12 IWBR)
Chakhkiev (24-1, 18 KO): First title defense; Tenth fight in Russia (8-1, 6 KO)
Afolabi (21-4-4, 10 KO): Fifth title fight (1-2-1); Held IBO title (2013, zero defenses)
Fitzbitz says: Afolabi is a good fighter, but he’s had historically iffy luck when fighting for a title in an opponent’s backyard. Given that the foe is younger and surging, it won’t change. Chakhkiev in 10

WBA cruiserweight title – Kazan, Russia
Denis Lebedev (champion/No. 5 IWBR) vs. Lateef Kayode (No. 3 WBA/No. 44 IWBR)
Lebedev (27-2, 20 KO): Third title defense; Twenty-fifth fight in Russia (23-1, 16 KO)
Kayode (21-0, 16 KO): Second title fight (0-0, 1 NC); First fight outside United States
Fitzbitz says: Kayode made a wise choice by dipping back down to cruiserweight, but Lebedev probably isn’t the best option in terms of opposition. Too tough, too strong. Lebedev in 10

SATURDAY
WBO welterweight title – Las Vegas, Nevada
Timothy Bradley (champion/No. 2 IWBR) vs. Brandon Rios (No. 3 WBO/No. 8 IWBR)
Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KO): First title defense; Sixth fight in Las Vegas (3-1-1, 1 KO)
Rios (33-2-1, 24 KO): Fifth title fight (4-0, 3 KO); Fourth fight as welterweight (2-1, 1 KO)
Fitzbitz says: Bradley makes every fight tougher than it ought to be, but a limited foe like Rios ought to be someone against whom he can look good. Bradley by decision

WBO featherweight title – Las Vegas, Nevada
Vasyl Lomachenko (champion/No. 3 IWBR) vs. Romulo Koasicha (No. 7 WBO/No. 42 IWBR)
Lomachenko (4-1, 2 KO): Third title defense; Third fight in Las Vegas (2-0 2 KO)
Koasicha (25-4, 15 KO): First title fight; Second fight outside Mexico (0-1, 0 KO)
Fitzbitz says: Sanctioning body rankings notwithstanding, there’s really no reason that Koasicha deserves an audience with a fighter as good as Lomachenko. It’ll be clinical for as long as it lasts. Lomachenko in 7

Last week’s picks: None
2015 picks record: 71-20 (78.0 percent)
Overall picks record: 710-243 (74.5 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.