Not only is he a unified and lineal champion, but he keeps on fighting the best in his division and dominating.
Below are the top 10 ranked fighters in his division that he's beaten, in the past four years:
Chris Byrd (#1)
Calvin Brock (approx. #7)
Lamon Brewster (#7)
Sultan Ibagimov (#6, unifies titles)
Tony Thompson (approx. #9)
Ruslan Chagaev (#3, become lineal heavyweight champion)
Eddie Chambers (#4)
Out of his 8 title defenses, since he won the title from Byrd, he's fought 6 top 10 ranked fighters. That's great, in this day and age.
that Chagaev only had a few weeks notice though
Chagaev was training for a fight with Valuev that was supposed to happen less than a month before, but it was called off. Since Haye backed out of the Wladimir fight, Chagaev agreed to take his place. He was still in good condition.
Err.. I don't know about the hating and racism parts, but I think he's just generally underrated because he's a heavyweight and is usually considered "boring".
I don't know about you, but the term pound for pound refers to fighters of all divisions. You shouldn't just exclude one.
good info, just to many klit-haters out there to give respect...
Exactly. You can make an arguement for how good his opponents actually were all you want but the fact remains he's fighting the very best in his division.