Klitschko is The True Heavyweight Champ

[Leo Pradun]

whan did wlad become a slugger?

i just tried that beer the other day its pretty good...

[Leo Pradun]

Klitschko is the best Heavyweight right now, it would be wrong to say that hes the true champ and Klitschko of all people will tell you that. He wants to unify but nobody else does. I guess for now he will just have to fight those mandatories and best oppostion out there wich doesnt have to be one of the so called champions....

[Dapperpessimist]

After he beats the other Champions, he can proclaim himself the best, not until then. Shannon Briggs needs to fight him as soon as possible, because Briggs is one of the few fighters out there who I believe can beat him, but Briggs doesn't want to risk losing before then.

[Abe Attell]

Wlad has to unify, but I am sick of all these belts...it used to be "ONE", then it was ??? not sure if it was "Two", but "THREE", now "Four" belts you need, WTF?

If I had to pick one, I would pick Wlad...he is good for the sport as well.

[leff]

i just tried that beer the other day its pretty good...

ive tried 4 different versions, blond,brown,red and mix.

[Abe Attell]

I would like to seee Wlad unify, then take all 4 belts, and tell the World,
"These belts mean nothing, they are just belts, not the Title"..."I am the Champion, and as Champion it is my responsibility to clean up the sport, so the first duty, it is to rid boxing of all of these titles, they mean nothing anymore"..."If you want to be Champion, fight me, forget these belts"...And Wlad leaves the belts on the table while he walks away.

[K-DOGG]

For the heavyweights, this year proved decisive as Wladmir Klitschko took command of the division. [details]

Wladimir Klitschko is the best heavyweight on the planet, of that I have no doubt; but he is not the "True" heavyweight champion...not yet.

When Lewis retired in 2004, Vitali was the best and Byrd was next in line due to his longevity. Lamon Brewster would have been considered pretty close because of his knock-out of Wladimir, though it was an odd fight....and John Ruiz would have rounded out the top 4 because of his loss the previous year to Roy Jones, who completely dominated him.

Now, Vitali retires and we've got Byrd, Brewster, and Ruiz holding paper belts. Of those three titlists, all three fought one man, Andrew Golota. Golota drew with Byrd and barely lost to Ruiz and was then stopped in devastating fasion by Brewster....and Ruiz then loses to Toney before the discovery of the steroids.

This, in my estimation, made Brewster the #2 heavyweight in the world behind Byrd, who had a slim lead. Enter Lyakhovich and his impressive win over Brewster and Wlad's impressive stoppage of Byrd, preceded by his impressive win over Peter. So, we have Wladimir and Sergei in the #1 and #2 slots.....until Shannon Briggs.

So, for Wladimir to be the "True" heavyweight champion, he has to beat the #2, which should be Briggs due to his win; but he looked so unimpressive in that fight, as did the champion, that his #2-ship is honestly up for debate.

But, if not Briggs, then who? James Toney beat Ruiz; but didn't look that impressive against Rahman, and he should have gotten the win over Peter, who's a Top 10 'er at least, probably somewhere around 5....which means Toney is a top 5 heavyweight at least.

Maskaev fought a very tough, close fight with Rahman, moreso than James Toney did and knocked him out, so we can conclude that Maskaev deserves more recognition than does James Toney. So, is Maskaev the #2? Well, was Rahman the #2? No, so neither is Maskaev, unless he's a better fighter than Briggs. He certainly was more impressive in his win over Rahman; but Lyakovich beat a better fighter in Brewster than Rahman did in Barrett.


The answer: Wladimir vs Briggs vs Maskaev with the winner to be the undisputed/lineal/real heavyweight champion of the world.

Briggs was not that impressive of a fighter; but neither was Leon Spinks. Still, Neon Leon had more claim to the title of World Champion in June of 1978 than did Kenny Norton, even if nobody in their right mind would suggest that Spinks was a better fighter than Norton. When Ali retired in 1979 Larry Holmes had already beaten Ken Norton by the slimmest of decisions, making him the new #1 fighter and Norton the rightful #2....at least until Earnie Shavers blasted him out in 1 Round in March of that year. So, who was the #2? How did Larry stake his claim?

Several ways. He had already beaten Norton, then he beat Shavers again....and later on stopped Spinks in three rounds, so all of the claimants were taken care of....he'd even stopped Mike Weaver before "Hercules" could wrest the WBA belt from John Tate's waist. Then, he added the name of Ali to his resume in 1980 to seal the deal.

Wladimir's going to have to do something similar. He's going to have to face and beat Briggs, and Maskaev to be the "real" champ IMO. It's a mess; but someone has to clean it up....and Wladimir certainly has the best chance of doing it.

[Welter_Skelter]

I would like to seee Wlad unify, then take all 4 belts, and tell the World,
"These belts mean nothing, they are just belts, not the Title"..."I am the Champion, and as Champion it is my responsibility to clean up the sport, so the first duty, it is to rid boxing of all of these titles, they mean nothing anymore"..."If you want to be Champion, fight me, forget these belts"...And Wlad leaves the belts on the table while he walks away.

If Don King was dead... he would have rolled in his grave hearing your post.. as it is ..I am sure he just recently had a unexplainable chill

[K-DOGG]

I would like to seee Wlad unify, then take all 4 belts, and tell the World,
"These belts mean nothing, they are just belts, not the Title"..."I am the Champion, and as Champion it is my responsibility to clean up the sport, so the first duty, it is to rid boxing of all of these titles, they mean nothing anymore"..."If you want to be Champion, fight me, forget these belts"...And Wlad leaves the belts on the table while he walks away.

Don King hell.....that post just gave me chills.