Wlad's resume .. Can someone enlighten me?

[FloydP4P]

I will admit I don't follow the heavyweight division much at all. I don't find the fights to be exciting, it's a watered down division, and the fact that the two best fighters are brothers and will not fight sucks.

I am looking over Wlad's resume and I just don't see what is so impressive about what he has done in the sport. Not being a troll -- just honest & need enlightening.

He's been TKO'd 3 different times -- none by elite fighters.

And none of his wins jump out as impressive. Can someone enlighten someone who doesn't follow the HW division that extensively?

[Russian Crushin]

How can you be unimpressed with the fighters on his resume when you dont even know who they are and dont follow HWs?

[FloydP4P]

I don't follow the HW division as much as the other divisions. I do follow it a bit.

And I just can't point to a really great win on his record.

Enlighten me.

[Toney Loc]

He has losses to Corrie Sanders, Ross Purity, and Lamon Brewster. He avenged the Brewster loss and since then has defeated top ranked opponents like Chris Byrd x2, Tony Thompson, Samuel Peter, Eddie Chambers and other fighters like DaVarryl Williamson, Charles Shufford, and Jameel McCline. While his opponents don't have marquee names, he thoroughly beat them down, and usually knocked them all out.

[The_Golden_Goy]

Most of the credit Wlad gets, deservedly so, has come in the last 4 years or so. The fighters he has fought and beaten since then have been top 10 ranked HW's at the time. You could argue none of them posed much of a threat, but that because os the stylistic match up and the fact that Wlads kryptonite, a lightning fast power puncher (or even a moderately quick power puncher), hasnt been evident in the HW division for a while.

Its not Hayes boxing ability that could defeat Wlad, its his explosiveness and power and speed, thats why hes perceived as so much of a threat. Because he can expose Wlad weaknesses, not because he matches him in terms of achievement

[paulf]

Wlad shut down Chris Byrd at the top of his game, destroyed a very game Ray Mercer, got up off the canvas three times to beat and almost KO Sam Peter, pulled the rug out from under Calvin Brock's career, took Ray Austin apart without using his right hand, and has continued to rule the division to with a iron first.

What is there to knock on his resume? They used to call Cahagev, who beat both Ruiz and Valuev, the "white Tyson." After Wlad dominated him, you don't hear that anymore.

Fact of the matter is, good fighters that get put in front of Wlad usually come out looking helpless. He hasn't been in many "great fights" because he dominates his opponents. They never have a chance.

[Dave Rado]

I don't follow the HW division as much as the other divisions. I do follow it a bit.

And I just can't point to a really great win on his record.

Enlighten me.

You can say the same about Holmes, who is almost universally ranked as a top 10 ATG.

Like Holmes, Wlad has beaten the best fighters in his division for very many years. Unlike Holmes, who had many fairly close fights, Wlad has easily dominated almost every round of every fight during the past 5 years, despite the fact that he was fighting Ring top 10 Heavyweights in most of those fights.

He has the third longest Heavyweight title reign in history, although admittedly he was not lineal champion for most of that time. But Hopkins was not lineal champion for the majority of his Middleweight title reign but most boxing historians state that Hopkins has the longest Middleweight title reign in history. And Wlad was ranked #1 in the division by most independents for almost all of his title reign.

He has no control of the level of competition - he fought the best available, and that's all anyone could have done.

Much of his competition was good, although not great. Byrd and Chambers were both comparable in skills and speed to Jimmy Young (who beat a prime Foreman and arguably deserved the nod against Ali). Chagaev was comparable to Bonavena or Quarry. And he didn't simply beat them, he won every single round against them.

Also, Wlad has improved dramatically in the past three years, under Steward's tutelage. He now has arguably the best jab in Heavyweight history - and unarguably he's got one of the top 5 jabs in Heavyweight history. His ability to control the ring is now comparable to Lewis's, and he has a better jab than Lewis had, and is better at avoiding punches (although Lewis was much better at throwing combinations). In fantasy head to head match-ups with ATGs of the past, whereas no one (other than his die hard fans) would have given him a chance a few years ago, most historians would consider him a very tough fight for any Heavyweight in history now.

[The Hammer]

Wladimir Klitschko has stopped more opponents who had never been stopped before than any heavyweight in history.

He's beaten 7 previously undefeated opponents (Chagaev, Peter, Ibragimov, Brock, etc). Eleven other Wlad wins were over fighters with only one previous loss.

He has 9 wins over world titleholders (Byrd x 2, Peter x 2, Mercer, Chagaev, Ibragimov, Brewster, Rahman).

He has 49 KOs.

He has the greatest number of successful IBF HW title defenses in history.

He has the greatest number of successful WBO HW title defenses in history.

If you add up the win-loss records of all his opponents, they have a better total win-loss percentage than the opponents of Ali, Louis, Holmes and Lewis.

Sadly, there are SOME people who will never recognize him as a great fighter no matter what he does.

[-Kev-]

Can't really say anything bad about about the Klits.

The fact that people say the heavyweight division is weak, says something about the Klits. They might be in a weak HW division, but THEY'RE not weak. And it can also be argued that THEY make the current HW division look weaker than it really is. They stopped hype trains like Arreola and Peters.

Of course American HW's from the Silver era would be way more competitive than these out of shape Americans let alone from the Golden Age, but the fact is that Wlad and Vitali stand out and you can't call them weak.

About Wlad's resume, yeah he lost several times when he was younger but he got better with age.

[Toney Loc]

Wladimir Klitschko has a great resume:

- All Time Great and Hall Of Famer

- Most dominant fighter in the world

- Has pretty much cleaned out the HW division

- IBF/WBO/IBO/RING Unified Heavyweight Champion Of The World

- Rightful WBA Heavyweight Champ

- Olympic Gold Medalist

- 49 KOs in 55 wins

- Has made 16 dominant world title defences

- Has defeated 8 world heavyweight champions:

Chris Byrd I (31-1)
Chris Byrd II (39-2)
Samuel Peter I (24-0)
Samuel Peter II (34-3)
Ruslan Chagaev (25-0)
Sultan Ibragimov (22-0)
Lamon Brewster (33-3)
Hasim Rahman (45-5)
Francois Botha (44-3)
Ray Mercer (30-4)

- Has defeated tons of top contenders:

Eddie Chambers (35-1)
Tony Thompson (31-1)
Jameel McCline (28-2)
Calvin Brock (29-0)
Monte Barrett (23-0)
Axel Schulz (26-3)
Ray Austin (24-3)
DaVarryl Williamson (20-2)
Derrick Jefferson (23-2)
Charles Shufford (17-1)
Eliseo Castillo (18-0)
etc.....

- Has defeated 8 undefeated fighters:

Ruslan Chagaev (25-0)
Sultan Ibragimov (22-0)
Samuel Peter (24-0)
Calvin Brock (29-0)
Monte Barrett (23-0)
Eliseo Castillo (18-0)
Zoran Vujecic (14-0)
Najee Shaheed (16-0)

Next Victim: Hypejob Haye