Is Pulev a Top 10 Win for Wlad?

[soul_survivor]

by beating tony thompson? and people say the division isn't weak why? all you have to do is beat a 44 year old fringe contender to get a shot.

Thompson, Ustinov, Dimitrenko, all pretty good wins, especially the first 2.

And that's exactly what I'm saying, this IS a weak division but all Wlad can do is fight the best offered to him, over the years that's been the likes of Pov, Haye, Chambers and so on.

In the coming years, it may include fury, wilder and stiverne, will those wins or fights be criticised?

[daggum]

dimentrenko was a good win??? no??? he did beat eddie chambers when chambers was considered a good fighter, maybe not to you but the majority of experts thought that was a good win for dimentrenko.

the hell are you talking about? chambers dominated dimitrenko and knocked him down a bunch. dimitrenko lost that fight. he's not good.

[daggum]

Thompson, Ustinov, Dimitrenko, all pretty good wins, especially the first 2.

And that's exactly what I'm saying, this IS a weak division but all Wlad can do is fight the best offered to him, over the years that's been the likes of Pov, Haye, Chambers and so on.

In the coming years, it may include fury, wilder and stiverne, will those wins or fights be criticised?

if their best wins are tony thompson yes they will be criticized. who is ustinov? he's never fought a soul. why would you consider that a good win?

[LouIE G]

the hell are you talking about? chambers dominated dimitrenko and knocked him down a bunch. dimitrenko lost that fight. he's not good.

he beat dimentrenko???? shiat im drunk,i coulda have sworn chambers lost that fight....i respectfully take that correction, good job!

[gmc_rfc_06]

Thompson, Ustinov, Dimitrenko, all pretty good wins, especially the first 2.

And that's exactly what I'm saying, this IS a weak division but all Wlad can do is fight the best offered to him, over the years that's been the likes of Pov, Haye, Chambers and so on.

In the coming years, it may include fury, wilder and stiverne, will those wins or fights be criticised?

The Haye and Povetkin wins are good. The Povetkin fight was a bit of a farce with the constant holding and leaning though.

Those other guys just aren't good. It's like people complaining about Golovkin's opposition...the entire HW division is made up of those average level opponents. Haye and Povetkin were good, but Fury and Wilder are further examples of average. Not Wlads fault, but it's hard to call someone a top 10 fighter when he's beating up average at best opponents 95% of the time.

[Simurgh]

Put it this way the faded version of LL that Vitali fought, would have been too much for Wlad

The huge shots Vitali took in that fight, Wlad's chin would not have been able to take such punishment.

Lewis always found a way, and when he lost he came back and proved the loses were via flukes or screwjob.

Lewis could have spent his entire career fighting from range using his jab, but he enjoyed mixing it up on the inside, his signature uppercut floored many big men. Wlad sadly doesnt have this luxury due to his wobbly chin, early on in Wlads career he would fight on the inside, but once Manny came aboard, he got rid of that part of his game, because it was making him far too vulnerable. Whereas with LL, Manny kept it and trained him how to fight on the inside.

Wlad fights like LL, from the stance, to the way he throws his jab, right and hook, only he doesnt have the inside game. Also LL chin was stronger.

I'm not insulting Wlad, he clearly has a great boxing brain, athletically gifted, i just feel certain boxers are all wrong for him. I'm a great believer in styles makes fights

That reasonable opinion and I respect it, but cant agree.

Both fighters have advantages over the other. Wlad having better jab, straight and hook, being slightly quicker and better footwork, better defense.

Lennox having a better chin, much better inside fighter, knowing more 'tricks', beautiful uppercut..

to me it comes wether lennox manages to fight and stay inside going through jab, straight, hook... to me its 50:50 question.

if lennox himself had vitali's chin I would favour him.
that vitali fight didnt tell me much apart from lennox vs vitali (prime or not prime) would always be a close fight.

[Cloud]

For me this is Wladimir's finest KO title win and Pulev was regarded as being the number one contender by a vast amount of people.

For me Wladimir is number five of all time and a genuine ATG (I base that off accomplishments, who he fought and where they were considered and who they fought to get there and not fantasy fights).

[soul_survivor]

The Haye and Povetkin wins are good. The Povetkin fight was a bit of a farce with the constant holding and leaning though.

Those other guys just aren't good. It's like people complaining about Golovkin's opposition...the entire HW division is made up of those average level opponents. Haye and Povetkin were good, but Fury and Wilder are further examples of average. Not Wlads fault, but it's hard to call someone a top 10 fighter when he's beating up average at best opponents 95% of the time.

if their best wins are tony thompson yes they will be criticized. who is ustinov? he's never fought a soul. why would you consider that a good win?

what we have to understand is that there is a need to differentiate opponents based on history and context. In the wider history of the division, guys like Pulev, Chambers, Povetkin etc are laughable and that's the whole damn truth, however, looking only at the division as it stands today, they were/are the best available opponents at the time Wlad beat them. So what is the complaint?

Instead of Povetkin, who should he have fought? Instead of Pulev who else is there? Instead of Haye, who else should he have fought? We could do this ad infinitum. It's not Wlad's fault, surely you don't expect him to hitchhike with Dr Who to 1974 and fight George Foreman, it's just not how boxing works. There have been similar periods of weakness in the HW in the past, looking at Louis' reign, or Marciano's or Tyson's time at the top or part of Holmes' run or the end of Lewis' reign. In fact, the divided, laughable nature of the HW division in the mid 80s was probably worse.

[LacedUp]

Tony Thompson is such a slow turd. The mere fact that the guy even has been a contender is testament to how crap this division has been over the last 10 years.

[bojangles1987]

all those points are true but pulev earned his shot at the title and is a worthy top 5 in the division. Wlad is just going through all contenders now, by the end of next year I expect him to have dealt with Stiverne/Wilder.

See, how is he a worthy top 5 in the division? He's literally only beaten Tony Thompson. That's it. This was his first fight against anyone truly good and he was awful. Hell, even Chisora has done more than Pulev, and when he fought a Klitschko, he didn't look like garbage in the process.

This was Pulev's first chance to prove he was any good. He didn't.