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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 sc****d 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. [Click Here To Read More]
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 sc****d 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. [Click Here To Read More]
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