Comments Thread For: Banks: Klitschko Will Be Appreciated When He's Gone

[Dr Rumack]

People will miss having a dominant heavyweight champion. They won't miss his fights. Obviously he's going to be recognised as an ATG. That goes without saying.

[Chaos]

One could argue that Ali (who was floored by a scrub) was overrated for having such a difficult time with Ken Norton. If you were not aware of this, watch videos of their three fights.

Ali, who beat three wrecking balls in Liston, Foreman and Frazier is overrated? Sure budz.

[Chaos]

ATG Heavyweight, next to Lewis and Vitali.

Those 3, can beat any heavyweight from the past and present.

LOL, Lewis was always one punch away from being put to sleep, can never be an atg. Foreman, Liston, Frazier, Shavers would only need to land on solid shot to finish him. Also he ducked Vit after his gift result.

[Chaos]

Well it's been over 3 years since Vitali Klitschko has retired and I still don't "appreciate" him. I expect the exact same to happen with Wladimir...

I don't like the fact that both brothers were always safety first. The only time they got a bit aggressive and took risks was when there opposition was well below average.

If you want safety first watch Lewis-Tua.

[MisterPullman]

LOL, Lewis was always one punch away from being put to sleep, can never be an atg. Foreman, Liston, Frazier, Shavers would only need to land on solid shot to finish him. Also he ducked Vit after his gift result.

Touche, but so is Wladimir sort of...

Lewis is still top 3 IMO

[Chaos]

Touche, but so is Wladimir sort of...

Lewis is still top 3 IMO

I never called Wlad top 3 (Ali/Louis/Johnson), but he was never put to sleep by one punch like the Rahman/McCall fights.

[Robbie Barrett]

OF course he has plenty of names, but "names" are subjective and up to a persons bias. Numbers though are facts.

Also the premise is fallacious. Ali's Joe Frazier and George Foreman names were only there because he didn't reign as Heavyweight champion for a decade. It's that gap of going to prison that created Joe Frazier and after losing to Smoking Joe, created George Foreman.

How many undefeated Smoking Joe's and Foreman's never came into existance because Wlad just made them a stat on his title defense record? But just for fun, Wlad's names are:

David Haye - a non-heavyweight who's accomplishments were at Cruiserweight. I suppose his win over Valuev made him somewhat of an accomplished heavyweight prior to facing Wlad

Povetkin - undefeated, defeated plenty of names prior to facing Wlad (Chris Byrd, Eddie Chambers). How much better can that win look if Povetkin beats Wilder and spoils a big Heavyweight unification.

Ibragimov - undefeated (took Shannon Briggs WBO Title, defended it against Holyfield), Wlad pretty much gets credit by default for retiring him.

Ruslan Chagaev - undefeated at that time, took Valuev's 0 prior to facing Wlad

Hasim Rahman - you wanna talk about names. There is your name. Defeated a washed up Rahman, but a name nonetheless. Made a name for himself prior to Wlad's reign.

Chris Byrd - a transitional champion who was part of the Lewis and the Klitschko eras.

Eddie Chambers - solid slickster who can box but would've been a better heavyweight in a past era where other heavyweights were smaller in stature and weight. Could've been a great cruiserweight.

Pulev - a potential great name on Wlad's resume. Was undefeated, gave Wlad some trouble by blocking his usual punches, which forced Wlad to use a lead hook to get teh KO. Let's just see if he gets a few good wins in the Post-Wlad era if he gets to fight the Fury's, Wilder's and Joshua's of the world.

Got up to the part where you said Ali went to prison and stopped reading, can't be taken seriously when you don't know what you're talking about.

[Rip Chudd]

It's not that he's not appreciated (I appreciate him), it's just that this HW era is the weakest in history. If Wlad would have been this dominant in, let's say, the 90s, it would be a different story. I personally don't think he would have been, but who knows. Either way he's a helluva fighter and a very classy champion.

This exactly^^^^^^^^^^^

[Mr.Fantastic]

He won't be in this area of the world. We're too salty and we make excuses that the good ones are playing football/basketball. Wlad deserves much better.

[Mr.Daddy]

Ali, who beat three wrecking balls in Liston, Foreman and Frazier is overrated? Sure budz.

Not to be rude, but you need to read what I wrote. Specifically, Ali had three fights with Ken Norton, and as Floyd Jr. recently said, it could be argued that Ali lost all three. If you haven't watched all three, do so. If you are objective, it will be apparent that Ali could not stick to boxing Norton (Ali repeatedly screwed off - clowning to such an extent that it was evident that he hadn't the conditioning or talent to simply box Norton). Better yet, after you finish the third Ali-Norton fight, immediately watch Norton's fight against Larry Holmes. Fifteen rounds of straight up championship boxing. Perhaps the greatest heavyweight title fight of the seventies. Now, contrast that with any or all of Ali's fights against Norton. It doesn't matter which fight. In fact, I believe that you could take the best rounds of all three Ali-Norton fights and compare/contrast the composite of those three with the 15 round Norton-Holmes fight, and Norton/Holmes would still remain the superior fight. Now, why was that? Likely it was because Ken Norton was Ali's kryptonite. Why Norton was, I don't know, but he certainly was.
Also, in the first Ali-Frazier fight, Ali clearly lost. Watch the fight. See Joe grabbing Ali by the wrists (eighth round I believe) to pull Ali off the ropes and spin him into center ring to kick start Ali to fight. Watch closely the beginning of round 11. I believe that it happens within the first 10-12 seconds of the round - 15 seconds elapsed at the most. A Frazier punch with a delayed effect knocks Ali down - Ali touches one hand and both knees to the canvas, but because Ali did not fall immediately from Frazier's punch (1/2 half to 1 second after the punch landed) the ref, Arthur Mercante, did not call it a knockdown; however, it was a knockdown by any interpretation of the rules. Yes, in round 15, when Frazier decked Ali, Mercante called it a knockdown, but my point is that Frazier knocked Ali down twice in that 15 round "Fight of the Century" as well as having to grab Ali by his wrists and swing him into ring center to get Ali to fight.
As for the Liston fights, yes, Ali won; however, both fights were highly controversial as many long time participants and fans of boxing believe that Liston took a dive in each fight. Certainly the rematch in Lewiston, Maine was and remains controversial to the present day if for no other reason than Ring Magazine editor, Nat Fleischer, imposed his will on referee, Jersey Joe Walcott, that Liston had been knocked out - despite the fact that Walcott was following the rules concerning when to start the count (after the fighter who delivered the punch returns to the neutral corner - which Ali would do only when Walcott pushed him to it). Could anybody imagine the same thing happening present day? You know, The Ring's Oscar de la Hoya overruling a referee's decision in the ring to stop a fight that the referee had already signaled to resume? Finally, one more thing: take the time to watch Ali's fights following his loss to Frazier. Tell me that you can see any difference in Ali's rematch with Leon Spinks. My position is that if the viewer isn't aware of which fight he/she is watching, the viewer would not be able to tell based on Ali's performance (in other words, Ali lost both fights to Spinks). What about Henry Cooper's fourth round knockdown of Ali? Cooper, a journeyman fighter, knocked Ali to the canvas, and it wasn't a flash knockdown. Ali's trainer, Angelo Dundee, knew that Ali needed extra time to recover from the knockdown, so Dundee helped Ali back to his stool, and then, noticing a small split in Ali's glove, "Dundee later admitted that he stuck his finger in split glove, causing a slightly bigger split." The extended delay in getting Ali a replacement glove allowed Ali to begin the fifth round with a cleared head getting a TKO in the fifth. Do I think that Ali needed help to beat Henry Cooper? It sure seems that way, but even if I did not, Angelo Dundee did, and he immediately took action to do so. I don't know the rules for that fight, but I have to believe that if Dundee had been caught in the act of deliberately damaging Ali's glove (to the extent that the fight had to be delayed until a replacement glove was provided and laced on Ali) that the fight would have ended there on the spot - either a win for Cooper or a no decision. In either case, Ali would not have had a perfect record after the Cooper fight.