"Wladimir was always a coward at heart" true or false?

[LacedUp]

Bit harsh, Ali was 36 when Spinks beat him and 38 in the Holmes fight. Joe Louis was 37 when he put in that performance against Marciano. Foreman was 28 in his loss vs. Young.

Liston was 34 when Ali KO'd him, Dempsey was only 31 during the first Tunney fight. Wlad is just shy of 40.

I'm not arguing whether Klitschko is an ATG heavy (IMO he clearly is at least top 15 minimum) but if this was Klitschko getting old and not trying plenty of better champions have had the 'lack of urgency' during their later careers, some in the middle of their careers! If the barometer for being a great comes down to grit, Mike Tyson doesn't even come close.

Wlad is of course top 15. Anything else would be ridiculous.

But he's never had urgency. Ever.

[-PBP-]

Tyson over Wlad? or just about the same?

Frazier should be in that list.

Frazier I can agree. Wlad is comfortably above Tyson.

[LacedUp]

He certainly didn't beat him with ease, he barely landed anything clean.

Wlad came out and needed stitches, bruised eyes etc.

Fury looked like an oil painting.

It was easy. It was. I'm sorry for your loss, but Fury did a number on him.

[LacedUp]

Frazier I can agree. Wlad is comfortably above Tyson.

I don't know about comfortably.

Tyson is underrated these days.

[deathofaclown]

If he was a coward, he wouldn't be in a ring. A man who has reigned heavyweight champion 10 years and been in with some other big men and hard hitters isn't a coward.

However i don't think he's a fighting man, if that makes sense. Nobody likes getting hit but he looks seriously uncomfortable whenever he's getting a bit roughed up and looks like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world but there. It's just testament to his skills that he'd been able to get past that for so long but tonight he stepped in the ring with a guy who could bully him and make life difficult for him and he can't handle that. We seen it with his knockouts in the past... Although this wasn't a knockout, he had that similar look of being lost when he was getting bullied.

I'll give him some credit though. He did come out in the 12th and try and put it on Fury when he knew he was about to lose his titles, he did show some fighting spirit but it was all too late.

[Ryn0]

Wlad is of course top 15. Anything else would be ridiculous.

But he's never had urgency. Ever.

So? I'd argue at one time he did and he got brutally stopped 3 times look at the wins up until Steward took over most are KO's within 4 a lot of them in 2. He has never really needed it when Steward took over, and didn't need it again until this fight at 39 years old and if he didn't have it mid 20s he isn't going to learn it at 40.

Again urgency isn't a barometer for greatness. Larry Holmes is a top 10 ATG. He very rarely displayed urgency.

[GoldenGloveLove]

For f**k's sake.

[-PBP-]

So? I'd argue at one time he did and he got brutally stopped 3 times look at the wins up until Steward took over most are KO's within 4 a lot of them in 2. He has never really needed it when Steward took over, and didn't need it again until this fight at 39 years old and if he didn't have it mid 20s he isn't going to learn it at 40.

Again urgency isn't a barometer for greatness. Larry Holmes is a top 10 ATG. He very rarely displayed urgency.

Not so much urgency but he gave away 3 major titles, the ibo title, the ring title and the lineal title with zero resistance. That's inexcusable. Holmes' title was taken from him by the judges.

[LacedUp]

So? I'd argue at one time he did and he got brutally stopped 3 times look at the wins up until Steward took over most are KO's within 4 a lot of them in 2. He has never really needed it when Steward took over, and didn't need it again until this fight at 39 years old and if he didn't have it mid 20s he isn't going to learn it at 40.

Again urgency isn't a barometer for greatness. Larry Holmes is a top 10 ATG. He very rarely displayed urgency.

Needed it how? He needed it against chambers when he let a little man like that make him look like a bit of a fool and Steward had to shout at him for 5 rounds in order to get him to punch.

He needed it against Jennings. He needed it against Ibragimov. He might have won regardless, but they were absolute stinkers.

People said Cunningham knocked Fury down and bla bla. I always laughed at that. Because he did exactly what he should. Get floored hard, get up, bite down and go to war.

We didn't see that from Wlad today unfortunately.

Not sure if you've ever seen Holmes vs Norton or Holmes vs Cooney, but I suggest you do.

[kiDynamite92]

Wlad above Tyson? Lol tell me about the times when Wlad became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world or when beat the previous lineal champion and became 'the man who beat the man'?