Wladimir, Vitali Klitschko - Which Brother Ranks Higher

[OctoberRed]

Which of the two brothers should rank higher in heavyweight history?

Wlad dominated longer, but also got stopped four times (3 of those times by huge underdogs) and dominated by another huge underdog, Fury.

Vitali lost once by way of injury and second time by way of cuts. Appeared to be the heir to Lennox until the back injuries forced him to retire for a few years. Came back and easily reclaimed his belt.

[Anthony342]

Vitali. Better chin and went out while he was still on top. Wlad was probably looking to retire after a few more defenses anyway. Finally got caught by another good puncher after being dominated before that. Would've liked to have seen him pull it off, even if they were just a couple of easy defenses at the end.

[Sadiqkingofko]

Wlad without a doubt, most title fights in HW history, and during there reign Wlad fought the harder competition (Haye, Povetkin, and Chagaev)

[Willy Wanker]

Wladimir. He's much more accomplished and had a great, long dominant title reign and beat tougher challengers. I don't hold his losses to Fury or Joshua against him much, but his three previous losses hurt him a bit. Still ranks higher than Vitali.

Vitali could have ranked higher if he didn't retire for four years in the mid 00s. He was never clearly beat like Wladimir was multiple times. Wladimir was the more athletic and dynamic of the two, but Vitali didn't have same the weaknesses.

But I rank Wlad higher due to resume and accomplishments. Vitali would win a head to head fight I believe.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Wlad certainly had the better career "statistically". But anyone who knows their boxing knows Vitali was the far superior fighter. I'd personally find it hard to pick any HW in history to beat Vitali, admittedly this is mainly due to size advantage when compared to guys pre 80's. Vitali never really lost on merit, the loss to Byrd was because of injury and the loss to Lennox was because of a cut, had he not been cut Lennox could've still potentially won that fight though. Bottom line is Vitali > Wlad all day everyday IMO.

[The Old LefHook]

The word rank has more than one meaning. They are both easy to rank, let's put it that way. I never liked or respected either one of those phonies. They were terrible for boxing. Vitali had lousy power for such a galoot. Vlad had no chin, pure and simple.

Fighting tall meant fighting scared. Vlad loused up the heavyweight division for a decade with his cowardice and knowledge that he had no chin.

You have to respect Vitali more because he gave us all a break by getting out years earlier. A move like that can make a boring fighter beloved.

It is hilarious those guys have sports Phd's, hilarious. Two Phd's putting their heads together could not figure out for Vlad after 70 fights at world level that you have to throw punches to win (against Fury), or that when a man is hurt you try to finish him (against Joshua). When does a champion learn the basics? What does it take, 200 fights? Those are things anyone with the instinct to fight should know after 15 fights.

The only thing I rate highly about them is their retirements.

[billeau2]

The word rank has more than one meaning. They are both easy to rank, let's put it that way. I never liked or respected either one of those phonies. They were terrible for boxing. Vitali had lousy power for such a galoot. Vlad had no chin, pure and simple.

Fighting tall meant fighting scared. Vlad loused up the heavyweight division for a decade with his cowardice and knowledge that he had no chin.

You have to respect Vitali more because he gave us all a break by getting out years earlier. A move like that can make a boring fighter beloved.

It is hilarious those guys have sports Phd's, hilarious. Two Phd's putting their heads together could not figure out for Vlad after 70 fights at world level that you have to throw punches to win (against Fury), or that when a man is hurt you try to finish him (against Joshua). When does a champion learn the basics? What does it take, 200 fights? Those are things anyone with the instinct to fight should know after 15 fights.

The only thing I rate highly about them is their retirements.

the bolded parts are hillarious.

Fat Fat Fat and Lean...Together licked the plate clean. So you had one brother with a will of iron, perhaps a chin, and who would attack and could hit hard, then you had the other brother, no real will, no chin, but picture perfect jab and right and in a time when the division was weaker than weak. So who is really "better?"

Ive always gone with Vitali. When Ricky Hatton started to win after Zoo his family kept bugging his coach until they redesigned his tactics. Ricky became a humper, punch and hump, hump and grab, hump hump punch hump... By the time he got to Maypleather? he could not even fight anymore. Vitali same thing, took his natural talent and wasted it on "winning" if that makes any sense. Vitalie showed he could fight, Vlad... meh.

[OctoberRed]

More so than who was better, was the whole push to see Wlad vs. Vitali during the better part of their run when they had all the belts.

[Anthony342]

Wlad probably should've retired shortly after Vitali did. Let them both go out on top.

[JK1700]

It’s a tough one because Vitali was the greater boxer but Wlad had a longer career and better resume. I tend to side with Vitali because I value skills/attributes more than resume but both had excellent careers and Wlad had one hell of a run from 2004 to 2015.