Quote Originally Posted by vidgil View Post
On one hand he must be respected for staying atop the HW division for so long. Even though it was a garbage division, it still was an impressive run.

But on the other hand he fought in a very dishonorable way with his excessive clinching and leaning his body on people. He had a very boring style and he pretty much single-handedly made the entire world not care about the HW division.

And then when he was finally dethroned, it was done by a mediocre fat body gypsy who, turns out is completely insane. And it was done so in a horrible fight where Clinch-ko could barely by bothered to throw a punch.

I know a lot of boxing fans rate him in the top 10 of all time. To me he was just an inflated man with a glass chin who stayed in Europe and benefited from the best of "German engineering". I don't believe he belongs in the same breath as great champs like Ali, Holmes, Foreman, Louis, Tyson, Lewis, etc.


Amen, brother. Seems we agree on many boxing opinions. The only thing I'd add is that to me, the main reason behind the excessive clinching and leaning his body on people was his huge fear of getting his fragile chin brushed by the wind of an opponent's punch. In retrospect, those KTFO losses early in his career were probably the worst thing that could happen to the HW division, as it shaped the boring reign that came soon after.

I voted "Good HW", because there wasn't an option for Top 20 All-Time. Top 10, IMO, he is NOT.