Quote Originally Posted by El Kabong View Post
Quote Originally Posted by generalbulldog View Post
I think title defenses should only count when they are recognized as the universal champ or lineal champ. Tyson only has 3 or 4 as the recognized 'man' in the division. Quite a few people out there don't recognize him as being the youngest champ over Patterson or that Tyson was not really champ until he beat the lineal champ in Spinks.

Wlad could get to 25 title defenses for his ABC straps and it would not be recognized as great as Joe Louis 25 title defenses. And I don't even need to get into the reason why, especially in a era of 4 champs per division by the ABCs.
OK so what are we not counting yet? Or do we start when Wlad beat Sultan? Do we start when Wlad beat Chagaev?

ono....fine whatever you say, without fighting ANYONE Chicken Little and now Audley Harrison could beat EVERYONE....fucking comical how that works out. Who beat these guys before Wlad? Who stopped them? Who dominated them? You know why Ruiz and Valuev never fought Wlad? Because Don King knew they would lose and Don King had no piece of Wladimir and wasn't going to have a piece of them and so he chose not to put his fighters in with guys that would beat them.
The point is title "defenses" today are almost meaningless unless one is the universal champ of the division because of the 4 champs per division. When Louis or Ali were HW champs, it wasn't even disputed, although the WBA did strip it's portion of the title from Ali when he beat Liston the 1st time, Ali was still recognized as the universal champ from boxing circles and the public.

So the question needs to be asked, when was Wlad recognized as the universal champ? And start counting his defenses from there.

ANd people need to stop bringing up performances that 1 fighter did to another in the amateurs, it doesn't mean jack in the pro game. By that logic Tillman should have beaten Tyson and Holyfield easily because he beat them in the amateurs, but reality was he got brutally knockout by both in the pros.