Where do you rank Wladimir Klitschko among the all-time great heavyweights?

[Hulk]

16-25. Tyson stops him in 2 and Ali bamboozles him in 7.

Vitali Klitschko is the better fighter of the two.

Tyson is quite short and it may take him a few rounds to catch Wlad, but once he did...

[Britkid]

If the word is to mean something, Wlad, like all but arguably the top five or so (purely) Heavyweights is not a great.

As for his placing in the grand scheme of things, I would say he is top 30, slightly behind big brother, who was more consistent.

[El Kabong]

If the word is to mean something, Wlad, like all but arguably the top five or so (purely) Heavyweights is not a great.

As for his placing in the grand scheme of things, I would say he is top 30, slightly behind big brother, who was more consistent.

Why? I mean given the length of reign as champion, the amount of title fights, the successful defenses in a row, the sheer dominance he has shown...why only "top 30"? And why behind Vitali?

[ross]

He hasnt ever even been the undisputed best in his own era so very, very low.

Go back through all the greats over the years, there was never another fighter around that could also letitimately call himself a world champion.

There are fighters he couldnt beat that his brother had to fight.

[El Kabong]

There are fighters he couldnt beat that his brother had to fight.

Such as?

[ross]

There are fighters he couldnt beat that his brother had to fight.

Such as?

Sanders

[El Kabong]

There are fighters he couldnt beat that his brother had to fight.

Such as?

Sanders

Oh and not like Chris Byrd?


Your turn jackass

[Master]

Wlad is better than his brother now but at their best Vitali may have won although he is very robotic he is more sturdy. Wlad is a difficult fighter to beat for any of the greats but I would have him outside of the top ten. Wlad still has a bit more to go.

[Rantcatrat]

Are we talking about Head to Head or accomplishments?

[nuggetdotcom]

Not very high, Corrie Sanders springs to mind.

[Freedom]

Wladimir Klitschko stopped at least 17 fighters who had never been stopped before.

Calvin Brock (never down or stopped before)
Francesco Pianeta (never down or stopped before)
Eddie Chambers (never down or stopped before)
Tony Thompson (never down or stopped before)
Ruslan Chagaev (never down or stopped before)
Monte Barrett (never down before, down 6 times in 2000 against Wladimir)
Lamon Brewster (never down before his first fight with Wlad)
David Bostice (never stopped, Wlad dropped him 4 times for a round 2 TKO)
Axel Schulz (never down or stopped before)
Paea Wolfgramm (never down or stopped before)
Eliseo Castillo
Fabian Meza
Najee Shaheed
Zoran Vujecic
Fabio Eduardo Moli
Charles Shufford



Wlad beat 10 previously undefeated fighters:

Ruslan Chagaev (former amateur world champion)
Sultan Ibragimov
Alexander Povetkin
Francesco Pianeta
Mariusz Wach
Calvin Brock
Samuel Peter
Eliseo Castillo
Najee Shaheed
Zoran Vujecic

As well as 12 people who had only one previous loss (Haye, Byrd, Chambers, etc)


He has 11 wins over world champions:

Byrd x 2, Peter X 2, Rahman, Chagaev, Haye, Ibragimov, Povetkin, Mormeck, Mercer


He is the 2nd longest reigning Heavyweight Champion of all time with the 3rd most consecutive title defenses at 15. He holds the IBF, WBO and IBO records for the most heavyweight title defenses.

And Wladimir won Olympic Gold in Atlanta in 1996.

[ykdadamaja]

Most folks have him between 6 to 15. I can put him there. MY all-time list, and you can shit on it if you wish:

1. Ali
2. Louis
3. Jack Johnson
4. Larry Holmes
5. Mike Tyson
6. Lennox Lewis
7. Evander Holyfield
8. Jack Dempsey
9. VITALI Klitchsko
10. Wladimir Klitschko

I always have and always will place Vitali over Wladimir. That's just me. I sincerely believe that in the respective guys prime, all of them, would beat Wladimir- from Ali to Tyson to his own brother.

[TitoFan]

This is so damn subjective.... depends on the criteria you use. The opening post did say "based on what he's done so far". So if you're talking purely about numbers, it's hard not to rank Wladimir either in, or near the top 5. But is that a good criteria?

If you're gonna rank all-time HW's, I'd make sure to use some of these other criteria:

• How much they did for the sport
• Level of opposition
• Excitement for the fans
• Longevity
• Dominance

On "level of opposition" and "fan excitement", Wlad falls way way down. How much has he done for the sport? Depends who you ask, I guess. Globally, he's probably done a lot of good, as people were probably ready for a dominant HW who wasn't American. But then, that very fact seems to have drained some of the interest out of the U.S. Sad, but true.

Taking everything into consideration, and if forced to make a choice, I'd probably rank Wlad just inside the top 10, or just outside of it. Somewhere between 8 and 12.

[Britkid]

If the word is to mean something, Wlad, like all but arguably the top five or so (purely) Heavyweights is not a great.

As for his placing in the grand scheme of things, I would say he is top 30, slightly behind big brother, who was more consistent.

Why? I mean given the length of reign as champion, the amount of title fights, the successful defenses in a row, the sheer dominance he has shown...why only "top 30"? And why behind Vitali?

He has never been the generally recognized Heavyweight Champion of the World. He has beaten everything put in front of him comfortably for coming up for a decade, but the era is so weak and THE meaningful fight so untouchable, it hurts his resume.

As for Vitali over Wlad, well as a big Brother myself, I would not for one second, not belief I would be the dominant brother in 'physical altercations', no matter that I have not had a 'brawl' with my brothers in 15/20 years! Also Vitali did not get blown away in his pomp like Wlad did early in his peak years.

[El Kabong]

How many times did Tyson defend his titles ross? I mean since your buddy Tyson is an "All-time great" and all

Also Vitali did not get blown away in his pomp like Wlad did early in his peak years.

Wlad's peak years have come since he had Manny Steward as trainer. As for "He has never been the generally recognized Heavyweight Champion of the World" that's bullcrap and you know it. Also this "The era is weak" #1 Wlad has 0 control over how good whoever he fights is and #2 Other fighters have had weak eras and haven't accomplished what he has.