WELCOME TO THE BLACK & WHITE WORLD OF KLITSCHKO HATERS.
Welcome to The top reasons why Wladimir Klitschko sucks!
Let's start with the first example where Klitschko haters turn a positive feature into something negative:
"Wladimir Klitschko sucks because he KOs his opponents"
Seriously, some claim that Wladimir Klitschko's opponents are bums as is apparent by the fact that he can KO them so easily.
Why else could he KO them? His opponents are bums because they couldn't even survive 12 rounds. And would they be any good then he couldn't KO them.
"Wlad's opponents are all bums compared to Ali's opponents. These fighters can't even stand on their own feet for 12 rounds . . . how hard is that to realize that?"
(original quote)
Therefore featherfisted Muhammad Ali (the champ with one of the lowest real[?] heavyweight KO'ratios of all time) must have fought the best opponents who ever lived because he struggled so much against them.
This is one of the most idiotic excuses by Klitschko haters and shows what is wrong with their rants:
If Wladimir KOs them they were bums.
If he fails to KO them he failed to KO bums.
If he loses to them he lost to bums.
An impossible no-win situation.
On a side note: A major reason why Ali is considered a better boxer than ·George Foreman is exactly because of this attitude: "Ali struggled so much yet he won in the end" (= huge win for Ali), while "Foreman knocks guys out in a few rounds" (= mediocre win).
Additionally this anti-Klitschko reproach ignores the weight and quality of the opponents Wladimir Klitschko KO'ed:
Of all heavyweight world champs to date (78 world champs)
Wladimir Klitschko (13) and Roy Jones Jr (13) scored the most KOs against previously unKO'ed non-bums[?].
Follow-ups are Larry Holmes (8) and Joe Louis (6).
-and-
Wladimir Klitschko has KO'ed more (13)
previously unKO'ed non-bums in real heavyweight fights 200×2
than Mike Tyson (5), George Foreman (4), Sonny Liston (0) and Rocky Marciano (0) and Joe Louis (0)
COMBINED.
"Wladimir Klitschko sucks because he doesn't KO his opponents"
Some complain that, "Yes, he KOs them but it takes him too long":
"Your gladiators [Klitschko brothers] if they so good, why oh why cant they KO these guys inside 3 rounds. See thats whats missing, and thats why Vitali Klitschko and Wladimir Klitschko will always be viewed as average fighters fighting fighters less than that."
"I challenge the Klits to start KO'ing their opponents in UNDER 6 rounds."
"They are damaging their legacies whether they know it or not. If they were KO'ing most guys under 6 rounds they may be World wide ICONS by now. Someone on their teams needs to let them know that the fans want to see FAST KO's at HW. Whoever has the next interview with a Klitschko brother please ask why they don't go for earlier KOs and let them know that that is what the fans want to see."
"Chisora is a bum and I guarantee it will take Wladimir much more than 3 rounds to KO him. Wlad is a crap champ and a boring fighter."
(all original quotes)
In other words: They INVENT standards and then hate Klitschko for not meeting these self-invented standards:
"Wlad is bad because takes him longer than …think…think… THREE rounds to KO bums. And I call them bums because …think…think… they couldn't KO Klitschko"
You could even compare it with the bottle analogy: If the bottle is half-full the haters would complain that it's "half empty". If the bottle is full they would complain that it's "too full". Whatever the Klitschko brothers do they do it wrong.
"Wladimir Klitschko sucks because he KOs his opponents slower than Mike Tyson"
Since Wladimir Klitschko is one of the best KO'ers who ever set the foot into the ring, it's very hard to find someone who KOs his opponents FASTER and MORE FREQUENT than Klitschko.
Thus the only comparison Klitschko haters have is… Mike Tyson.
When you analyze Mike Tyson's performance it turns out that
- Wladimir Klitschko has a higher KO'ratio than Mike Tyson
- Wladimir Klitschko has scored more KOs than Mike Tyson
- Wladimir Klitschko KO'ed MORE opponents in world championship fights 200×2 (14) than Mike Tyson (10). In fact Wladimir Klitschko has KO'ed more opponents in world champion fights 200×2 than ANY OTHER world champion to date.
- Wladimir Klitschko has a higher KO'ratio in world championship fights (77%) than Mike Tyson (62%). In fact Wladimir Klitschko's world title KO'ratio 200×2 is higher than any other champion's except for Brian Nielsen (5 KOs of 6 fights) (if you consider the IBO title to be a valid title and 6 fights conclusive).
- Wladimir Klitschko has KO'ed more never-KO'ed-before opponents (7) in world title fights 200×2 than Mike Tyson (5). A record that Wladimir Klitschko shares with ·Larry Holmes.
Wladimir Klitschko is the world record leader in these HIGHLY MEANINGFUL statistics thus Wladimir haters have a hard time to actually find ANYTHING which could make Wladimir look worse than Tyson.
Aside from the fact that "being worse than Mike Tyson in some statistic" is no reason to declare Wladimir Klitschko a failure (or anyone else for that matter), I will show you how cherry-picked this statistic is:
The statistic where Mike Tyson is better than Wladimir Klitschko is…
"Average KO'round in world title fights"
Wladimir average KO'round is 7 while Mike Tyson's is 2.7.
The reason why Wladimir Klitschko's figure seems to be bad is because this statistic is WORTHLESS. In fact, "Average KO'round in world title fights" is so worthless that ATGs like Lennox, Larry Holmes, Wladimir Klitschko and Vitali Klitschko perform WORSE than no-name titlists like ·Michael Bentt or ·James Smith and there are SEVERAL boxers who are even better than Mike Tyson, e.g. ·Francesco Damiani if you believe this ridiculous stat.
This statistic
- neglects the number of fights. If you had just 1 KO'win (1st round) in 1 fight then your KO'ratio is 100% and your average round is 0.5
- neglects LOSSES and DECISIONS. Someone with "1 KO'win (in 1st round) and 9 losses" would have a better statistic than someone with "10 KO'wins (all in 2nd round)".
- neglects the quality of opposition (for example Klitschko faced more previously unKO'ed opponents than Mike Tyson)
- neglects the stance of your opponent (since southpaws are harder to KO than orthodox fighters). Mike Tyson ducked all southpaws of his time thus his KO stats will be better than someone who actively SEEKS difficult opponents (like Wladimir Klitschko)
Thus to OVERCOME the above problems THE ONLY possibility to assess a fighters KO'performance more accurately is to compare the "Average rounds between KOs against non-southpaw opponents".
Fistic Statistic [#420.1]
Now this is an OBJECTIVE and MEANINGFUL statistic. Unfortunately for haters it shows that Wladimir Klitschko is a faster KO'er than Mike Tyson.
"Waldimir Klitschko sucks because he wins only by out-weighing his opponents"
This lie is discussed at Why the Klitschkos will never be ATGs (All Time Greats).
"Wladimir Klitschko sucks because he only wins due to his huge body size"
Complaining about body advantages in a combat sport is really funny.
"Evan Fields only wins because of his hard chin based on his massive neck" and "Mike Tyson only wins because of his muscles" is equally ridiculous (especially considering that Mike Tyson is smaller than Oscar de la Hoya).
What's next? Complaining that "Vitali Klitschko only wins because he TRAINS MORE than his opponent"?
This "outsizing denouncement" is usually brought up by Americans/Britons who utter it for 2 reasons:
- They know that by Klitschko's body parameters alone he would pose a massive threat to American ATGs (Evan Fields, Ali, Foreman, …).
Thus they know whatever supposedly superb features these ATGs had they would be massively out-bodied before the fight even started.
- The other reason why they complain about it is because there is no counter-argument.
What can one say? Both "Wladimir Klitschko would still prevail even when shrunk" and "Wladimir Klitschko would lose when shrunk" are pure speculation. Especially since a mini-Klitschko would have an utterly different speed and balance thus wouldn't even be a Klitschko anymore.
And too stupid to mention: There _IS_ a division for muscular boxers who are approximately equally sized: It's the cruiser division. The whole point of the heavyweight division is to be what-is-called "unlimited": That means there is no upper limit for body weight/shape/size. Thus it is ridiculous to complain about "huge guys" in an unlimited division.
"Wladimir Klitschko sucks because he doesn't have all the belts"
There are several variations of this statement including "Mike Tyson unified all the belts, while Wladimir didn't" and "Muhammad Ali was undisputed champ while Wlad isn't"
Let's look at the following numbers:
- Muhammad Ali had THREE belts (WBA, WBC, RING) for 3+ years.
- Mike Tyson had THREE belts (WBA, WBC, IBF) for 2+ years
Mike Tyson had FOUR belts (WBA, WBC, IBF, RING) for 1+ year
- Lennox Lewis had FOUR belts (WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO) for 0+ years (half a year).
And FOUR belts for 1 year (WBC, IBF, IBO, RING).
- Wladimir Klitschko now has THREE belts (WBO, IBF, IBO) for 3+ years.
And FOUR belts (WBO, IBF, IBO, RING) for 2+ years (until June 2011).
And FIVE belts (WBO, WBA, IBF, IBO, RING) for 1+ years (as of October 2012)
Hmm, strange… doesn't look that bad to me.
Actually Wladimir Klitschko OUTPERFORMS the other greats like Ali, Tyson and Lennox.
So, why this reproach against Wladimir Klitschko?
It follows a BIZARRE LOGIC which goes like this:
- In Muhammad Ali's times there were only 2 belts (WBA and WBC).
- Thus Ali had ALL belts
- Thus Ali was the unified and undisputed champ
and
- In Klitschko's times there are 5 belts (WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF, IBO)
- In other words: 1 belt is worth less than 1 belt in Ali's times
- Thus 4 belts of Klitschko are worth less than 2 belts of Ali
- hence Klitschko is not undisputed and is a lesser champ than Tyson, Lennox, Ali…
This piece of bizarre logic eludes anyone who is not a Lennox fan or Muhammad Ali fan.
For everyone it should be obvious that winning (and keeping) 5 belts is of course harder than 2 belts.
"Wladimir Klitschko sucks because he is boring and fights like a robot!"
This is a topic for itself: Heavyweight boxing died since boring Wladimir Klitschko killed the division -OR- American and British Complainers
"Muhammad Ali is a greater boxer than Wladimir Klitschko because failures are virtues and winning is boring!"
Oh, how AliFans love this:
"Muhammad Ali is a greater boxer because he fought 15-round-fights and Klitschko doesn't"
First of all there are no 15-round fights anymore. Therefore by this standard nobody in the future could ever be greater than Muhammad Ali.
Second, going 15 rounds is no virtue. If someone goes 555 rounds then he performs WORSE than someone who goes 55 rounds. Needing 15 rounds instead of 12 is a sign of failure, not of greatness.
"Ken Norton broke Muhammad Ali's jaw in round 2, yet Ali went full 12 rounds. I doubt that Klitschko could do that!"
Too stupid to mention it again. But getting your jaw broken is not a virtue. Getting it NOT broken is the virtue.
What AliFans try to do here is to convert a failure (broken jaw) into a virtue ("a remarkable display of courage from Ali").
"Joe Frazier was half-blind! What a great fighter!"
Joe Frazier was blind on his left eye his entire career. Yet he became a world champion.
Yes, ·Joe Frazier was brave. I give him that. But for me it's a proof of how BAD Ali's era was if a handicapped could become boxing world champion. For me it's a proof of how bad Ali was since he had so much problems with Frazier.
It's again bizarre black-is-white logic when an obvious failure (= struggling against a handicapped opponent) is converted into a virtue (= "winning against a brave fighter").
"Muhammad Ali was completely shot yet he didn't go down against Larry Holmes. Ali is the greatest boxer of all time"
Again, the virtue is to win the fight not to lose every round (and then lose by RTD) when being shot (= old and worn-out).
Additionally "He was shot" is a killer argument as I wrote at Definition: Boxing Prime -OR- The favorite excuse of boxing fans.
End words
If you consider struggling a virtue or if competitiveness makes your day then watch Ali's fights.
However, if you want to see a near-perfect display of boxing skills and power then watch the Klitschkos.
And before you dis their opponents: Watch other fights of the opponents, too. You will realize that their opponents are not bums but highly skilled boxers who are merely unfortunate enough to live in the Klitschko era.
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