did vitali duck the best fighters in 2004

[boxingking500]

Vitali especially. In '04 when he was the #1 Heavyweight, he blatantly ducked Toney, Byrd, Rahman, Ruiz (who were all top 5 Heavyweights) and turned down a rematch offer from Lewis to fight 2 journeymen and then retired for 4 years.

[joe strong]

Vitali especially. In '04 when he was the #1 Heavyweight, he blatantly ducked Toney, Byrd, Rahman, Ruiz (who were all top 5 Heavyweights) and turned down a rematch offer from Lewis to fight 2 journeymen and then retired for 4 years.

no he did not duck anyone because he was hurt.injuries happen thats why he retired.to be honest i think he owes both boswell & rahman fights since he had to cancel 3 rahman fights & 1 vs maskaev. vitali cancelled on boswell when he got the lennox shot. he did not duck anyone but he carefully matched himself vs opponents who couldnt hurt him. when guys like tua,ruiz,holyfield,byrd,maskaev,rahman,grant,golot a,botha,briggs,kirk johnson were all fighting each other to try & get a shot at lennox or tyson ,he was fighting vaughn bean, herbie hide,larry donald,etc. he took the easy route up the ladder & had an issue getting respect after the byrd fiasco.many people here forget or don't know the byrd fight was vitali's first HBO exposure to the US public & he quit in his corner while dominating the fight.it did not go over well.vitali has completely erased the quitter label & has had a very good comeback but unfortunately he may not get the recognition his brother does because his level of opposition since the comeback is decent at best.the heavyweight division is at an all-time low because contenders are all protected & there are too many ways to climb the rankings without really having to beat anyone(welliver, stiverne).wins over juan carlos gomez, sosnowski & kingpin are completely irrelevant when it comes to his legacy. at least gomez was a former CW champ but that was when the CW limit was 190.there are like 6 or 7 blownup CW fighting in ther HW division & all have good rankings in one of the sanctioniong bodies.I THINK VITALI IS AN ALL-TIME great but in the eyes of many experts & historians his legacy will always want you leaving more.my reasoning for that is the 2 best fighters he fought(lennox & byrd) he is 0-2 & he does not have that signature win. it's too bad he didn't stay healthy in the early 2000s because he could have possibly cleaned out the division of guys still in their primes like tua,maskaev,rahman,ruiz,etc...

[elgranluchadore]

are you suggesting he retired out of fear of losing? really?

[The Hammer]

Another stupid thread by this fool.