Vitali Klitschko is the GOAT HW H2H.

He is definetely one of the H2H best. I would place him right beneath Lennox Lewis (due to a fat, old, shot Lewis punching a hole into a prime Klitschko's face).

Vitali would be favored against any HW in history. He's awkward, tall, rangy, and has an iron chin. He's also never been down, never been behind on the scorecards, and never lost more than 2 rounds in a fight. He lost twice to the best people he fought, he never rematched or beat his conquerors, his resume is sub standard and he is a quitter. As much as he was formidable, the fact is he beat nobody of any note and cannot be judged on fantasy match ups which people do when assessing his ATG rating.

Lennox Lewis is the greatest HW of all time, H2H.

His resume is very good, but very good isn't good enough for a guy who is one of the best to ever do it. His resume is sorely missing Haye & Stiverne, which was a goddamn shame, but by that point he had one foot out the door.

Vitali would be favored against any HW in history. He's awkward, tall, rangy, and has an iron chin. He's also never been down, never been behind on the scorecards, and never lost more than 2 rounds in a fight. ... not sure if this was some sort of revelation, but glad that you finally saw the light. The one flaw that I've seen in Vitali though, if you want to call it a flaw, is that there's no doubt in my mind that he'll stop a fight if he was truly damaged. There's not much positive I could say about David Haye, but the man fought for something like 5 rounds on one leg (and would've kept on to the final round, if his corner hadn't saved him) Were Vitali to be in a similar situation, I'd see him trying to get through it for a round, but calling it once he deemed that he couldn't perform to his abilities.

This point was made and fairly well established in the VK v Tyson thread a few yrs back. The consensus boxing public that is well versed in HW boxing know he is arguably top 5 H2H. Although his resume is thin.

We didn't have this in a loooong time. I missed it.