Between the bros Vitali was always the better fighter if you compare him to Wlad.
Its too bad that his injuries and previous kickboxing career robbed him of his prime years.
Wladimir Klitschko has the far better resume and is definitely more accomplished. However, there are certain attributes which Vitali Klitschko excelled in more than Wladimir Klitschko (and vice versa).
Wlad is good, he just doesn't have that aggressive fighter mentality that Vitali did. Wlad is so uncomfortable if someone throws more than one punch at a time, but Vitali relishes getting in slugfest.
And he did get into one hell of a slugfest with Sanders. Good for him he had that chin or else would've gone the Wlad way. Awesome fight to watch still.
Wlad was far better. Vitali's resume nowhere near as good, hence the reason why Vitali looked the better of the two at times. In terms of mythical matchups Vitali would do better but Wlad would beat Vitali for sure.
I think Vitali would have beaten anyone Wlad beat but he didnt want it like Wlad did plus I guess injuries played a major role. I always liked Vitali better and I thought he was definitely more durable as far as punch resistant which made him less hesitant than Wlad. Im no Wlad fan in fact I rooted against him in most every fight he ever had except the Haye fight I think but you cant take anything away from the man, he did some historic **** holding the division down like he did.
Didn't Wladimir simultaneously hold 3 of the four world titles and The Ring. He fought and beat Chris Byrd, David Haye and was it Povetkin for those titles? 3 fighters all better than anybody Vitali beat.
Did Vitali ever hold more than 1 title at a time and who did he beat for those? Herbie Hide and a past prime Peter? Who Wladimir had beaten years earlier at his peak. Peter who was then given all he could handle by an obese, shot James Toney
Wladimirs best wins; Povetkin, Haye, Peter, Byrd, Brock, Thompson x2, Pulev, Brewster, Rahman, Ibragimov, Chambers, Chagaev
Vitali's; Sanders, Peter, Arreola, Williams, JC Gomez, Chisora
Wladimir is an ATG, Vitali isn't close imo
Vitali was never the best of any era he fought in. Wladimir was for a decade.
I've never seen anyone argue that Vitali has the superior resume. Between his injuries, his political career and willingly taking a back seat to his brother, he basically boxed part-time. His resume sucks in comparison.
On the other hand he was the bigger and craftier brother of a guy who reigned over the premier division for 10 years. If you gave Wladimir more angles, upperbody movement and insane punch resistance you'd basically have Vitali. That counts for something.
Didn't Wladimir simultaneously hold 3 of the four world titles and The Ring. He fought and beat Chris Byrd, David Haye and was it Povetkin for those titles? 3 fighters all better than anybody Vitali beat.
Did Vitali ever hold more than 1 title at a time and who did he beat for those? Herbie Hide and a past prime Peter? Who Wladimir had beaten years earlier at his peak. Peter who was then given all he could handle by an obese, shot James Toney
Wladimirs best wins; Povetkin, Haye, Peter, Byrd, Brock, Thompson x2, Pulev, Brewster, Rahman, Ibragimov, Chambers, Chagaev
Vitali's; Sanders, Peter, Arreola, Williams, JC Gomez, Chisora
Wladimir is an ATG, Vitali isn't close imo
Vitali was never the best of any era he fought in. Wladimir was for a decade.
Clearly you have never seen who was the Alpha among the two. Vitali LET his brother shine. He was the tougher of the two, he KOed every fighter that beat his little brother.
Only Vitali retired was to go into politics.
Didn't Wladimir simultaneously hold 3 of the four world titles and The Ring. He fought and beat Chris Byrd, David Haye and was it Povetkin for those titles? 3 fighters all better than anybody Vitali beat.
Did Vitali ever hold more than 1 title at a time and who did he beat for those? Herbie Hide and a past prime Peter? Who Wladimir had beaten years earlier at his peak. Peter who was then given all he could handle by an obese, shot James Toney
Wladimirs best wins; Povetkin, Haye, Peter, Byrd, Brock, Thompson x2, Pulev, Brewster, Rahman, Ibragimov, Chambers, Chagaev
Vitali's; Sanders, Peter, Arreola, Williams, JC Gomez, Chisora
Wladimir is an ATG, Vitali isn't close imo
Vitali was never the best of any era he fought in. Wladimir was for a decade.
To be fair, to Vitali, when he held his belt, his brother had the other 3, and they were clearly never going to fight each other, and he won his belt by putting away the guy that just flattened his brother. And the first time around, Lennox Lewis was the man, and Vitali wasn't getting a shot at him.
Vitali also beat every fighter that his brother lost too, by KO.
Id say that Vitali was the much more naturally gifted fighter, while Wlad was more physically gifted (outside of the chin thing). By that I mean that Vitali just had better natural fighting instincts.
It would have been interesting to see what Vitali would have become if he had someone like Emanuel Steward to clean him up.
He was always rough around the edges, and unorthodox, but lets not forget he is about 2 inches taller than Wlad, Has remarkable mobility in the ring, and a very very high work rate for a heavyweight.
I think Vitali could have probably gone through Wlad's resume undefeated barring injuries such as the one suffered in the Byrd fight.
So yeah, Vitali's resume isn't the strongest of all time, but there are extenuating circumstances.
Didn't Wladimir simultaneously hold 3 of the four world titles and The Ring. He fought and beat Chris Byrd, David Haye and was it Povetkin for those titles? 3 fighters all better than anybody Vitali beat.
Did Vitali ever hold more than 1 title at a time and who did he beat for those? Herbie Hide and a past prime Peter? Who Wladimir had beaten years earlier at his peak. Peter who was then given all he could handle by an obese, shot James Toney
Wladimirs best wins; Povetkin, Haye, Peter, Byrd, Brock, Thompson x2, Pulev, Brewster, Rahman, Ibragimov, Chambers, Chagaev
Vitali's; Sanders, Peter, Arreola, Williams, JC Gomez, Chisora
Wladimir is an ATG, Vitali isn't close imo
Vitali was never the best of any era he fought in. Wladimir was for a decade.
Between the bros Vitali was always the better fighter if you compare him to Wlad.
Its too bad that his injuries and previous kickboxing career robbed him of his prime years.
Agreed, Vitali is Vlad with some dog in him, a mean streak.
Wladimir also beat fighters in better fashion than Vitali and I completely disagree about Vitali handling pressure fighters better he looked terrible vs Charr and practically went life and death with Derek Chisora. If we're honest here neither land a glove on Wladimir even the 41yr old Wladimir of today.
Vitali is not an ATG.
I remeber hearing that during sparring sessions Wladimir always got the best of Vitali. Or so the rumors went.
As for who was better, their old trainer said:
"Vitali is made of stone and Wladimir is made of clay. When I taught Vitali something new, it would take a while for him to perfect the move. Carving stone takes time. Wladimir was easier to mold, but he would weather more quickly. They are two distinct fighters and needed different approaches."
You can draw conclusions from that.
Another thing we must consider is that Emmanuel Stewart, refined and tamed Wladimir Kiltschko! Just like he did with Lennox Lewis! (But he had more of a task to improve Wladimir Kiltschko, in comparison to Lennox Lewis who was already a immense fighter when he joined him! Kiltschko in his wild and untamed days, used to throw body shots and quite a lot of combinations! But his style left him open to be hit more often. In his fight up against Anthony Joshua, if he would of reverted back to his untamed style when he had Joshua hurt? He would of won the fight! Vitali Kiltschko was a untamed fighter, he was uncivilized inside of the ring! and it trait this overall which made him a more dangerous and brutal fighter than Wladimir Kiltschko! he never lost that instinct!
8y ago
Vitali was always the better of the two | BoxingScene Community