Vitali

[Weltschmerz]

No they don't. He has never been dominant as he has missed out on fighting against 25 top heavyweights or more in his career. Wad has been the dominant one.

I think a lot of people will struggle to find many rewatchable fights of his, of which were wins.

The best ever, beat the best. Vitali clearly hasn't.

Wlad was the dominant one, but don't forget to take Vitali's 4 yr layoff into consideration, and measure his overall achievements on this background. His comeback is unmatched in HW history.

And when you mention 'rewatchable fights'; again, it's a matter of taste. You don't find the Sanders fight 'rewatchable'?

[billeau2]

I know your right but sometimes it's so hard not to say a least something in the face hypocrisy.

LOL I am the worse one here with respect to the hard heads!

[Weltschmerz]

Exactly the Klit family excuse, and please don't get me wrong I "hate" no fighter because I am far from a kid. (Remember your in the adult section now)

And only Vitali fanboy's are still fixed on the Lewis rematch, no?

Did you bother to read my arguments? From your response, it seems not. You provide no counter arguments.

Let's not get into the Vitali-Lewis thing. It's time to let that one go.

[JAB5239]

As I've explained previously, I don't just rank greatness on resume. A poster asked me to give some names he beat, which I did.

So what exactly do you rank it on, what you THINK he would do?

[Weltschmerz]

So what exactly do you rank it on, what you THINK he would do?

I suggest you go through the thread, you'll find it I'm sure

[JAB5239]

These things fit Vitali quite well. He was very dominant, he never avoided anybody; 'exciting' is a matter of taste, but Vitali was never a 'boring' fighter I think many would agree. A KO rate of nearly 90 percent supports this. And how exactly do you describe who's the 'best ever'? Again, subjectivity comes into play.

There were 26 top 10 fighters he missed fighting during his active years, many of them better the the names he did beat. So his dominance was pretty much over second rate comp in an already weak era. That's not very impressive KK an all time level for any fighter.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Neither Hide mor Chisora were top 10.

For all his knockouts and wins, Vitali has generally fought the second tier of the heavyweight division. Johnson, Charr, Chisora, Sosnowski, Briggs etc. it sure doesn't make for nice reading.

He has 6 top 10 wins in his career. That's unfortunately not all time greatness.

Hide couldnt be ranked since he was the WBO champ, but you may be right, he maybe wasnt a top 10 guy in public opinion as there was still alot of high caliber fighters at heavy ie lewis, holyfield, tyson, tua, ike, grant, vitali, wlad, etc

Chisora should have been top 10... I think over the last few years he has clearly shown he is somewhere around 6-10,, Regardless the sanctioning bodies have horrible rankings anyways, but in terms of public opinion I think its safe to assume that Chisora is a legit heavy, may not win the big one but he is a player in the heavy division, kinda like a poor man's version of ray mercer. Only guys that you could rate higher than him over the past few years are klits, haye, povetkin, fury, adamek, pulev, arreola, stiverne


But yes, Vitali's resume is truely very poor in terms of ATG,,,, Solid champ but not an ATG resume

[JAB5239]

Your comparison of the Vitali-Byrd and Vitali-Lennox circumstances are, well, ridiculous.

You're right, it is. One man had made previous statements about retiring before winning and doing so. The other quit in a fight and never rematched in spite of being closely ranked with his conquerer the next several years. Ridiculous is a perfect word to describe that comparison.

[JAB5239]

Why would he duck Byrd when he was beating him comfortably on points in the first fight? Vitali could just have cruised to a victory with one arm; unfortunately, the injury was too serious and dangerous. Vitali had to recover from his torn rotator cuff; he was out of the gym for 6 months after Byrd.

Moreover, Byrd lost his WBO belt to Wlad; why should Vitali have any interest in Byrd after that happened? The man had no title.

Finally, Byrd was promoted by Don King; it's well known that the Klitschko's had problems with Don King when it came to anything other than mandatory defenses. When Byrd won the IBF title from Holyfield in 2002, Vitali was already being lined up for a shot at Lewis' WBC title.

As we know, Vitali had plenty of injury problems during 2004-05 when Byrd held the IBF title; Vitali retired in 2005.

Only Vitali haters still care about the Byrd 'rematch'. German TV had no interest in Byrd anyway, after Wlad punished him in that 12 round beating.

You gotta love the Son King excuse. Unfortunately it doesn't work since Wlad fought Byrd immediately after.

[Weltschmerz]

There were 26 top 10 fighters he missed fighting during his active years, many of them better the the names he did beat. So his dominance was pretty much over second rate comp in an already weak era. That's not very impressive KK an all time level for any fighter.

As usual, we can agree to disagree. Vitali has plenty of solid names on his CV which you label 'second rate comp' (I listed some of them previously in this thread).