What if Vitali wins?

[squealpiggy]

What does this do for boxing? Well for one thing a heavyweight unification is out. Wlad won't fight Vitali so the big belts will remain separated. What else though?

Well Vitali is not in the best of health as proven by his record of fight postponement and cancellation. He is terribly injury prone. We could end up with him sitting on the WBC title for years at a time as he postpones and cancels against his mandatory over and over. And considering the favouritism shown to Vitali by the WBC in recent years it's highly unlikely he'll be stripped of his title in the same way that the likes of, ooh, let's see, Sam Peter, would be in similar situations.

In short aside from the obvious dangers of any past titleholder coming out of retirement for an automatic title shot (for the attendant fees of course) we face the immediate trouble of a stagnant division becoming even more sterile and hopeless just when it was starting to show signs of life.

[Silencers]

It would definitely make the division less interesting but I don't think it'll affect boxing too much, not as many people pay attention to the heavyweights nowadays, more and more attention is going to the lighter weights.

[Kilrain]

It would be interesting to see who he fights next, the heavyweight landsc**** is pretty bleak, I wouldn't be interested in seeing him fight Ibragimov, Liahkovich, Valuev (well maybe that for the novelty value of two such mammoth guys squaring off), Maskaev, any of those names, maybe if Haye can take out Barrett in style that's an option though Wlad's got dibs on him first

[squealpiggy]

If Peter wins we have the mouth watering prospect of a unification fight with Wladimir. That leaves Chagaev as a titleholder but no doubt as to who is the champion.

[Joe2608]

Unless Vitali fights Wlad then i want Peter to win.

[Sweet Pea 50]

"Mouth watering", and heavy weight division don't belong in the same sentence.
It's been like this since Lennox hung them up.

[Ray*]

If Vitali wins then the division would go even further back, He didnt defend his title once when he was the WBC champion and active so why would he do it now ?

[Mech.]

"Mouth watering", and heavy weight division don't belong in the same sentence.

This.



If he does win, I think he'll have achieved what he wanted and retire. Probably leverage that into a political career.

[Stickman]

If Peter wins we have the mouth watering prospect of a unification fight with Wladimir. That leaves Chagaev as a titleholder but no doubt as to who is the champion.

Mouthwatering? Their last fight was a borderline yawner. Had it not been for Peter's rabbit punching, I'd probably have dozed off and missed the left hook that had him dancing in the 12th. I don't expect a second fight to be much more exciting.

On the other hand, every fight Vitali is in is going to be a barnburner. And if he doesn't fight again, but chooses to retire instead...so what? It's not like Peter is going to unify (not that I really give a rat's ass about that anyway).

In fact, if Peter does lose, the odds are we'd see a fight between him and Haye pretty soon, which would be a pretty good fight, in my opinion. Neither are so skilled that the other couldn't knock them completely the **** out, should be an exciting fight. And after that, provided Haye won, there'd be a choice between brothers for him to fight, and following that, would be your unification bout (provided he won, which I doubt). '

In fact, I really think I prefer seperate titleholders, rather than unification. If you have more belt holders, you have more title fights, giving those guys more incentive to mix it up and give it their all.

Anyway, whether it's good for boxing or not, there is no "What If" here....Vitali will win this fight. Peter simply doesn't have the tools to beat Vitali. The only shot he has is a puncher's chance against a guy who's chin is probably the best in the division. Not something I'd even be willing to throw a nickel at.

[Ray*]

Sometimes we boxing fans talks as if we are the boxers...like we know their minds, Power, speed and everything else.