Vitali Performance Assessment

[j]

this seemed like the worst vitali has been performance wise in 7, maybe 8 or more years.

VK seemed sluggish at first, comparitively, and a bit off of the mark.

and still, managing to win - this is impressive.

and gomez was no let down - he was a fighter in that ring! i was happy that gomez was a live underdog.

and, of course, this was a rusty vitali - and i know how sharp VK usually is.

i give vitali about a B- rating - this was nowehere near A caliber vitali.


yet, juan still got his ass whooped. i think that says enough.

vitali started out a bit slower then i have seen, and picked it up reasonably throughout the fight. however, i dont think we saw VK at hos best tonight. not even close.

but, that he still managed a dominating win over a very very game opponent, is testiment enough to his trained ability.

what would you, non-bias, knowledgeable guys rate vitali's performance based on his last 5 or 10 fights?

[Darkstar]

Well at 37 he is past his prime. So... He still won alomst every round and ended the fight by TKO.

I say A-.

[!!Captain]

It'll be interesting to see what Vitali says himself.

Here are some points I thought contributed to the worse than normal performance:
1. Gomez is a southpaw and a good one at that. Southpaws are difficult to fight and even more difficult to look good against.
2. Gomez was clinching all throughout the fight, perhaps thinking that he's Ruiz reborn.
3. Vitali is not getting any younger, he has slowed down a bit but still keeps his accuracy and power.

On a personal note, ref was as dumb as they come. He deducted a point from Vitali, thinking that he'd help Gomez. Instead, he just pissed Vitali, who put Gomez away within seconds.

[Derranged]

Vitali was never a pretty boxer.

He's looked sluggish and off since the Danny Williams fightk.

[larryx]

he looked old slow and inaccurate..but he won..so hell..and the ref was terrible

[Pullcounter]

pretty good for a 37 year old in a crappy HW division

[!!Captain]

he looked old slow and inaccurate..but he won..so hell..and the ref was terrible

He looked his age but inaccurate?

Blows- Klitschko 203/411 49%; Gomez 50/191 26%

49% of punches for Vitali spells murder for any HW, he's one powerful mother.

[theghost#1]

Vitali looked good to me, he has a game southpaw in front of him, And you never look good fighting southpaws either.

[j]

yeah, vitali will always land around 40 or 50% of his punches. and, there really arent any heavyweights in history that could keep going through 5 to 10 rounds of that.


and vitali doesnt just throw one and outs....he applies constant pressure with each punch.

[Leo Pradun]

good performace but I would have been much happier if he would have finished Gomez in the 7th. The american public will never give the Klitschkos the credit they deserve cause they are not american and thats the bottom line, and a bull crap commentating job done by Atlas didint help either.