Vitali Klitschko: Too Late To Be Great?

[HeartAttack]

Ike Ibeabuchi never proved he had "great" talent. He did have two good wins over Tua and Byrd, but was losing a decision to Byrd when he caught him.

Ibeabuchi is a kind of "what if" fantasy for those who long for a black heavyweight champion.

C'mon man this post is total horse****. Ike wasn't behind on the cards when he KO's Byrd and he trully was a great talent. And the black comment, please stop with that. Your a smart poster who knows global heavyweights better than a vast majority, but you let your bias get in the way too often. If your argument was along the lines of Ibeabuchi was an immense talent who didn't have the sense to stay out of trouble and tossed away all that ability because he was crazy as hell, I can agree. A ton of talented fighters have pissed away their careers over immaturity and just plain ******ity whether it be ego, money, women etc. etc. But Ibeabuchi beat a prime and feared David Tua and KO'd a prime and incredibly slick Chris Byrd and he controlled both fights handily. The truth is Ibeabuchi never amounted to anything more than an exciting contender for a short period of time, thus relegating his career to the pages of "what if" and in the end that don't mean ****. To a much lesser degree the same could be said of Vitali. A talented fighter who never embarrased himself inside or outside the ring. His career defining fight was a entertaining loss however and he too is relegated to the "what if" section of the heavyweight saga. Injuries and bad competition coupled with the fact that he never won the heavyweight championship has hurt him. I wish he could fight more than one heavyweight champion in his career because I think he would've lost against some, but beat several others. However, when it comes to class outside the ring, few could ever measure up to Vitali. So to overhype Ike or Vitali because of their few defining accomplishments inside the ring only takes away from what they really did, and one will stand alone a free man with a large bankroll and a well deserved life while the other won't get paroled out of jail for 2 more years I believe. And that is the world that counts and there is no doubt who won that battle.

[Joe2608]

Both Klitschko's have had the talent to be competative in different eras (moreso Vitali, but maybe Wlad would too on a good day). But that fact is their resumes are not good enough to make them ATG.

There have been so many great Heavyweights, it's the pick of the boxing divisions but unfortunatley for them they have fallen in an era of bad Heavyweights. This is not their fault i know, but i can't rate someone on fantasy matchups because that is just pure opinion and not fact and that is not a big factor when it comes to ranking ATG's.

Vitali certainly has the best case for being ranked in fantasy matchups due to being iron chinned and having huge power etc. But at the end of the day he lost against the worst Lennox Lewis the world had ever seen and despite putting in a good performance, that's not really impressive to me.
Wlad's accomplishments are much better than Vitali's (though this is mostly due to Vitali's inactivity), but he has been KO'ed by lesser fighters more than enough times to make me think twice about ranking him as an ATG.

I'm not trying to "hate" on the K brothers, but basically what i'm trying to say is their competition isn't strong enough.

[The_Demon]

Both Klitschko's have had the talent to be competative in different eras (moreso Vitali, but maybe Wlad would too on a good day). But that fact is their resumes are not good enough to make them ATG.

There have been so many great Heavyweights, it's the pick of the boxing divisions but unfortunatley for them they have fallen in an era of bad Heavyweights. This is not their fault i know, but i can't rate someone on fantasy matchups because that is just pure opinion and not fact and that is not a big factor when it comes to ranking ATG's.

Vitali certainly has the best case for being ranked in fantasy matchups due to being iron chinned and having huge power etc. But at the end of the day he lost against the worst Lennox Lewis the world had ever seen and despite putting in a good performance, that's not really impressive to me.
Wlad's accomplishments are much better than Vitali's (though this is mostly due to Vitali's inactivity), but he has been KO'ed by lesser fighters more than enough times to make me think twice about ranking him as an ATG.

I'm not trying to "hate" on the K brothers, but basically what i'm trying to say is their competition isn't strong enough.

spot on.green K

[Lacrimosa]

lol, Lucky punch my ass. You need to either watch the fight first, or rewatch it. Byrd was losing the fight to Ibeabuchi and his best round was the 1st, which I gave to Ike, but Lederman gave to Byrd. Ike had him on the ropes in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th and was slowing Byrd down with body shots. I'm not saying Ibeabuchi would've been the best heavyweight ever, but he didn't win because of health, he KO'd Byrd because he was stronger, smarter, and nearly as fast. He beat Tua because he dug down deeper outworked him and refused to be intimidated by Tua. I understand how a bit of animosity can be built up towards Ibeabuchi because of how overrated some have him, but trully watch his two biggest victories (Tua & Byrd) and tell me he wasn't something special (and I'm not talking about how ****ing crazy he was/is, Cedric Kushner his old promoter told me some ****ed up stories about Ike).

You know we just seem to have different points of view on everything I don`t think he won the fight with Tua either

[Dave Rado]

Finally someone that makes some sense.

What you really mean is, "finally, someone who shares my opinion".

[Dave Rado]

Ike Ibeabuchi never proved he had "great" talent. He did have two good wins over Tua and Byrd, but was losing a decision to Byrd when he caught him.

Ibeabuchi is a kind of "what if" fantasy for those who long for a black heavyweight champion.

Have you ever succeeded in posting in a thread without bringing up race?

It's not that hard to do, you know, it just takes a bit of self-control.

[IMDAZED]

I'm not sure what Vitali can do at this point to prove greatness. Let's face it, the four years hurt big time. His resume pales in comparison to his own brother and I'm not sure I see any opponent on the horizon that can change that, except of course his brother.

I can understand why Vitali still talks about Lennox; as time goes by it's slowly settling in that Lewis was his shot at greatness. Hard to see when another chance will emerge.

[Phirsole]

Vitali needs to stay on top of the division for several years and fight the strongest challengers the ABC belt lists have to offer. Duck nobody, don't delay fights, fight 2-3 bouts a year.

If his resume includes all of the following names, he could be an ATG:
Haye, Valuev, Povetkin, Dimitrenko, Arreola, Chambers.

But as long as the two brothers don't fight each other and share the top rankings, I doubt he'll be considered the "dominant ATG" of this decade.

[Jim Jeffries]

It's pretty tough when you spend too much time kickboxing, don't turn pro as a boxer until 25, then take 4 years off during your prime. Add in the mediocre era and the fact that he's 38 and has lost a step, it's one very tall order.

[street bully]

Ike Ibeabuchi never proved he had "great" talent. He did have two good wins over Tua and Byrd, but was losing a decision to Byrd when he caught him.

Ibeabuchi is a kind of "what if" fantasy for those who long for a black heavyweight champion.

Ike was ahead on all three cards when he knocked Byrd who was thought to be unknockoutble cold. It was also pretty early in the fight. Also nobody longed for a black champ. At that time the champ was black.