Comments Thread For: Weekend Thoughts: Klitschko and What Could Have Been

[BattlingNelson]

Nice article. Vitali's long injury-riddled absence is a big loss to boxing and the article covers that in a fine way.

[ChopperRead]

Vitali is not a nobody of course
but he hasn't achieved that many things either
all the Klit fans here are silent when we ask them why Vitali should be seen as one of the greatest HW ever since that status is largely based on who you have beaten

people bash Calzaghe for not fighting a lot of worthy opponents, therefore cannot be rated high despite his 21 defenses

same happen with Vitali
who has he beaten that makes him an AT HW great ?
try to answer this instead of fleeing like all KLlit fans do here
being dominant over tomato cans is not a great feature

I resent the fact that some people give Vitali more credit than he actually deserves

I said he is one of the greats, which is pretty obvious.

Greatest of all time? I don't think there is such a thing. There is the greatest of a given era. How could you expect Marciano, for instance, to compete with a guy the size of Lennox or Vitali? Rocky would be a cruiserweight today.

Vitali doesn't have a huge signature win, which was likely denied him when Lewis retired rather than fight him again. But I would say his dominant win over Sam Peter after 3 1/2 years out of action and his dominance since that time is pretty big. The best thing he can do is rack up numbers, keep his KO ratio over 90%, and clean out the division, which he is doing along with his brother.

Then again, Vitali isn't done yet. The question for you is, if he now beats a Haye or Tua or KO's a Valuev, is that enough? Or will you turn and say that they are "past it" like you did with JC Gomez, who wasn't seen to be "past it" until he lost to Vitali? Nor was Sam Peter seen to be a bum until *after* he lost to Vitali. I don't think either Gomez or Peter were bums: they just got beat by a superior fighter.

[ChopperRead]

Vitali is not a nobody of course
but he hasn't achieved that many things either
all the Klit fans here are silent when we ask them why Vitali should be seen as one of the greatest HW ever since that status is largely based on who you have beaten

people bash Calzaghe for not fighting a lot of worthy opponents, therefore cannot be rated high despite his 21 defenses
same happen with Vitali
who has he beaten that makes him an AT HW great ?
try to answer this instead of fleeing like all KLlit fans do here
being dominant over tomato cans is not a great feature

I resent the fact that some people give Vitali more credit than he actually deserves

I should add that I don't bash Calzaghe's accomplishments, though I dislike his personality at times. But as a fighter he is an ATG, and anybody who denies that is just being silly.

[Tiozzo]

I said he is one of the greats, which is pretty obvious.

Greatest of all time? I don't think there is such a thing. There is the greatest of a given era. How could you expect Marciano, for instance, to compete with a guy the size of Lennox or Vitali? Rocky would be a cruiserweight today.

Vitali doesn't have a huge signature win, which was likely denied him when Lewis retired rather than fight him again. But I would say his dominant win over Sam Peter after 3 1/2 years out of action and his dominance since that time is pretty big. The best thing he can do is rack up numbers, keep his KO ratio over 90%, and clean out the division, which he is doing along with his brother.

Then again, Vitali isn't done yet. The question for you is, if he now beats a Haye or Tua or KO's a Valuev, is that enough? Or will you turn and say that they are "past it" like you did with JC Gomez, who wasn't seen to be "past it" until he lost to Vitali? Nor was Sam Peter seen to be a bum until *after* he lost to Vitali. I don't think either Gomez or Peter were bums: they just got beat by a superior fighter.

most people like Shattered Jaw, SteelHammer2010 and Jack Burton, all those little friends of yours rate both Klits as the 2 greatest HW of all-time, cong**** if you haven't gotten that low

you can compare the greatest of each given era to determine the greatest of them all, so I don't agree there
you compare their achievements, not whether they would have beaten those other greats, which is all based on speculation (and huge size differences as you said)

thanks for answering the question
so Vitali's best win is over a shot Peter (his performance over another shot fighter, Maskaev, was just awful), a man who should never have been champion in the first place ? WOW

now your question : I think it is impossible for Vitali to get a signature/great win now (as I have said in another thread), because there aren't opponents out there who can give it to him

beating Haye is a good feature, but not a great one, Haye hasn't achieved much at HW
Solis is good, but hasn't achieved anything of note as of now

the only man who could enhance Vitali's resume as far as names are concerned is his brother, Wlad

dominating what available opposition there is out there is a good feature, but it can never equal beating other great fighters like Wlad or Lewis

Valuev has never been a great fighter, and now that he has been beaten by Haye, Chagaev (and Holyfield and Ruiz ), that win cannot enhance Vitali's legacy

Tua would only be a nice name on his resume, he's past it

[Tiozzo]

I should add that I don't bash Calzaghe's accomplishments, though I dislike his personality at times. But as a fighter he is an ATG, and anybody who denies that is just being silly.

ATG ??? Nonononononononono

he is an ATG IN THE SUPERMIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION ONLY

I should add the SMW division was created in the eighties..........

[Pirao]

This article sucks big time and here is why

first, it is all based on ''would have'' and ''if'', on speculation

second, the writer doesn't take into account for a single moment that even ''if'' Vitali was injury free and could multiply title defenses during his second title reign, there would have been tough customers at some point, and he could have tasted defeat, which he already did twice anyway

the writer just acts as ''if'' Vitali just had to fight 3 or 4 times a year to break Louis record, as ''if'' he would have won all those bouts, as ''if'' it was that easy



even for Louis it was not that easy
he was given a gift decision over Walcott at the end of his reign
struggled against Conn who was ahead of Louis on 2 scorecards before getting ko'ed in the 13th

what ''if'' Vitali faced the man who knocked him out in the amateurs, Maskaev ? any worthy opponent could have beaten him on a bad night, and 26 defenses are a lot of nights

so I fail to see the real value of such an article

Maskaev didn't knock him out as far as I know.

[Dick Buffman]

This article sucks big time and here is why

first, it is all based on ''would have'' and ''if'', on speculation

second, the writer doesn't take into account for a single moment that even ''if'' Vitali was injury free and could multiply title defenses during his second title reign, there would have been tough customers at some point, and he could have tasted defeat, which he already did twice anyway

the writer just acts as ''if'' Vitali just had to fight 3 or 4 times a year to break Louis record, as ''if'' he would have won all those bouts, as ''if'' it was that easy



even for Louis it was not that easy
he was given a gift decision over Walcott at the end of his reign
struggled against Conn who was ahead of Louis on 2 scorecards before getting ko'ed in the 13th

what ''if'' Vitali faced the man who knocked him out in the amateurs, Maskaev ? any worthy opponent could have beaten him on a bad night, and 26 defenses are a lot of nights

so I fail to see the real value of such an article

Vitali has never been defeated in the ring. He was up on all cards against Byrd by a totally lopsided margin before his rotator cuff went out.

And he was up 4-2 and kicking Lewis's ass before the DR. robbed him of the right to k.o Lewis.

Lewis retired like a **** after that and never wanted a rematch.

Despite Vitali calling him out for years.

Get it right.

[pcr405]

Vitali has never been defeated in the ring. He was up on all cards against Byrd by a totally lopsided margin before his rotator cuff went out.

And he was up 4-2 and kicking Lewis's ass before the DR. robbed him of the right to k.o Lewis.

Lewis retired like a **** after that and never wanted a rematch.

Despite Vitali calling him out for years.

Get it right.

seriously your a mug.

[BirdSong]

Vitali did exactly what he could and did it very well, its a real pity those 4 years were "robbed" from him through injuries, its probably amazing he actually made it back at all. That fight with lewis was a cracker and could have gone either way plus he dominated lots of good and some very good fighters through the years, so fair play to him. Unfortunately hes now left with the likes of valuev and haye in the mix for fights, what a disaster, mr and mrs duck

[Tiozzo]

Vitali has never been defeated in the ring. He was up on all cards against Byrd by a totally lopsided margin before his rotator cuff went out.

And he was up 4-2 and kicking Lewis's ass before the DR. robbed him of the right to k.o Lewis.

Lewis retired like a **** after that and never wanted a rematch.

Despite Vitali calling him out for years.

Get it right.

here is another way to look at it

Vitali has been defeated twice in the ring, as his record shows

he elected to quit in a fight that was in the bag when he just had to survive for another couple rounds against light hitting Chris Byrd
''It hurts too much.'' - Vitali K.

the doctor saved Vitali's eyesight and only did his job when he stopped the Lewis fight
also saved Vitali from being KO'ed as LL was coming back strong in the sixth



I believe LL should have given Vitali a rematch, but he didn't, and to this day, he still holds a win over Vitali, like it or not

there are 2 sides to a medal