Great read on Rahman Vitali from the front Page

[Bozo_no no]

who can vitali prove himself against i ask, no one and u know it, rahman just a mandatory who is living of a lucky punch , toney? isnt he just a fat old middleweight? who people say will beat vitali but when he doesnt just use those excusses, byrd? byrds no where near what he was years ago i dont think anyone really cares that vitali "lost" to him or if he fights him again, Brewster is the only one who some people can make a cliam vitali can prove himself with, and ruiz? laugh har laugh, calvin brock is to green, peter has already lost to the lesser klitschko imo, and besides no matter what he does from now till he is done all the haters like hobo no so, will always bring up the lewis fight and the byrd fight and thats it nothing else no matter what. hobo if u dont like all these flaming jlitschko threads and are tired of seeing a thread everytime why are u making this one yourself? o wait lemme guess "its to show u little kid blah blah blah your only 17 blah blah blah shut up blah blah blah blah blah, same thing over and over

Same old crying and non sense from junior.

Bottom line: Just because you don't think very much of the other title holders doesn't make it okay for him to take fights that are weaker.

The bottom line is that in order to prove himself as the best fighter out there right now, he needs to beat the best fighters available.

Not Sanders Williams and Rahman and case closed.

Titles need to be unified before someone proves themselves as "the" Heavyweight Champion.

Right now Brewster and Byrd are just as deserving as Vitali, with Ruiz, Toney, and Wlad also being top contenders.

Vitali doesn't get a free pass to sit on his laurels after fighting Corrie Sanders and Danny Williams in an almost two year span.

Rahman gets his mandatory out of the way. Then we'll see how interested he is in proving himself.

[Easy-E]

i think it was a good thing vitali fought sanders and williams.
williams beat tyson, and sanders DESTROYED wlad
vitali dismissed them as legit contenders
do i think vitali should the "hw champ of the world?"
no, i believe it should be vacant


"Rahman gets his mandatory out of the way. Then we'll see how interested he is in proving himself."

well said, im interested if he can back up his talk

[AintGottaClue]

Same old crying and non sense from junior.

Bottom line: Just because you don't think very much of the other title holders doesn't make it okay for him to take fights that are weaker.

The bottom line is that in order to prove himself as the best fighter out there right now, he needs to beat the best fighters available.

Not Sanders Williams and Rahman and case closed.

Titles need to be unified before someone proves themselves as "the" Heavyweight Champion.

Right now Brewster and Byrd are just as deserving as Vitali, with Ruiz, Toney, and Wlad also being top contenders.

Vitali doesn't get a free pass to sit on his laurels after fighting Corrie Sanders and Danny Williams in an almost two year span.

Rahman gets his mandatory out of the way. Then we'll see how interested he is in proving himself.

theres the insult theres the age and there avoding my question, all the classic bozo

[Derranged]

I am a big Klitschko fan, and I have to say that Vitali's win over Sanders should not be minimized because even as an out of shape 38 year old golfer, in the first three rounds he is still very dangerous. He would give any heavyweight a tough fight,even the "precious" Chris Byrd. But I do agree that beating Williams and Johnson and almost beating Lennox Lewis isnt much to brag about. Calling him the best is all speculation; We look at the other top ten fighters and say "Vitali would probably beat him" That doesnt do it for me. After Rahman, he should go after Byrd, then Ruiz. Even though Ruiz wont be nearly as hard as beating Sanders, he still is Champ. Then he should fight the self proclaimed best heavyweight James Toney. But it wont matter because the haters will still wont shut up.

[mECHsLAVE]

That article is idiotic.

First of all, last November when Rahman destroyed Meehan (who had just beaten Brewster and been robbed) then everyone was saying Rahman was the guy to beat. Vitali had to beat him for respect and to be the #1 heavyweight. Now that the fight is upon us, and after his lackluster fight with Barrett, people are trying to deflate Vitali's victory before it happens.

Let us not forget a few things.

1) Barrett and Rahman are good friends. And to even have to take that fight, on a small stage, on limited PPV, was a letdown for Rahman, who had Vitali locked down for April before it fell through. So I'm not that surprised by the lackluster win. Barrett isn't HW chopped liver, either.


2) Rahman is now in a must-win situation on a big stage. Just like he was last year with Meehan. His financial security and entire future hinges on a win in this fight, which everyone will see on PPV and then all over HBO for free the next week. If he can't win in this one, then he's done- and he knows it. He also knows that if he doesn't come out 1000% then Vitali will KO him. He knew he didn't have to come out even 100% to beat Barrett, because his strength and skills are better than Barrett's.

3) Byrd the #1 HW? I swear anyone who truly believes this, and isn't just being a Klischko hater, is an absolute idiot. Byrd has lost 2 of his last 4 pretty clearly, and some think 3 of his last 4. He lost to Oquendo and Golota, who have never beaten anyone in their big fights- only to be saved by gift judges on Don King cards. He squeaked by McCline with a controversial split decision and barely beat Williamson- two contenders who were beaten rather easily by Wladimir, the contender who he refused to face. I mean, who is the champ and who is the contender here? You beat a contender after one of your top contender's finishes with them? Who ever heard of the best HW in the world picking scraps from lower contender's tables? Get real people. I honestly think Byrd should probably retire. He can't beat anyone by Don King house fighters (and only then with judges help) and dodgest his toughest fights. And who's this guy who just beat McCline- a total nobody- watch King find a way to rank him in the IBF and get Byrd a defense against him. I mean, that's been the way of it. Byrd is a J-O-K-E.

4) Brewster is the #1 HW in the world, unquestionably. He has without any controversy the biggest wins and best performances of any of the champs over his last 4 fights, even with the loss to Meehan. Wladimir, Golota and Krasniqi. Golota was coming off 2 wins over Byrd and Ruiz that were robbed from him. Krasniqi was coming off of a brtual KO win over Whitaker. And while he beat them with his fists, he beat Wlad with his chin. Yes Wlad fell apart on his own, but Brewster is probably the only HW out there who could have taken that punishment and made Wlad work hard enough for that to happen that night (except maybe Peter).

Vitali leap-frogs Brewster and takes his #1 spot back from Brewster with an impressive win on Nov 12th. Byrd and Ruiz should not even really be mentioned, right now. Toney has good performances, but against has-beens and never-wases. Let's see him fight someone who is for real. Wlad is coming off of an impressive win over the most dangerous puncher in the division, so he's probably #3 right now.

But I think everyone is going to be surprised by how hard Rahman comes out against Vitali. He's always had the skills- he's just lacked motivation, which he has assloads of now. However, I think the range and power of Vitali is going to be too much for even a determined Rock to overcome. Vitali TKO 5, regaining the spot as the #1 HW. Then it'll be the winner of Wlad-Brewster fighting for the #1 spot, since we already know for sure Byrd will find any way possible to avoid Wlad.

[blockhead]

who can vitali prove himself against i ask, no one and u know it, rahman just a mandatory who is living of a lucky punch , toney? isnt he just a fat old middleweight? who people say will beat vitali but when he doesnt just use those excusses, byrd? byrds no where near what he was years ago i dont think anyone really cares that vitali "lost" to him or if he fights him again, Brewster is the only one who some people can make a cliam vitali can prove himself with, and ruiz? laugh har laugh, calvin brock is to green, peter has already lost to the lesser klitschko imo, and besides no matter what he does from now till he is done all the haters like hobo no so, will always bring up the lewis fight and the byrd fight and thats it nothing else no matter what. hobo if u dont like all these flaming jlitschko threads and are tired of seeing a thread everytime why are u making this one yourself? o wait lemme guess "its to show u little kid blah blah blah your only 17 blah blah blah shut up blah blah blah blah blah, same thing over and over

toney may be a fat old middle weight but his is also a great boxer with the skills to clean up the heavyweight division.

[Bozo_no no]

toney may be a fat old middle weight but his is also a great boxer with the skills to clean up the heavyweight division.

The kid isn't worth responding to.

He doesn't know what he's talking about, and just likes to be argumentattive because he's easilly upset when his lack of knowldge shows.

Ignore him.

[riz]

Beating Rahman Proves Nothing For Klitschko



One can choose to believe the hype of the upcoming heavyweight showdown between WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and Hasim Rahman, or they can see through the fog created by the promotional spin-doctors.

Rahman is being built up as the biggest threat that Klitschko has ever faced since winning the WBC title, but that is not saying much when accounting his less than stellar opponents. Most fight fans find it very frustrating to watch the string of less than appealing bouts which Klitschko has taken to follow-up his gutsy performance against Lennox Lewis.

It is an embarrassment to the sport when powerhouse media outlets like HBO and Ring Magazine try to shove Klitschko down our throats as the 'real' heavyweight champion of the division.

How is it that the longest reigning heavyweight champion, Chris Byrd, who holds a TKO victory over Klitschko, is not considered the true champion of the division? Is beating a grossly overweight Kirk Johnson, a fat Danny Williams and a part-time golfer in Corrie Sanders more impressive than beating Jameel McCline, DaVarryl Williamson and a hard fought draw with Andrew Golota?

His brother Wladimir's recent decision win over Samuel Peter is a bigger accomplishment than anything Vitali has done in his entire career. When comparing the two resumes, Wladimir holds the far more impressive lineup of opponents. Wladimir may have been stopped in two separate bouts, but he never quit on his stool like Vitali did against Chris Byrd. Wladimir gets knocked down, but he gets up every single time. Trying the same thing about Lennox Lewis.

After the dissecting the career record of Hasim Rahman, it has becoming apparently clear that his knockout win over an out of shape Lennox Lewis is the only 'big' fight that Rahman managed to win. An in shape Lewis blew Rahman away in four rounds. In his career, he was beaten by David Tua, Oleg Maskaev, John Ruiz and Evander Holyfield. Let's not forget that Rahman is the only fighter Holyfield has managed to beat since March of 2001.

I almost fell for Rahman's rededication speech, you know that one that he preaches following every loss in his career. I almost fell for it this time and was woken up when I saw his terrible performance against Monte Barrett. There are some that felt Barrett won this bout and it was visually clear that he had Rahman in trouble in the final round. The minute Rahman stepped up to face a live dog, he was reduced to the same Rahman that we saw lose to John Ruiz. His timing was off, his accuracy was poor and he was unwilling to let his hands go.

Once again, Vitali's bout will be tainted even if he wins in impressive fashion. Rahman owes millions to the IRS, Don King is suing him for a piece of his purse and he recently filed for bankruptcy. It's safe to say that Rahman will not have a clear head going into this bout. He will be desperate and desperation can affect a fighter's judgment and his performance. Debt is heavy burden for any person to carry, Rahman is no different. After losing, Rahman can now easily say that with all of his personal problems, he was unable to keep himself focused.

If Vitali beats Rahman, so what. What does he really prove or accomplish? I know the answer. He can beat a fighter that five other men beat, two of whom are retired. Other than an overweight Lewis, who else has Rahman ever beaten in his career for him to be regarded as such a big threat. If you take the upset win over Lewis away, we would not even be discussing this fight because it would have never even been put together.

Klitschko is not going to accomplish anything unless he fights the other champions in the division. He must fight John Ruiz, (who easily beat Rahman), Chris Byrd (who beat him) and Lamon Brewster (who stopped his brother), in order to get real respect.

the only reason ppl think rahman is the biggest threat is style wise. has nothing to do with anything else. hell hammer ruiz, and byrd, and probably brewster also, jus keeping him at bay with a jab

[Manny_P]

Rahman is garbage and it won't PROVE that Vitali is best out thurrr. Fight Toney and we'll see what happens.

[Mike_R]

there is no such thing as "the" champ if the major belts aren't unified.

it's all just picking favorites otherwise- and the boxers carrying belts should know this and should do something about it. fact is- vitali, byrd, toney, etc. are all taking a **** on the fans by not demanding to face one another. they're all equally guilty of this- and it's sad that we as fans would call any of them "the" champ and give them that sense of comfort. when they really haven't proven themselves to be ****, at least not yet. not until one of them can be introduced and walk out with belts on the waist, shoulders, and in the hands of their entourage.