The slow and steady decline of Vitali Klitschko

[Earl-Hickey]

Let me start by making it clear, I have great Admiration for Vitali Klitschko, he has had a great career especially considering his difficulties with injuries and the like, he was one half of the last great heavyweight battle alongside Lennox Lewis and I consider him the heir to that lineage rather than his brother Wladamir.

Having said that, Vitali is now 40 years old, with a history of injury problems and is clearly on the slide.

Since his return against Sam Peter I have noticed the difference in Vitali and it is becoming more apparent with each fight.

The old Vitali was a monster, he had underrated fluidity to his punches and great power, however if we examine his fights we can see a pattern, the stoppages he has had since return have all been weak in my opinion, and mostly due to the opponents being disgraceful quit jobs.

The man can hardly hit a moving target anymore and is ineffective against any half decent defence, his punches have lost their pop and he now clubs away at opponents with his shots.

Vitali is clearly in the "Hopkins" phase of his career, and can look great against the right opponents (Peter, Arreola) but against anyone who presents a slight stylistic difficulty he is becoming less effective, the most recent example being his 12 rounder with fring euro-level Chisora who negated a lot of Vitali's work with his basic inside fighting. It's hard to imagine a short, limited and easy to hit guy going more than 4 rounds with Vitali from 10 years ago

Vitali is fortunate, his 6'7" frame and still excellent conditioning combined with natural toughness are enough to see off the challanges of the likes of Chisora, but the man is NOT the same guy who had that fight with Lewis.

[dan_cov]

Agreed! I think he still has a couple more bouts left in him but he is clearly showing more & more signs of wear & tear which is to be expected I guess.
I'd like to see him go out sometime in the near future with his head held high, coming off a great win than to keep going, declining because he is looking more vulnerable and I'd hate to see him sustain another injury or lose to a guy he'd frankly of KTFO as little as a couple of years back.

A true great & a credit to the sport as is his little brother.

[Broken Dreams**]

That cuban guy solis I think his name is, he looked gd for two mins against vitali. Would of loved for that fight to carry on. Damn it

[Johnnybur]

Let me start by making it clear, I have great Admiration for Vitali Klitschko, he has had a great career especially considering his difficulties with injuries and the like, he was one half of the last great heavyweight battle alongside Lennox Lewis and I consider him the heir to that lineage rather than his brother Wladamir.

Having said that, Vitali is now 40 years old, with a history of injury problems and is clearly on the slide.

Since his return against Sam Peter I have noticed the difference in Vitali and it is becoming more apparent with each fight.

The old Vitali was a monster, he had underrated fluidity to his punches and great power, however if we examine his fights we can see a pattern, the stoppages he has had since return have all been weak in my opinion, and mostly due to the opponents being disgraceful quit jobs.

The man can hardly hit a moving target anymore and is ineffective against any half decent defence, his punches have lost their pop and he now clubs away at opponents with his shots.

Vitali is clearly in the "Hopkins" phase of his career, and can look great against the right opponents (Peter, Arreola) but against anyone who presents a slight stylistic difficulty he is becoming less effective, the most recent example being his 12 rounder with fring euro-level Chisora who negated a lot of Vitali's work with his basic inside fighting. It's hard to imagine a short, limited and easy to hit guy going more than 4 rounds with Vitali from 10 years ago

Vitali is fortunate, his 6'7" frame and still excellent conditioning combined with natural toughness are enough to see off the challanges of the likes of Chisora, but the man is NOT the same guy who had that fight with Lewis.

That was the most obvious thread Ive ever read on boxingscene. Of course hes not the same fighter who fought lewis, he was 30 or 31 back then in his prime. Hes 40 now with a four year layoff and alot of injuries. What did you expect? Everything you said in that thread goes without saying. Next time, try to make some valid points that arent so obvious. Sugar Ray Leonard was a totally different fighter at 28 than he even was at 35. See how obvious that was.

[1g5a22]

what other 41 yr old hw in history is better than vitali?

at 41 he is stil dominant! stfu haters...

your boys will keep getting there arses beat.

[intoccabile]

Solis looked good for 2 minutes. But vitali throws an incredible amount of punches for a heavy - so who knows how SOlis would have looked down the stretch, or how the tactics would have changed from both fighters. Before the injury, solis DID walk into a vitali counter hookercut that, IMO, caused the loss of Solis' equilibrium. For all we know, an extremely flush one was waiting the next round.

People also throw a lot of salt on Vitalis performance against Chisora.... Maybe you guys should just give Chisora a little more credit. Tough guy, came to fight, good style. The fact that Vitali, a heavyweight, a BIG heavyweight, could move around like that for 12 without gassing completely in itself tells me vitali still has plenty left in the tank.

Boxing is more about the punches thrown and the punches landed. I feel like people don't think about the little things enough, just what they see.

[yoz]

Vitali > Every HW contender.

[jimmy1569]

While the OP makes some valid points on some differences between Vitali of a decade ago & Vitali now he CLEARLY is underestimating & belittling the dominance Vitali has displayed in terms of boxing clinics to every fighter since Lennox Lewis.... yes he's not blasting people away but he is dominating just the same with no decline at all.



The Chisora fight was just because of Derek's style & come forward stance... he still managed to fend off & outbox him soundly while only losing 2 rds... ofcourse not getting stoppages in 3 of the last 6 fights means he's not letting too many bombs unleash on his opposition.. so in that regard he's preserving himself.. not overly committing & putting himself & his body out of position so a freak injury occurs.... you saw what happened when he tried to get Adamek out of there & overly committed & lost his footing...



his body is clearly not the same but there's absolutely no signs of him being slow or his reflexes weakening & he still has the threat of massive power that will always keep his opposition honest... your post is greatly exaggerated & is NOT as obvious as another poster mentioned.. Vitali is still the most dominant heavy out there & is still unbeatable & is much more dominant than Hopkins is in his 40's.