Comments Thread For: V. Klitschko in Likely Final Fight Against Charr on 9/1

[Weltschmerz]

Everybody knows Haye ducked Vitali more than once. Now that Vitali is 'old and slow', Haye makes a 'comeback' and wants to fight him.

No matter what, always remember, Haye - Vitali could have happened, if team Haye didn't duck repeatedly. Haye deserves nothing at this point.

[Earl-Hickey]

What an inau****ious finale

[yoz]

Povetkin to fight a fringe contender for the vacant WBC title, win, and then duck Wlad.

[Money Shot]

I think they'll say that Lewis ducked Klitschko. It's not just a matter of them saying so for it to be true. As evidence for this;

1) Let's take it as said the way Larry Merchant and all the analysts said it that Lewis was very lucky.

2) Then we have the supposed return date of Dec 6th 2003.

3) next we have Lewis' demand that Klitschko get his eye cut examined by Lewis' own surgeon IN LONDON to make sure that it won't go again and ruin the fight.

4) That being done and the cut passed, Lewis delays signing , keeps putting off decision.

5) Klitschko eventually sees there's no fight and arranges a fight with Kirk Johnson, whose place he'd taken in the Lewis fight. He destroys him in the second rd.

6) Now we have Lewis still delaying, so that the WBC give him a time period to sign or else be stripped.

7) He still won't sign, and retires the morning of the day on which he was to have been stripped.

The evidence shows that he was nervous about rematching Klitschko, snd when he saw what happened to his original opponent Johnson, he made it definite. From the public Larry Merchant interview, he showed a huge streak of real malice which constantly showed up with every succeeding Klitschko fight, when Lewis would contact the opponent and give him tips on how to beat Klitschko. Useless tips I might add.

Don't forget that up to the time Klitschko fought the World Heavyweight Champion on 9 days notice, and was actually beating him, he had lost only one fight, a retirement after the 9th rd against Chris Byrd when he was so far ahead that he couldn't lose on the cards unless KO'd. AND, that except for one earlier fight, Klitschko had won every other fight by KO.

In fact Lewis was wise not to have rematched him, since he won every other fight in his career, mostly overwhelmingly, with only 3 opponents total not being stopped.

I believe that a very good case can be made for saying that Lewis ducked Klitschko.

Well said, most huggers and Lewis apologists do not even know these facts and just cling onto to tko6. Vitali>Lewis in every respect.

[nomadman]

Gee I wonder what people said when Lennox Lewis was going to end his career against Kirk Johnson.

Lucky for his legacy he was backed into a corner and forced to take the Klitschko fight.

Kirk Johnson's a hell of a lot better than Charr was and ever will be. Even if he looks like Oprah Winfrey.

[paulf]

Arreola to fight a fringe contender for the vacant WBC title, win, and then duck Wlad.

Fixed it for ya

[Dazzaman]

Come on!

he's had a solid career but there are too many names in his era that he did not fight. his title victories are over sam peter & corrie sanders. when he held the WBO title it was not classified as a "world title" back then. it was more a regional title passed around asia & europe. any american who won it usually vacated it to get a bigger fight. that title gave you a top 10 ranking in all 3 bodies at the time. the 2 best guys he fought(regardless of injury or what the scorecards read)he lost to. his world title defences(not including WBO reign) are against danny williams, juan carlos gomez, chris arreola, kevin johnson, albert sosnowski, shannon briggs, odlanier solis, tomasz adamek, dereck chisora & now charr. look at those names closely in 8 WBC title defences over 2 reigns. shannon briggs is the opponent with the best credentials of all his defences.adamek is too small for vitali & most of those guys are pretty inexperienced when he chooses to fight them. he also has wins over kirk johnson, larry donald, vaughn bean, obed sullivan, timo hoffman & herbie hide. there is no doubt when you look at those names i've listed that he has carefully selected his opponents throughout his career. he is a great matchmaker. most of the opponents he fought throughout his career have been featherfisted or are nowhere near the same level he is. his best opponents he fought are byrd, lewis, kirk johnson, sam peter & shannon briggs. arreola & kingpin had limited experience & resumes when he fought them. most of the guys he fought couldn't reach him or couldn't hurt him if they did. sanders was a C+ fighter at best but being a big punching southpaw with great handspeed he could give anyone problems. can anyone really say he fought the cream of the crop? here are the guys he did not fight during his era. rahman, holyfield, maskaev, tua, moorer, botha, tyson, bowe, golota, grant, toney, ruiz, barrett, haye, ibragimov, liakhovich, brewster, williamson, oquendo, valuev, chagaev, savarese, mercer, izon, chambers, austin, thompson, povetkin, etc. all of these top contenders of his 2 careers. many of the guys listed fought each other. he has had a solid career but there could be questions about his legacy. there are 13 world champions he never fought from his era. wladimir is a first ballot HOFer but vitali's induction is no sure thing. look again at the guys he never fought. many of those guys were fighting each other. vitali said it in the interview after that if chisora had more speed he would have been in trouble. he is ducking haye. haye has power in both hands & great handspeed. vitali realized that he had lost a step so he is taking the farewell charr fight & retiring. vitali did lots of talking about wanting to knock out haye but after the chisora fight vitali decided not to write a check he might not be able to cash. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT LENNOX WAS THINKING WHEN HE RETIRED! if i give vitali a rematch i could loss. if i lose then i will have to train again for the trilogy...lennox knew it was time to hang it up & vitali is now realizing this. haye is a serious threat to him. if he were to lose to haye then he'd have to prolong his career because he wouldn't want to leave the sport on that loss. he took an easier payday & he wants to get into politics full time. a fight with haye could jeopardize his health & taking too many punches could give him brain damage. alls it takes is one huge punch to change your life. vitali wants to enjoy the rest of his...too bad vitali did as much talking as haye but in the end he is the one who chose to fight charr instead of haye...think what you want but this is my opinion only

I wasn't aware you had to fight EVERYONE to gain some respect. Byrd was beaten till the injury got the better of Vitaly.

All of these guys you named - toney, ruiz, barrett, ibragimov, liakhovich, williamson, oquendo, chagaev, savarese, mercer, izon, chambers, austin, thompson, povetkin, wouldn't have had a hope in hell of beating Vitaly. They're possible tune up fights at best. I say possible as they're fights that he wouldn't have needed to take at any rate, like fighting gomez, sosnowski, chisora, etc. Wlad dealt to many of them in a similar manner to how Vitaly would've done so...I suspect Vitaly would've done the business in far more telling fashion (similar to how he dealt to Arreola, Briggs & Adamek).

These guys had the tools to possibly beat him - golota, grant, brewster, haye, valuev. Though I don't think they could & would be gotten out of there in the same fashion he beat say, Sosnowski).

The others, for whatever reason didn't happen. It wouldn't surprise that after the Lewis fight when most of those guys were still reasonably active, and the fights immediately after when he destroyed Williams, Johnson & Sanders, that these other top guys were reluctant to step into the ring with him. He also retired after those fights, during that time many of these others you name have gone off the scene or were on their way out of it while he was coming through. I don't think Maskaev, Tua, Tyson (post 2000), Rahman or Botha would've beaten him in any case. The best Bowe, Holyfield or Moorer of the time certainly would've had the skills & desire to really test him but hey, those fights didn't happen.

He's dominated those who've been put in front of him, that's all you can ask for.

[Weltschmerz]

he's had a solid career but there are too many names in his era that he did not fight. his title victories are over sam peter & corrie sanders. when he held the WBO title it was not classified as a "world title" back then. it was more a regional title passed around asia & europe. any american who won it usually vacated it to get a bigger fight. that title gave you a top 10 ranking in all 3 bodies at the time. the 2 best guys he fought(regardless of injury or what the scorecards read)he lost to. his world title defences(not including WBO reign) are against danny williams, juan carlos gomez, chris arreola, kevin johnson, albert sosnowski, shannon briggs, odlanier solis, tomasz adamek, dereck chisora & now charr. look at those names closely in 8 WBC title defences over 2 reigns. shannon briggs is the opponent with the best credentials of all his defences.adamek is too small for vitali & most of those guys are pretty inexperienced when he chooses to fight them. he also has wins over kirk johnson, larry donald, vaughn bean, obed sullivan, timo hoffman & herbie hide. there is no doubt when you look at those names i've listed that he has carefully selected his opponents throughout his career. he is a great matchmaker. most of the opponents he fought throughout his career have been featherfisted or are nowhere near the same level he is. his best opponents he fought are byrd, lewis, kirk johnson, sam peter & shannon briggs. arreola & kingpin had limited experience & resumes when he fought them. most of the guys he fought couldn't reach him or couldn't hurt him if they did. sanders was a C+ fighter at best but being a big punching southpaw with great handspeed he could give anyone problems. can anyone really say he fought the cream of the crop? here are the guys he did not fight during his era. rahman, holyfield, maskaev, tua, moorer, botha, tyson, bowe, golota, grant, toney, ruiz, barrett, haye, ibragimov, liakhovich, brewster, williamson, oquendo, valuev, chagaev, savarese, mercer, izon, chambers, austin, thompson, povetkin, etc. all of these top contenders of his 2 careers. many of the guys listed fought each other. he has had a solid career but there could be questions about his legacy. there are 13 world champions he never fought from his era. wladimir is a first ballot HOFer but vitali's induction is no sure thing. look again at the guys he never fought. many of those guys were fighting each other. vitali said it in the interview after that if chisora had more speed he would have been in trouble. he is ducking haye. haye has power in both hands & great handspeed. vitali realized that he had lost a step so he is taking the farewell charr fight & retiring. vitali did lots of talking about wanting to knock out haye but after the chisora fight vitali decided not to write a check he might not be able to cash. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT LENNOX WAS THINKING WHEN HE RETIRED! if i give vitali a rematch i could loss. if i lose then i will have to train again for the trilogy...lennox knew it was time to hang it up & vitali is now realizing this. haye is a serious threat to him. if he were to lose to haye then he'd have to prolong his career because he wouldn't want to leave the sport on that loss. he took an easier payday & he wants to get into politics full time. a fight with haye could jeopardize his health & taking too many punches could give him brain damage. alls it takes is one huge punch to change your life. vitali wants to enjoy the rest of his...too bad vitali did as much talking as haye but in the end he is the one who chose to fight charr instead of haye...think what you want but this is my opinion only

You only believe Vitali is ducking Haye, because you dislike the Klitschko's in general.
Vitali never ducked anyone.

[JAB5239]

You only believe Vitali is ducking Haye, because you dislike the Klitschko's in general.
Vitali never ducked anyone.

Well he was calling for a Haye fight for more than a year and even after little bro beat him. Haye finally agreed to all the Klit demands and all of a sudden he doesn't want the fight. What would you call it?

[Superflo777]

Well he was calling for a Haye fight for more than a year and even after little bro beat him. Haye finally agreed to all the Klit demands and all of a sudden he doesn't want the fight. What would you call it?

No one of us really knows what happened behind closed doors between Haye, Booth, Boente and Vitali. Both parties say the other party hindered negotiations, we can't really be sure who was ducking who.