Comments Thread For: Subpar Foe Doesn’t Mean Klitschko’s Not an All-Timer

[-PBP-]

Who cares if he doesn't have the WBO belt besides the guys collecting the sanctioning fee?

Belts give fighters excuses to avoid the champion. Its the very reason why there is ducking. One guy in every division should hold every belt. If Wlad drops a belt, the top heavyweights will go into a rat race trying to capture it so they can call themselves "World Champions". Look at what happened to the WBC belt when Vitali dropped it.

So in Wlad's case, belts are very important or else the top fighters would duck him and go after the easier "title holders".

You think belts are important to Rigondeaux, Moreno, Golovkin, Miguez Vazquez, Richar Abril, Peter Quillin, Andre Ward and Kovelev? Hell yeah they are. They would be ducked like the plaque if they didn't have them. Some of them hold belts and are still ducked because they have weaker champions in their divisions that offer less risky title shots.

"Belts don't mean ****" is a cool thing to say but it doesn't apply in every case. The best position to be in is a unified champion because it increases your chances of getting the big fights.

[boxingfocus]

Get of Lewis' nuts, he was losing on all the cards and got lucky Vit had a cut. That's it. He didn't prove sh-t in that fight other than he's a coward who'd rather retire than have a rematch against a guy that was beating his ass. He never considered retiring until after Vit beat his ass.

You are so ignorant, it is almost amusing.

A lucky cut? I guess all those punches that caused the cuts and widened them were just lucky punches. I guess the way Lewis opened up Vitali's face like a can opener was a lottery.

Lewis was already on the way to retirement. He was in his late 30s and training less professionally (see: Rahman loss, see: his shape vs Vitali).

As for not proving sh-t in that fight, I guess walking through "Dr Ironfist" and then taking him apart, I guess that makes him... oh, wait, the only guy to ever do it.

As for "points" and "behind on the cards", it was half way into a 12 round fight you idiot. Wake up and smell reality. Firstly you have to finish a fight to win it on the cards - ask Mickey Bey! Secondly, who had won the previous 2 rounds before the fight got stopped? Oh, that's right... Lewis! Because he'd taken Vitali into deep waters and was busy smashing his face in with overhand rights and on the way to knocking him out with blockbuster uppercuts.

Lewis beat Vitali, and the stoppage due to cuts did nothing more than save Vitali's eyesight. It required 60 stitches and was so deep that they needed to stitch inside first then outside again.

Yeah, the crowd booed Lewis. It's not uncommon for a winning fighter to get booed when another fighter seemed to be successful but gets "controversially" stopped. Groves vs Froch, for example. Vitali made the stoppage appear controversial by protesting it but that was all adrenaline. He knows - even if he never says it - that it was right to be stopped. And sure, he wanted a rematch, he gave Lewis a good fight. Why would Lewis rematch though? He was only getting older, no longer dedicated to training, and just came through and won a very tough fight. He had everything to lose and nothing to gain except money, and he was already a very wealthy man.

If that makes him a coward, then I guess you probably are the bravest guy in the universe for calling an ATG fighter out as a coward from behind your keyboard.

[KBRO]

By Lyle Fitzsimmons - This just in: Wladimir Klitschko is pretty damned good.

And anyone who doesn’t believe that is, well… just wrong.

At the very least, it seems those late to the acknowledgement party will force the mammoth Ukrainian’s acclaim to wait until he’s either five years beyond his last punch for pay – and planning a summertime trip to the hall of fame in central New York – or six feet under terra firma in a pine box.

No matter when it comes, though, it’ll be far too late to celebrate a guy who’s done nothing less than reduce a series of musclebound gloved men, some admittedly more threatening than others, to so much concussed, red-faced top dress since he was last vanquished a few days more than a decade ago.

Then and only then will we all be aware of what we’ve been fortunate enough to witness.

Sure, he’s get neither the in-ring artistry nor the vocal stylings of Muhammad Ali. And when it comes to sheer can’t-turn-away train-wreck violence, he’s more than a few ladder rungs below Mike Tyson.

That said, though, his signature combination of size and skill is unlike any the world has known. [Click Here To Read More]

I love how the author soups up Wladimir Klitschko when it's the older brother who's been more dominant & decisive in his bouts with way less weaknesses. Vitali Klitschko incidentally has been unbeaten longer... wins rds more decisively & gets more stoppages.. Wladimir has tasted canvas 11 times.



Vitali never has.... do the math here Vitali is the better & superior fighter & has selflessly let his little brother shine by stepping aside & potentially giving him an opportunity to claim all the belts that easily would be Vitali's had he not been selfless & ofcourse sparing his brother a beatdown in an all unification match for the ages.

[KBRO]

You are so ignorant, it is almost amusing.

A lucky cut? I guess all those punches that caused the cuts and widened them were just lucky punches. I guess the way Lewis opened up Vitali's face like a can opener was a lottery.

Lewis was already on the way to retirement. He was in his late 30s and training less professionally (see: Rahman loss, see: his shape vs Vitali).

As for not proving sh-t in that fight, I guess walking through "Dr Ironfist" and then taking him apart, I guess that makes him... oh, wait, the only guy to ever do it.

As for "points" and "behind on the cards", it was half way into a 12 round fight you idiot. Wake up and smell reality. Firstly you have to finish a fight to win it on the cards - ask Mickey Bey! Secondly, who had won the previous 2 rounds before the fight got stopped? Oh, that's right... Lewis! Because he'd taken Vitali into deep waters and was busy smashing his face in with overhand rights and on the way to knocking him out with blockbuster uppercuts.

Lewis beat Vitali, and the stoppage due to cuts did nothing more than save Vitali's eyesight. It required 60 stitches and was so deep that they needed to stitch inside first then outside again.

Yeah, the crowd booed Lewis. It's not uncommon for a winning fighter to get booed when another fighter seemed to be successful but gets "controversially" stopped. Groves vs Froch, for example. Vitali made the stoppage appear controversial by protesting it but that was all adrenaline. He knows - even if he never says it - that it was right to be stopped. And sure, he wanted a rematch, he gave Lewis a good fight. Why would Lewis rematch though? He was only getting older, no longer dedicated to training, and just came through and won a very tough fight. He had everything to lose and nothing to gain except money, and he was already a very wealthy man.

If that makes him a coward, then I guess you probably are the bravest guy in the universe for calling an ATG fighter out as a coward from behind your keyboard.

Dude.... seriously... Vitali landed & threw MORE punches than Lewis in EACH & EVERY single rd. Vitali was backing Lewis up into the ropes with jabs as late as the 5th rd. Lewis only evened it up towards the end of the fight when Vitali was fighting with a major handicap & let's be honest... they fought to a draw when Vitali was cut.. when he wasn't cut it was all Vitali... punch numbers all favor Vitali as well as the rds won & ofcourse the DR. didn't allow Vitali to continue despite the fact it was never proven Lewis was any more fit to continue than Vitali was....



. Lewis never fought again.... that's your ultimate deciding factor as to who REALLY won or lost that night... if there was ever the official record doesn't tell the tale of the tape... it's that fight & ofcourse the Byrd fight. Klitschko beats these fighters to the tune of 12 rds to 3 & somehow has his only two defeats to show for it.. No one has EVER won 3 rds vs him in a fight officially.... he's as good as unbeaten as any undefeated fighter winning an incredidble 95 % of all the rds he's ever fought.

[MMegatron]

The only person who i can see giving Klitschko any problem at all in the next 5 years are potentially Wilder and, in a few years, Anthony Joshua.

Stiverne / Arreloa / Fury have 0% chance of beating him. In fact Fury has less than 0% chance, he'd probably ko himself singing on the way to the ring.

[MMegatron]

n.b. this is a good article and, importantly, Klitschko isnt just a good fighter, he's a good man.

His bird must get DESTROYED though.