What happened to Vitali?

**Cutthroat** · 11-13-2006, 10:31 AM

Yeah he was pretty darn good, he didn't have the glass chin that his bro. has. I think his last fight was going to be with Hasim Rahman, but the fight was called off because of an injury that Vitali got, something like that. So he decided to retire.

I think... I never really paid attention to the HW's

**!! Mr. Soprano** · 11-13-2006, 10:39 AM

Wlad has a lot more skill than Vitali did, and is more of a boxer/puncher technician.

Vitali was the warrior of the two... He was more aggressive and unafraid to get hit. Vitali was never knocked down in the ring either..

P.S. I was still always a fan of Wlad even at the downfall of his career.

**!! Mr. Soprano** · 11-13-2006, 10:42 AM

As to what happened to him... he tore his quad before the Rahman fight and than had a number of knee injuries/surgeries... They were the result of his early career as a kick boxer. He decided to retire and run for the mayor of the capital of Ukraine (which he lost I believe by a close margin)

**dave777** · 11-13-2006, 12:30 PM

Originally posted by !! Mr. Soprano

As to what happened to him... he tore his quad before the Rahman fight and than had a number of knee injuries/surgeries... They were the result of his early career as a kick boxer. He decided to retire and run for the mayor of the capital of Ukraine (which he lost I believe by a close margin)

[/QUOTE]

I would love to see him hammering them K1 fighters as he would know how to block kicks etc

**DiegoFuego** · 11-13-2006, 12:45 PM

****, if I was a former titleholder and saw that Wlad was the #1 heavyweight in the world, you can bet your ass I'd come back

**Cutthroat** · 11-13-2006, 01:42 PM

Originally posted by !! Mr. Soprano

Wlad has a lot more skill than Vitali did, and is more of a boxer/puncher technician.

Vitali was the warrior of the two... He was more aggressive and unafraid to get hit. Vitali was never knocked down in the ring either..

P.S. I was still always a fan of Wlad even at the downfall of his career.

Oh and btw, for all the people that never saw this fight:Lennox wins due to them stopping the fight because of the cut so a TKO (since it doesn't show the ending)

Damn, I could just imagine that fight lasting longer if Klit. hadn't been cut so bad... Lewis probably would've won it anyways though.

Classic fight right there

**The Scientist** · 11-13-2006, 02:11 PM

Originally posted by RyanSpaulding

Hey guys,

Ok, so, I must admit....I was a big boxing fan for a loooong time but after Oscar got absolutely screwed on the Tito decision, I was disgusted wth boxing and left watching it for years.

In this time, Vitali retired. Now, seeing in old threads, a lot of people named him the #1 white heavyweight of all time. Was he that good? Better than Wlad? And if he was, what made him retire? I've never seen a Vitali fight.

I need to catch up on the Vitali info

Thanks.

He was a good fighter and the guy was 6'8'', he was enormous and that helped him a lot. Vitali at the time was the better fighter of the two, but Wladimir always had the potential to be better, even though I'm not a Wladimir fan, I do acknowledge that. I wouldn't consider him the #1 HW of all time by a long shot. Since he only defended the legitimate Heavyweight Championship belt once against Danny Williams, then retired due to many injuries throughout his body. This made his reign one of the most forgettable. I do hope he comes back, but he has stated that the only thing that would lure him back would be a rematch with Lennox Lewis. Vitali was ahead on points in their first fight, but got a TKO loss due to a nasty cut above his brow. Similar situation when he lost to Chris Byrd in 2000, due to a dislocated shoulder, while ahead on points.

What happened to Vitali?