How do you feel Klit would do against history's best
heavyweight's. Johnson, Dempsey, Louis , Marciano,
Ali, Foreman etc. Is there anyone you think he could
beat or that he would give trouble to? What greats
would have trouble dealing with him?
I realize it is too early to call him an all time
great , but, I personally feel he would be a handful
for anybody. He has a great chin and heart, very hard
to hit because of his size and reach , with good
hand speed for someone of his size and is a very hard
puncher. He was beating Lennox Lewis ( who many argue
is an alltime great) until a controversial stoppage
and effectively put him into retirement. Regardless
of the people who love to make excuses for Lewis and
seem to think he can only lose when he hasn't trained
properly-the fact remains that it is up to Lewis to
get into shape and the fault is his alone if he does
not do this. His opponent and the audience has to
assume he has done his job properly like a
professional. It take's away from the accomplishments
of the person fighting him.
With this in mind, how does Dr Ironfist measure up to
the best in history?
In Klitschko? Danny is a talented heavyweight , who
has only shown his talent in glimpses until Tyson.
He never even had a proper training camp until the
Tyson fight. I think Williams would acquit himself
well against the rest of the current heavyweight's,
I thought it was a good performance by Vitali. How do
you feel he stacks up against great heavies of the
past?
Yeah WaltJ that's true about Ali's era, but that is
considered by many to be the golden age. Rocky
Marciano is considered by some to be the best ever and
his era was relatively weak when you look at Ali's competition.
"he looked soooooooo slow!"
You think so? When analysing the finish to the fight
on sky sports Barry McGuigan said Klitschko looked
like a lightweight, the way he hit with an uppercut
stepped back and landed a perfect one- two to
finish it. Vitali is very under rated by some.
People really hate Klitchko for some reason, I find it amazing people are saying his fight against Danny Williams exposed him as he absolutely destroyed Danny Williams, beat him to a pulp. Danny is tough as nails and showed every bit of how tough he is but he got his ass handed to him.
Who are the other heavyweight contenders? Byrd? He got demolished by both Klitchkos, and no he didn't do anything to make Vitali quit in their fight, he landed all of about 2 punches. Vitali had a legit injury and made the right decision, it was not a title fight and had he continued he could of permenantly injured his shoulder and never be the same fighter again.
Ruiz? Come on the most lame champion in history... He got KO'd by David Tua in all of about 20 seconds. He lost to Roy Jones Jr. showing the inability to land a knockout punch against a guy recently twice KO'd.
Rahman? I am surprised he's not in a coma still from the KO punch Oleg sent him knocking his butt out of the ring. This guy had a heck of a time fighting a washed up Evader Holyfield.
I hope Klitchko ends Don Kings rein as he has ushered in the most lackluster line-up of heavyweight "champions" I have ever seen. And no they are not champions, they all won their belts by having Lewis's titles stripped. Klitchko fought lewis, then lewis retired rather than fight him again and him and Sanders fought for the linear belt.
"He's decent, but his major advantage is his size"
First of all , there is much more to him than just
size. There are plenty of guy's his size , but they
can't fight like him. The same criticsim about size
could be leveled at Lewis.
Regardless of what his major advantage is, the fact
is that he is effective and he uses it to beat other
boxer's. You could say Ali's major advantage was
speed, or power was Foreman's. It doesn't matter what
it is as long as it is effective and within the rule's. Being tall is not against the rules. The
divisions go by weight, not height.
IMO, Vitali doesn't display a huge amount of boxing skills or speed. He uses his size advantage well and stays outside. If Lewis came in shape he would destroy Vitali in a rematch.
Vitali is a decent HW Champ, but no where near the top echelon. Recent champions in their prime; Holyfield, Bowe, Lewis, Holmes, Forman and Ali would have cleaned his clock.
"Vitali is a decent HW Champ, but no where near the top echelon. Recent champions in their prime; Holyfield, Bowe, Lewis, Holmes, Forman and Ali would have cleaned his clock."
When was Lewis's prime? Lewis himself said he got
better with age, matured like a fine wine was his
analogy I believe. Tyson was supposed to be his best
performance. I think Tyson was in better shape
for Williams than he was for lewis by the way. Klit
was his next fight after this, so you can hardly say
he was past his prime. Klitschko is better now than
when he fought Lewis. If Lewis and he were to fight
again , what would Lewis do different?
Lewis's athletic prime was around the time he KO'd Ruddock. His boxing prime was sometime just after he started up with Emanuel Stewart. Lewis would not be considered anything close to what he is today if he would not have hooked up with Stewart. Lewis was not at all conditionally primed Vitali. The mental letdown factor was hugely in play for this fight. With all that being said, I will take Vitali in a rematch if Lewis should come out of retirement as long as I get +200.
Vitali is the best heavyweight right now. Im not sure how he stacks up to the greats. But the next heavyweight champion is Sam Peters. Give Peters a few more fights and he will dethrone Byrd, Ruiz, and Klitschko.
"He was beating Lennox Lewis ( who many argue is an alltime great) until a controversial stoppage and effectively put him into retirement."
This is an assinine comment. Controversial? Someone please post the picture again of Vitali's mangled face. Winning the fight? On the scorecards perhaps--but he was not winning that fight. Lennox was beginning to dominate, and I believe would have knocked him out in the next round or two regardless of the stoppage. Vitali was staggering around the ring.
All time? I don't even need to go there. Holmes and Bowe both would have beat him, and Lennox did.