vitali having weak opponents is definitely a handicap when it comes down assessing his ability.
When wins come so easy its hard to motivate yourself to do anything above the bare minimum. If the heavyweight division was much more competitive I reckon we would see a much more talented driven vitali.
Just speaking from my own introspection -
When I lived as a sole catholic in orange territory in Ireland I was getting fights with much older bigger stronger guys and I was a damn sight better than I am now (when I live in a safe neigherbour hood). Adversity makes you excel and builds your heart - without the fear anymore I can't for f*ck.
we will see how good klitschko is after he steps up and enters the heavyweight tournament. byrd, toney, rahman will all be for it. if he wins the tourney then he is the legit champ and his era can begin. i believe the winner will be either rahman or toney.....leaning more towards toney.
he being white has nothing to do with it. saying that is an easy way out. as a african american i find myself cheering for spadafora, golata, and gatti everytime they fight. they are all white so why do i want them to excel? klit is just not a special talent. let him win the tourney and then we can discuss him further. until then we should be talking about 140lbs.
kasta, floyd, spadafora, gatti, judah could meet those guys in a catch weigt, etc.... so much more to talk about than the heavies.
"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"
Post away. That cut was the same for a few rounds. If
it wasn't stopped earlier it shouldn't have been
stopped when it was. If he was winning on the score
cards , then yes he was winning the fight. To argue
this is ridiculous. Lennox was not starting to
dominate. He was extremely tired. He would not have
lasted long. I thought they both could have been
knocked out , but given Lennox's history of being
knocked out , and Vitali having never been on the
floor even once it isn't too crazy too assume it would
have been Lennox.
What "if only's" are you talking about? People think
that Lewis fight was stopped early and we dont know
what would have happened If it hadn't. Because Lewis
would not rematch Vitali we will never get a
conclusive result between the two. Officials make
mistake's and there is nothing wrong with questioning
them and what would have happened if the right call
had been made. Do you just accept any decisions ref's,
judge's etc make? What about the first Holyfield and
Lewis fight? was a draw the right decision because
the judges said so?
both brothers bring more hype into the ring than hurt. i dont think klit will win the heavy weight tournamet IF he agrees to be in it in the first place. if he doesn't the winner of the tournamet will and should be seen as the legit heavy weight champ.
No problem. The cut was basically the same for the
last couple of round's. Since it wasn't stopped when
it first happened , I think it should have continued.
To me, it looked like either could have been knocked
out soon. It would have been better to let it go on
and have a more conclusive finish. I am going to have
to dig out my copy of the fight to refresh my memory,
but this is how I remember it ,and what I thought at
the time.
"so your only dispute was that the fight wasnt stopped immediately therefore it shouldnt have been stopped at all? "
Im saying the cut didn't get any worse,so if it was
bad enough to stop , it should have already been
stopped when it first happened.
"how does that make sense... why not give him a chance?"
That's not the way it work's. How long are you going
to give him a chance? I thought he still had a chance
so why stop it? If you agree he should be given a
chance then why do you think it should have been
stopped when the cut wasn't any worse?
"If you agree he should be given a chance then why do you think it should have been stopped when the cut wasn't any worse?"
it WAS worse... he didnt get hit with one shot and all the sudden had these MASSIVE cuts on his face. the cuts opened up and grew every round and if im not mistaken lewis rubbed a dread or two across them to help.
and yes, this happens CONSTANTLY in boxing (de la hoya vs chavez as an example, or maybe gatti vs rodriguez is a better one)... theres no rule that says you have to stop it immediately after the cut or you cant stop the fight on the cut... that makes no sense.
CZ just put the fork in it though anyway... damned good point
"it WAS worse... he didnt get hit with one shot and all the sudden had these MASSIVE cuts on his face. the cuts opened up and grew every round and if im not mistaken lewis rubbed a dread or two across them to help"
I never said it was one punch. I dont think the cut's
were noticeably worse round after round. I dont think
that it was much different in the sixth , than it was
in the fifth.
" theres no rule that says you have to stop it immediately after the cut or you cant stop the fight on the cut... that makes no sense. "
Yes , but they are usually stopped when the cut is
getting worse and impairing vision , blood dripping
into the eye etc. This was not the case in Vitali
Lewis. In the Gatti Rodriguez fight ( one of my all
time favourites) I think Gatti's injury was far more
detrimental to him fighting than Vitali's. Gatti
could not see out of that eye! Gatti was guessing
when the doctor was asking him how many finger's he
had up. He actually guessed wrong and the doctor gave
him another chance.
"It's interesting how Klit's loss to Lewis made him so great in others eyes, especially since there have been guys who knocked Lewis TFO."
Lewis's KO's were one punch shot's. Vitali was
actually outboxing lewis, something McCall and Rahman
didn't do. Nobody is saying that fight made Klit
great either, but it did show talent.