Ambling Alp II wrote:Athleticism and skills for Vitaly? No. He is extremely slow on his feet and has slow hand speed. He is very easy to hit. His stoppages are made up of fights against mediocre to weak opponents and takes him much longer than it should.
Wladimir has some athletic ability and decent skills. However he also has some major weaknesses. He has a glass jaw and limited stamina. Early in his career, he had no clue what to do; though he has improved in that area.
Their resumes? Not that impressive at all.
Vitaly's biggest win is probably over Corrie Sanders. Big deal. He lost his two biggest fights. He was stopped after 6 rounds against an obese Lennox Lewis. He quit against Chris Byrd. We can make all the excuse we want, but that is what happened.
Wladimir's best win? Chris Byrd; In recent times he is considered a great boxer, in most eras merely good. He had almost no power.
Wladimir had devastating losses against 3 different opponents; none were that good.
It's not their fault that the rest of the field has been so weak. However, if they really were great fighters, they would have dominated much more than they have. They didn't because it's painfully obvious they have severe limitations.
I ain't gonna talk resume right now, since it is quite a task to disprove common opinion here on modern era, which actually doesn't suck at all in terms of head-to-head ability. IMO overweight golfer like Sanders could've easily knocked out cold half of champions of previous eras.
But let’s get back to these "severe limitations" mentioned: “Athleticism and skills for Vitali?” I say yes. His skills are unorthodox, yet effective for a guy his size. He does not need to dance on his feet like Ali since he's got a great timing. “Slow hands, extremely easy to hit?” What a non-sense. How can a fighter with slow hands, who is also extremely easy to hit, win almost every round from every opponent he faced, even in losses to fast Byrd and great by all means Lewis? Vitali also managed to be in quite a good shape for all of his fights into his 40s, not overweight and really strong, able to beat the hell out of large heavies with only jabs and armpunches. Heavyweights does not have to be ripped, just ask Holmes.
Wlad's glass jaw is a myth not supported by deeper analysis: 1st TKO loss was clearly due to full exhaustion since ambitious 22 yr old guy took too much risk going all in on a wooden-headed 250-pound opponent, who’s never been down in his entire carrier. Same story with exhaustion happened against Brewster, only this time probably due to poisoning, since Wlad very suddenly could barely drag his feet to his corner right after looking very good and full of energy. And then there were no signs of stamina problems for a decade. Sanders was the only bad KO loss, but for what its worth that guy had really fast hands and very good punch, while Wlad made a mistake of underestimating him. It took 3 hard knockdowns for referee to stop the fight, while Wlad continued to stand up. He continued to stand up after 3 knockdowns from Sam Peter to win the fight. He was never actually KO’d unconscious in all instances mentioned. Even if you still say Wlad’s chin may be not the best, no way this may be called a severe limitation for a guy who hardly ever gets hit clean.
