BoxRec

J wrote:

crusader wrote:Vitali has fought much better opposition than sub par European level fighters. Arreola, Johnson, Peter, Gomez, Sanders, and Johnson were all top ten world ranked fighters or close to it when he easily beat them and he went toe to toe in a great war with an all time great HW in Lewis. Saying his opinion is worthless because of his level of opposition is stupid. At least he is staying active unlike so many other champions now a days. I guess some people don't like that though.

I would have loved a rematch between Lewis and Vitali. Their fight was excellent and it was unfortunate the ending was rather undramatic.

active? are you for real? Nothing about a 30-4 year hiatus for injury that suddenly cleared up, the opponents you cherry pick there are accross a six/seven year period and still dont stack up very well.
Or are you trying to say Vitali has fought great opponents...now that is plain stupid.

My point is if he is so great there are better opponents out there than bloody albert sosnowski, so stop bleating aobut something that happend nearly a decade ago and concentrate on fighting better opponents now.

Vitali was retired during that period and since then he has been very active, fighting four times in little over a year. The opponents he fights are all of a high standard and shown they have world class ability. They may not be great, but they are good by today's standards and his recent resume is more impressive than any other heavyweight.

I agree with your second point. Vitali should quite talking about Lewis, because whats done is done and there is obviously no chance a rematch will take place. He should be focusing his attention on Sosnowski then Haye, because that is the only opponent currently fighting who really means anything.

yeah fair point since his comeback..I cant agree RE. his opponents they are possibly the worst of any long reigning champion...id say Vlad has fought more dangerous foes than Vitali.
Seriously you cant be serious about Arreola fat / Johnson (unproven and no power) Sanders (half retired,) Danny Williams (not even Euro level) Sam peter (one dimensional and didnt train)...he hasnt got one serious threat on his record as a champ not one fighter with even a 30% chance of winning.

The level of people he has fought as champion is a fuckin disgrace. Some not through his own fault but some through safety first cherry picking.

His brother at least took on the likes of Brewster, rahman et al.

Vitali has fought guys with no will to win and as a result will not be remembered in the same breath as the likes of lewis.

Razor ruddock is a better fighter than either of the klits have defended against for example.

J wrote:yeah fair point since his comeback..I cant agree RE. his opponents they are possibly the worst of any long reigning champion...id say Vlad has fought more dangerous foes than Vitali.
Seriously you cant be serious about Arreola fat / Johnson (unproven and no power) Sanders (half retired,) Danny Williams (not even Euro level) Sam peter (one dimensional and didnt train)...he hasnt got one serious threat on his record as a champ not one fighter with even a 30% chance of winning.

The level of people he has fought as champion is a fuckin disgrace. Some not through his own fault but some through safety first cherry picking.

His brother at least took on the likes of Brewster, rahman et al.

Vitali has fought guys with no will to win and as a result will not be remembered in the same breath as the likes of lewis.

Razor ruddock is a better fighter than either of the klits have defended against for example.

Peter, Johnson(s), Arreolla, Gomez, Sanders, etc were top ten guys at the time he beat them though. I know these are not great names, but given the state of the division when he beat them, they were among the top fighters and Klitschko can not really help that he is fighting in a weak era. I think his opponents (bar Johnson) gave an effort, but the gap in skill and size was to much to overcome, and made it look like they were not coming to fight. Of currently active and contending heavyweights, with the exception of his brother, I don't believe there are any other fighters with a better resume than Vitali.

I'm not trying to say his resume is in the same league as Lewis' is though. That can not even be argued given the names of LL record and at the end of the day Lewis does have the more impressive legacy.

J wrote:yeah fair point since his comeback..I cant agree RE. his opponents they are possibly the worst of any long reigning champion...id say Vlad has fought more dangerous foes than Vitali.
Seriously you cant be serious about Arreola fat / Johnson (unproven and no power) Sanders (half retired,) Danny Williams (not even Euro level) Sam peter (one dimensional and didnt train)...he hasnt got one serious threat on his record as a champ not one fighter with even a 30% chance of winning.

The level of people he has fought as champion is a fuckin disgrace. Some not through his own fault but some through safety first cherry picking.

His brother at least took on the likes of Brewster, rahman et al.

Vitali has fought guys with no will to win and as a result will not be remembered in the same breath as the likes of lewis.

Razor ruddock is a better fighter than either of the klits have defended against for example.

To be fair though, there's just nobody around for them to fight, it's like a desert out there.

jinjang wrote:true. but a rematch was clearly needed to see who the better man was.

No-one can say for sure, but surely the fact that an ageing, poorly prepared & overweight Lewis still had enough to bludgeon a peak Vitali must suggest to you that a properly trained & prepared Lewis might actually be the better man?

Syntax Error wrote:

jinjang wrote:true. but a rematch was clearly needed to see who the better man was.

No-one can say for sure, but surely the fact that an ageing, poorly prepared & overweight Lewis still had enough to bludgeon a peak Vitali must suggest to you that a properly trained & prepared Lewis might actualy be the better man?

Also the fact that Lewis appeared to simply walk through Vitali's shots, whilst his own were clearly troubling the big man, suggests that in his prime a couple of years earlier, Lewis would have bashed him up good and proper.

I do rate Vitali, but he's not in the same class as a peak Lewis.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:

Syntax Error wrote:

jinjang wrote:true. but a rematch was clearly needed to see who the better man was.

No-one can say for sure, but surely the fact that an ageing, poorly prepared & overweight Lewis still had enough to bludgeon a peak Vitali must suggest to you that a properly trained & prepared Lewis might actualy be the better man?

Also the fact that Lewis appeared to simply walk through Vitali's shots, whilst his own were clearly troubling the big man, suggests that in his prime a couple of years earlier, Lewis would have bashed him up good and proper.

I do rate Vitali, but he's not in the same class as a peak Lewis.

prime lewis beats him easy. thats obvious.

however, if that version of lewis had a rematch with Vitali a few months later he wouldn't be 1/5 to win the fight. Would he have won it, I don't know... that's the thing.. the fight they had provided an inconclusive result. Yeah the fight should have been stopped but it was not a KO and Lewis was behind on the scorecards and having difficulties in the fight. In no way did he outbox Vitali. So, surely you can see how it was an inconclusive victory and a rematch was needed to see who the better man was at that time.

Dear me this again



Look here goes and try and follow some people......................

A fat, overweight under motivated Lewis while undoubtedly behind on the scorecards manages to punch a fully fit prime Vitali enough times in the face to cause an ugly cut and the fight gets stopped - SIMPLES

Anyone with any semblance of common sense can see that.

A fully fit prime Lewis (ala Golota, Tua etc etc) would have beaten Vitali inside 5 rounds no problem.

Anyone who derides Lewis on here is putting it bluntly a little stupid.

That is all

CheckHook wrote:Doubt he will ever get over it, the loss will always haunt him I'm sure. To be honest though, I never understood the big deal. I think when you carve up a mans face, in the ring, to the point where he is pissing blood like a stuck pig its time to stop the fight. Maybe they should've let it continue though so he could've lost an eye.... Would've been different if it was an unnoticed clash of heads or Lewis would've fought on but avoided Klitschko. The fact is Klitshcko didn't protect himself well enough to see the final bell.

Agreed, Vitali is a ballsy guy and deserves respect in this era of fat lazy slackers, but the fact is versus an ageing & under prepared Lennox Lewis, his face was hideously damaged by his opponents fists, and regardless of being ahead on points after 6 rds the outcome was anything but a foregone conclusion.

Would Vitali really feel vindicated facing a 45 year old Lennox Lewis? Christ almighty, move on big fella!

Apollo Creed vs. Ivan Drago THE REMATCH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc240A7itic

Wrists wrote:Dear me this again



Look here goes and try and follow some people......................

A fat, overweight under motivated Lewis while undoubtedly behind on the scorecards manages to punch a fully fit prime Vitali enough times in the face to cause an ugly cut and the fight gets stopped - SIMPLES

Anyone with any semblance of common sense can see that.

A fully fit prime Lewis (ala Golota, Tua etc etc) would have beaten Vitali inside 5 rounds no problem.

Anyone who derides Lewis on here is putting it bluntly a little stupid.

That is all

No one is denying that a fully fit prime Lewis beats Vitali, at least I don't recall anyone saying that on this thread, so correct me if I'm wrong. I think the people that deny the legitimacy of Lewis' win are few in number and pop up only occasionally. I for one know that Lewis was the only winner that night, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have liked a rematch to occur.

It's interesting that the Klitschkos are dominant now but get hit so little - when Kevin Johnson landed a few jabs Vitali seemed to mark up alarmingly; and when Lennox landed regularly he transformed into something from Dawn Of The Dead.

Wladimir gets one, maybe two jabs from an ancient Ray Mercer and his eyes blow up and against Sanders, Williamson, Brewster, and Peter he's on the floor.

For all their size and power I think the top class fighters of the past, regardless of weight, get to them & make a mess of them.