Can someone please explain the real story of how he quit against Byrd ? Its a mystery to me .. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rLdggqtaWw[/ame]
I don't know. [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotator_cuff[/ame] [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_betting[/ame] [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Mafia[/ame]
HBO picked up Vitali telling his corner he is having trouble with his arm at the end of round three. So the injury happened early in the fight. At the end of round nine, Vitali told his corner his arm went dead. Being a sport doctor Vitali opted to retire in fear of a more permanent injury. Torn rotor cuffs can put a tough NFL football player on the ground in pain. Vitali did not show much pain in the fight, and was pretty much beating a prime Chris Byrd with one good working arm. The shoulder team was confirmed via medical report after the fight and required surgery to fix. Now for speculation. If Vitali had know how the UK and USA based press would react to such a stoppage, or had this been a legacy type of fight later on in his career, I believe he would have pressed on. I also think a strong corner presence can urge a fighter on not to quit. At this point the Universum corner was a novice to the pro game.
Vitali dominated the whole fight and was winning every rd at the time I was not sure what happened but in subsequent fights Lennox and Sanders Vitali showed heart so I think it was a sport medical decision because all he had to do is survive and the fight was won
For anyone who hasn't seen, here is what Byrd had to say: On whether he believes he truly beat Vitali Klitschko or whether he believes he was fortunate that Vitali was forced to retire due to a shoulder injury: “I look at it really like I beat him, because in boxing you don’t quit. You just don’t quit, especially when you’re champion and over a shoulder injury. That’s debatable. For me, I don’t quit. You literally, and I hate to say it after he killed me in the ring almost, and I’m a little guy. You fight. I just couldn’t believe that on the stool he stopped. I was like oh wow! I’m the new WBO heavyweight champion on eight days notice, I had diarrhea, I’m not truly a heavyweight, and this guy is 6’7”/6’8”, 249 pounds, 28-0 with 28 knockouts. The German crowd laughed at me when we got into the middle of the ring, but after four rounds they started cheering for me. So it was just a great thing and I truly felt that I beat this guy. I made him quit. I don’t care what people think or say. In my opinion you don’t quit, especially as champion.” [url]http://www.ontheropesboxingradio.com/wordpress/2011/06/chris-byrd-%E2%80%9Cdavid-haye-better-come-with-something-pretty-special-to-try-to-upset-wladimir-klitschko%E2%80%9D/[/url]
Byrd is as tough as a coffin nail. There might have been luck involved, but there often is. He should be given credit for toughing it out.
Torn rotator cuff. People can fault Vitali for this all they want to but he's still a top name in the division(#2 under Wlad), where the hell is Byrd now? Vitali recoved from his losses, Byrd can't say the same(Wlad rematch).
:deal...A torn rotator cuff is a very, very painful thing, and you can make it go from bad to worse very easily. Vitali has nothing to prove about his guts after the Lewis fight..he was smart to call it an eveing with Byrd, who would have lost if it went to the scorecards. Obviously Byrd never had a torn rotator cuff injury..and he takes credit for "making Vitali quit"...it wasn't you Byrd..it wasn't you.
It's a strange situation that I actually credit both fighters for. Injury stoppages can't really be held against a fighter so it doesn't damage him too much. But byrd deserves credit because like he says, the guy quit against him. I think had vitali been given a time machine he'd tell himself to carry on. His only real loss was to lewis.
I've had torn rotator cuffs on both shoulders and you don't need to quit a fight because you have 1, you can actually still throw certain punches but not others. Chavez had a torn rotator against Morales and could only use 1 arm, Golota had a torn rotator against Byrd too, so did a couple of other guys against Byrd. But none of them quit. Liston quit with the same injury Vitali quit, he's shown bravery since against Lewis, but in this fight he quit, he wasn't liking not being on top for the first time in his career and he quit. Maybe it's partly a bully complex like Liston - he needs to be on top, he needs to have things going all his way
If you read Liebling's Sweet Science there's an interesting bit in there talking about Charles and how it's "Not great for a fighter to think to much... Starts thinking about his retirement, and kids, and getting hurt, and thats when it's over" I think Vitali did the smart thing for himself by quitting. As a PhD i'm sure he was already concerned with whether it was worth it in the long run(considering his other injuries).
Yep, it's not like Vitali isn't gutsy anyways. He's beat up plenty of fighters (Arreola, Peter, Sanders) and is exciting to watch. I wouldn't consider myself a fan of the Klitschkos but I appreciate them even if Wlad is passive now. Despite being passive, he's still a beast and a master technician and technical fighters are mainly those I like(Ezzard Charles, Hopkins, Benitez, Whitaker, Duran, Hagler,etc.). They're both masters of boxing actually.