Tonight, for the first time in 7 years, I had a sense that Vitali was a true great. Where to begin, he was quicker and more accurate than adamek, he didn't win purely on size alone. He dominated a smaller prime opponent. Honestly, I watch that fight and ask, could marciano have done anything different against Vitali? My answer is no. Vitali at age 40 overcame another style and proved he is in the same league as his brother. If Vitali finishes his career with stoppages over Haye and Pov I'd confidently call him the better brother. Since his comeback Vitali has feasted on inferior oppsotion to his brother but tonight he dominated a prime, in shape, top 5 opponent. All this at age 40. I'm amazed. Add to that the way he stepped back every time he hurt adamek as if he wanted to prolong the damage, the guy is a nasty mother ****er and any other description is false IMO. If Vitali can beat haye and pov or any other top 5 HW's, I'm confident in joining the dots between his retirement and comeback. I know some of Vitali's biggest fans aren't too impressed with this victory because they saw it as a mismatch, but I was amazed at the level of performance demonstrated. For a while now I've been convinced he's a level below Wlad but tonight i'm beggining to think differently. a 40 year old should be that fit and dominant. If he beats Haye more convincingly than wlad managed it will say an awful lot about where the two are at. As of right now, I have no qualms calling Vitali a top 20 HW.
What style did he overcome? Adamek is a whole grade lower than Michael Moorer whom Foreman KOed. It says how abysmal the division truly is that he's actually the 3rd best fighter in the division. He was going Spinks Vitali. Adamek is overly bulked, lacks speed, has horrendous balance, decent skills, and durability at HW that's probably average (Perhaps worse than Haye's). I'm not saying Vitali isn't a force against plenty of great HW champions. H2H you can subjectively place him in your top 10 or 20 list on your own liking. But a top 20 HW purely based on record? Hardly...
As far as Wlad / Vitali: Wlad is greater in that he has a better resume, and overall better boxing skills. Head to head, Vitali is better and would always prevail over his younger brother. Alltime, Vitali is towards the bottom end of the top 20. But H2H, I would rank him comfortably inside the top 10. This was his best performance in a while, but as he himself stated, post fight, Tomas was just too small to be a serious threat.
he overcame a guy who was supposed to be more mobile and much quicker. that elimiantes the small guys who might have had a chance on the outside such as fitz, corbett, tunney etc. since byrd he's not fought a guy who can meet the criteria befitting of the names I just mentioned. But tonight at age 40, he overcame a prime candidate. Not to forget he had his run in the early 00's against donald, lewis, johnson, sanders and williams to establosh himself as premier HW. Now many years later he also racks up victories against peter, gomez, arreola and adamek.
This. Who gives a **** really?, I mean no disrespect to Vitali, he performed great and did what he was supposed to do tonight, but Adamek had no business at Heavyweight in the first place. It's obvious to anyone with half a brain he was going to get dominated.
I was amazed at how he seemed to play with Adamek, and I also feel he could have ended it early, at least on two occasions, had he wanted to. Not sure why he didn't get all over a stunned Adamek, though, but, he proved, once again, that even at 40, he still can't hardly even lose a round. Those were some hard shots that put Adamek in the ropes. THose were both KDs, had it not been for the ropes.
I actually expected Vitali to end it a round or so earlier. More due to Adamek's extremely mediocre showings at Heavyweight than Vitali's mythical H2H greatness.
if you saw a 9th round stoppage you rate vitali more than I do. pre fight I viewed Vitali as a slowing, aging, feather fisted robot with no fluidity, jab nor handspeed. he proved me wrong and obviously you, since you overestimated him.
Cmon guys he dominated a natural LHW 30 pounds lighter then him. Of course Vitali is an ATG Fighter but to jumps on his dick cuz he stopped Adamek at this point isnt correct. Still much respect to Adamek, he is a warrior!