Is Vitali Klitschko in the Top 10 H2H ?

U said he had a good chin and that he was heavy and tall

 

That overhand right that caught Lennox seemed to get to Mr. Lewis pretty quickly.

 

The guy is 40 years old.

 

If you ignore quality of opposition, concentrate purely on h2h and ignore his losses. Sure, why not.

 

Yes.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=212580

 

Vitali is ancient, and Tomasz Adamek is no spring chicken himself.
If Adamek had shown enough at heavyweight to rate among the world's top 4 that says nothing except that the division is lacking.

They all say they are feeling great in training.

I agree, he's always had flaws.
But he is old, and he clearly won that fight, and the only relevation to me was that Chisora could box as well as that.

 

He wouldn't make my top 10 heavyweights of all-time.
He wouldn't make my top 20.

I don't think in terms of exclusively "h2h" ratings. You can only base "h2h" on who they beat and how they looked beating them ie. on actual accomplishments, or proven ability.

 

And Ali had tons.

I don't think you have to ignore his losses, you just have to take them for what they are - unlucky injuries based stoppages when he was winning.



It's true that H2H rankings are based on the "gut feeling" a lot, but I still think a good analyst can make them with some validity. IMO it's very rational to put Vitali in the top 10.

 

Yeah, he was simply unlucky that Lennox Lewis's punches were turning his face in to minced meat.
What a fluke, it never happened before or since to him ... just his bad luck that it chose to occur when he was fighting highly-regarded champion Lennox Lewis of all people !

 

I don't consider it a fluke but the punch that opened the Cut was a wild overhand right, likely landed with a side of a glove. Vitali took more of the best Lewis had to offer, like the Uppercut and walked through it all. The cut itself was a lot due to bad luck I'd say, yeah. Had it not been the case, I think Vitali would win. People in the arena were whispering to each other that Lewis is done, on his absolutely last legs after the 6th.

AND he didn't give him a promised rematch which undoubtedly says something. Vitali was a match for Lewis, it's irrefutable, and that itself puts him high in H2H rankings.

 

Either that or he had one arm from the 4th round on and was injured for **** sakes. atsch In spite of that he won 9 or 10 rounds at 40 years of age.

The amazing thing is that your disdain for Vitali is so vast that you're actually capable of spewing forth bias horse **** like while seeming to actually believe it yourself.

If any other fighter won 9-3 (how i scored it) in a competitive, exciting, but clear cut victory it would be regarded as a great win but when a 40 year old Vitali does it with one arm for 8+ rounds it shows "flaws that have always been there that Chisora exposed" ****ing Brits.

 

I think he knocks all of them out early.

 

People will no doubt strongly disagree, but I'd have him closer to the top 10 than his brother.

Does he make it? Not sure. The top 10 is not exactly easy to crack. After all, we're talking of the ten best ever. Lofty heights indeed.

What I like about him though, is that he's a genuine fighter. He has the right mentality and is, imo, more proven than Wlad as he at least fought 'the man' and gave a very good account of himself.
Good enough that the hypothetical outcome has been hotly debated ever since.

 

Peter
Gomez
Arreola
Johnson
Sosnowski
Briggs
Solis
Adamek
Chisora

Say all you want about 'poor opposition' but the fact that Vitali between ages 38-40 has fought all of these fighters and not lost more than 5 rounds maximum speaks to how formitable he is, 3 of them when he only had 1 arm.

 

Well Ali put the clamps on Frazier with excessive clinching. Without doing that, could he have defeated Frazier? Ali also lost on the outside to Norton, which is something Vitali never has had problems with. The only fighter able to get on the inside and do damage to Vitali was Lewis, who himself was a super heavyweight, 6'5" with an 84" reach. Lewis himself said Vitali was very hard to hit. Getting past Vitali's jab and right hand is no easy task. Vitali moves his feet and head, and can block. An active swarming type like Arreola could not reach him. If truth is told, Vitali was seldom caught flush. Ali was caught by many punches, and not all of them happened when he was past his prime.


There have only been 4 very good super heavyweights ( Lewis, Wlad, Bowe, and Vitali ) and I would say Vitali is better than 2 of them. If we are talking head to head here, there are going be quite a few smaller guys on your own list, which just won't match up.