T.K.O. in 6

Vitali dominated the division for over a decade. Never down, never behinds on card in the fights. The first ring magazine HW champ form eastern europe. Even dinovelvet who hates Klitschkos with passion still watches all of his fights. This is a sign of true ATG.

 

If you can't find room in your top 20 for Vitali your either biased or haven't looked hard enough at those on the list. He's clearly better than some of the names on that list

 

Go back to the general section. Everyone here knows Vitali did far better than Tyson did vs Lewis.

 

I know I am oversimplifying all of these fighters accomplishments and know that they are genuinely perceived as ATGs, but Vitali has only lost twice and has defended his title more than anyone that I have commented on (sans Langford's "Colored Title"). He has beat fighters that would beat any of these guys and/or fighters they lost to.

 

Better based on what? H2h I agree he is one of the best, but as I've stated, that is not provable. Resume wise he doesn't cut the mustard and he has no career defining wins, nor a win over a single HOF fighter or ATG. Ranking him as a great is based purely on supposition rather than who he actually beat.

 

Most of the members of the classic forum know Vitali is going to end up in the hall of fame. While there are some guys who don't belong the Hall of fame, the ones I have the biggest issues are the ones who only were top rated fighters for a brief moment in time, or have too many losses on their resumes, sometimes vs average contenders or journeyman of the times.


Greatness can be defined in many ways, We should mostly agree here. I say the best way to compare greatness is to match it vs the field and see where it rates.


Vitali has the best ratio of rounds won to rounds lost vs the entire field of heavyweight champions in history. Better than master boxers such as Ali, Lewis, or Holmes.


His KO% is among the best of all time. Better than great punchers like Foreman, Liston, Dempsey, or Louis.


In 47 pro fights at heavyweight Vitali was never floored by a punch. The only other man never floored among heavyweight champions is Oliver McCall.


Away from the game for 4+ years, Vitali came back in his late 30's, and won his title back without any warm up fights. This has never been done. And Vitali's sustained excellence extended past his 40th birthday. Heavyweight champions past the age of 40 are very rare. The only one I can think if is Foreman, and in truth it took him three tires ( lost to Holyfield and Morrison ) before he caught a ****y glassed jaw Mike Moorer late in a match.


Those are comparable statistics vs the field of greats. So Vitlai not only proves he belongs, he's on top in many areas. While he did not have 20 title defenses, remember, he was away from the game for years, and had to come back from injuries. Like Ali, Vitali missed out on some of his prime years. And he fought the least amount of fighters on the list below .500


Another way to compare greatness is a hypothetical head to head match up, which would really be unfair to the champions below 210 pounds....than many would rate as higher.

So yes he belongs.

 

he is HOF and a ATG

 

:deal

 

Not sure why the mods moved this thread.

 

If Tyson fought the faded slow version Vitali faced , Mike may of had more success. The ready and able version of Lennox from ther Tyson fight would of done away with Vitali even quicker.

 

You're definitely over simplifying my friend and have not taken into account their best wins and when many of there losses came or the circumstances they fought under. The bottom line is they beat the best fighters at the time., Vits hasn't done that.

Here is a list of Ring top 10 fighters he didn't fight for one reason or another since he has been rated in the top 10 himself. This does not include the years he retired nor his brother or not rematching Byrd.

Holyfield
Grant
Tyson
Ibeabuchi
Tua
Golota
Jefferson
Maskeav
Tahman
Ruiz
McCline
O'Quendo
Jones
Toney
Batter
Brewster
Chagaev
Povetkin
Dimetrenko
Chambers
Boystov
Thompson
Helenius
Pulev
Fury

Im sorry but that is a huge list to miss in favor of the fighters he has chosen. Now I wouldn't have expected him to fight all of them, but he could have fought say 10 and improved his resume greatly.

 

Agreed, this belongs in the classic section because of rating him against past fighters. If we find no other common ground we can agree on this. :good

 

Don King would not let Bryd with a belt near Vitali. I have not counted but I would say Vitlai beat at least 10 fighters who were in the ring magazine top ten.

He was going to fight Tyson, but Tyson lost to a no name.

Holyfield vs Vitali? He's hurt the old man.

Ike wasn't active. He's been out of boxing for many years,

 

Threads get moved out for no reason. The mods can tell us why,

If the mods in the classic sections want to attract more general forum posters, this is the way to do it.