It's a good job fans opinions don't mean **** to fighters. It is up to the rest of the world to find a way to beat the Klitchko brothers, not **** and whine how boring they are.
People who think Vitali was boring usually are confusing him with Wlad. Vitali doesn't clinch and lean and throws more punches than most super heavyweights ever will. I've never seen him be boring. He's a hell of a fighter. I'm glad he's retiring before someone upsets him. He was seriously slowing down by the time he faced Charr. Stiverne had a real chance against him.
Funnily enough I'd rather watch those oafish American daytime TV reality shows than watch some lowlife who ( punches low, head butts, hits with the elbow, bites fighters ears off, tries to break fighters arms, hits referees ) and all the while contrives to portray himself the " victim " in these incidents. Funny thing, taste. Isn't it?
I would say at least 30 million sports fans in the USA, Canada and the UK know who Vitali is. And we are not counting half of Eastern Europe. How many boxing fans are there in the world today? Most know who the heavyweight champion of the world is or was if he was around as long as Vitali has been.
But most dont care ,that is why HBO has only shown two of Wlad's title defences in recent years.The ring's verdict on his last "wrestling bout "was "HIDEOUS . ONE OF THE WORST HEAVYWEIGHT BOUTS OF AN ERA THAT WASN'T EXACTLY LACKING IN THAT CATEGORY " The Klits are two Russian Robots that can make millions fighting humpty dumpties because Russian and German fans will watch any old ****.
So HBO doesn't show a non American's title fights. Shock, horror. They even gave Lewis **** if he, (a) fought outside of the US, or (b) fought a non American and he was " their boy "
I don't think all this pish about how big he was or what HBO thought matters all that much. 45-2 is a fantastic return. He beat some good fighters.
HBO is pretty much out of the heavyweight business, and are known cheerleaders for the fighters they signed. They used to love Wlad, and broadcast many of his fights. HBO knows there aren't any American and UK heavies that can be competitive with the Klitschko's They also know most of their audience does not follow boxing on the web to see where the talent is. For example Wlad vs Pulev is a good match, but most of HBO's audience have never seen Pulev, so why pay big bucks to broadcast the fight? Wlad doesn't need HBO or Max Kellerman's bias anymore. He makes a lot more money in Europe. This is prize fighting, the fighters go where the purses are. How many other fighters can fill up large out door arenas? Very few.
They didn't. Larry O'Connell did. Don Kings judge in as much as his connection to her " friend " Bobby Lee ( Mrs Williams ) gave it to Holyfield.
Vitali was a terrific champion. While Wlad was a harder hitter , Vitali was much, much tougher .. he was hitting his prime when injuries cut him down .. his comeback was actually pretty amazing .. he completely outclassed the best Sam Peters after Peters had his biggest and most impressive career win .. I think Vitali was better than any big man with the exception of Lewis ( a toss up ) and would be extremely hard to beat for almost all of the previous champs because of the physical match up challenges ..