Vitali is the most underrated boxer in history

Agreed, the guy was a wrecking ball and only got real notice after he passed.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knockout#Technical_knockout

 

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The KING. All hail the KING!

 

Absolutely.

And you can add Lewis to that list, as well.

He was not really seen as the all time great while he was fighting.

But like a fine wine, age sometimes causes fans to really appreciate a fighter's career, once its over and they have time to put it in perspective.

Vitali will be seen one of the all time great dominating champions, once he's gone.

As has been said, he has a few aspects of his career and stats that are unprecedented.

 

Didn't Vitali get stopped because his mouth was bleeding?

 

His eye.

To hear some tell it, his eye was dangling by the cord. Others say he *had half his face shredded off* and other such drama queen lines.

But in all seriousness, the facial cuts were bad enough to stop the fight, most certianly. Oozing blood and really in a dangerous place.

But the point is, that VItali lost due to cuts, not due to being outboxed or dominated.

There is a difference in losing due to being cut by a punch or three that happens to catch your skin at a good angle between the opponents glove and your eye sockets, thereby causing a legit cut...............and losing by being legitimately outboxed or dominated. BIG difference.

But it can also be said that Lewis WAS coming on and outboxing Vitali in the last couple rounds, which was illustrated BY the fact that he was getting to his face effectively enough to cause the cuts.

I can see both sides. Lewis won, plain and simple, and he deserved the win.

But fact is it was a win that didn't really satisfy the desire to see a rematch, given how the first fight ended.

 

Well said, I always said Vitali 10-12 years ago was like 2nd tier and a half and Wladimir 4th. Lennox Lewis was real not these two fouls.

 

Agreed with op.

 

True, Sanders has become pretty overrated. He was similar to Zab Judah in the sense that he was a southpaw with power and fast hands, and dangerous in the early going.

His skill level wasn't exactly top notch, neither was his stamina or dedication to the sport.

 

Kluts are very lucky to have existed in this weakest of all HW era.

They are lucky they never faced Ike.

They are lucky they never faced Tua.

Vitali is not as lucky as Vlad. He was unlucky enough to actually face a real ATG, Lennox Lewis, and we see how they should really be rated from that fight.

 

Both Klitschkos are extremely overrated since they have annually been placed among the top 10 p4p for the past few years in several p4p lists. To claim that they are underrated is fallacious and a terrible farce. Simply copy pasting statistics such as the Klitschkos W-L record or KO ratios and numerically comparing them to other great heavyweights simply demonstrates an inability to use logical thinking and an inability to put these misleading statistics into context. After the Holyfield Bowe Tyson Lewis era was finished, the post early 2000s heavyweight division became the weakest division in the history of any weight class of any era since perhaps the beginning of boxing as a sport.

All of the wins in both Klitschkos resumes come against fighters years and years beyond their prime, with padded records, with no name fighters who should not be in a boxing ring to begin with, or some combination of these flaws.

The biggest and most impressive win on both Klitschko's resume is Samuel Peter - who still managed to knock down the bum Wladimir 3 times in one fight. Samuel Peter as your best win does not make you an all time great or a top 10 p4p fighter for several years. In a weak era where Samuel Peter was the best fighter you beat (and one that Wladimir struggled with), it doesn't matter how many title defenses, knockouts, wins, etc. you have. You are not among the elite.

Lennox Lewis - even at 38 years old, fat, in the worst shape of his career, was barely losing on the scorecard 58-56 to Vitali - which could easily have been scored a draw at that point (yet so many idiotic fans try to use this slim edge as validation that Klitschko "won" the fight) and still managed to take complete control of the fight heading into the 6th round and smashed Vitali's face so badly that a medical professional could not allow Vitali to get further annihilated and, in hindsight, Lennox exposed Vitali as a fraudulent champion fighting in a weak era like Rocky Marciano.

Vitali was not dominating the fight. He had a decent start and as the fight went on he was eating uppercuts left and right and continued to clinch excessively. Lennox Lewis (remember - a 38 year old, fat, out of shape Lennox Lewis) still gave him fits and forced a doctor to stop the fight because Vitali was taking such a beating. Ironically people consider this humiliating face bashing to be Vitali's shining moment - that shows how overrated of a boxer you are when getting your faced smashed while having the slimmest of leads on the scorecard is your crowning achievement.

What I have written is UNDISPUTED truth and FACTUAL. This is not opinion or conjecture. I challenge any human being on earth to try and dispute the infallible assertion that, in general, the Klitshkos are extremely overrated by the media and public.

The following arguments do not disprove what has been written above and if one uses these fallacious arguments it will only prove one's own incompetence - much like Wladimir proved his incompetence as a boxer in getting demolished by Brewster (and falsely making up a poison excuse, no less.) Sanders and Puritty, and how Vitali demonstrated his incompetence as a boxer in having a relatively terrible performance against a trash version of Lennox Lewis.

1) Vitali is 45-2 with losses coming by injury stoppages and a 87% KO ratio. Wladimir is 59-3 with 51 KOs. Few boxers can match these numbers.
And who was the best opponent these boxers beat? Samuel Peter. Padded records mean nothing. Brian Nielsen was 49-0 at one point. Eric Esch was 61-1-3 at one point. Copy pasting statistics does not prove anything when you fail to put them in context. I highly doubt anyone is foolish enough to put Eric Esch above Evander Holyfield despite the fact that Esch has a higher winning percentage. If Holyfield fought both Klitschko's level of competition he would walk through them without a scratch.

2) Lennox Lewis was afraid of Vitali and ducked a rematch.
First of all - Lennox Lewis made Riddick Bowe duck HIM, he fought Holyfield twice, was willing to fight Tyson for several years and finally did, fought Mccall and Rahman even after being KOd, and Tommy Morrison, but some people are foolish enough to think he is scared of fighting KLITSCHKO of all people???
Secondly as mentioned several times - Lennox was 38, fat, in the worst shape ever, past his prime, and still made Vitali's face look like the deer my friend killed and put through the grinder a few weeks ago.
Thirdly - Why should a man in the physical twilight of his career (Lennox) risk his health for one more fight when he didn't take the fight seriously in the first place (still winning by TKO) and already proved his place among the all time greats? Vitali should be on his knees kissing Lennox's feet for even giving a bum like Klitschko the opportunity to fight an all time great like Lennox. Lennox isn't in the position of Joe Louis who had to come back and fight because of IRS problems, so he has no reason to risk his health after already risking it for over a decade against fighters lightyears beyond Klitschko.

3) the Klitschkos are foreign so they do not get respect.
really? Marquez, Pacquiao, Chavez sr, Duran, Monzon, Sergio Martinez, Genady Golovkin, Adonis Stevenson, Maidana, Rigondeux, Donaire do not get respect?
anyone who said this - shut up. No need to pull the race/nationality card

4) The Klitschkos have X amount of title defenses
Again, copy pasting statistics does not prove anything. Look at the men that the REAL heavyweights had to fight compared to the bum Klitschkos.
Bowe, Lennox, Moorer, Tua, Tyson, Evander, Morrison, Spinks, Foreman, Patterson, Frazier, Norton, Liston, etc.

Now lets compare the Klitschkos wins - Peter, old washed up Mercer, old washed up Rahman, Chris Byrd, Orlin Norris (who lost to a washed up Tyson), Purrity, Sanders, 38 year old fat Lennox, Chisora, Haye, Povetkin, Eddie Chambers. the hilarious thing is that they actually lost to some of these fighters on the list.

HUGE difference in competition.

Anyone who legitimately believes the farce that either Klitschko is an all time great heavyweight (let alone an ATG p4p fighter) is simply one of the many sheep that blindly follow the herd without thinking for themselves. I have blessed such blind sheep with my wisdom and knowledge and opened their eyes to the truth. It is time for these blind sheep to acknowledge the truth, otherwise I fear that these sheep blindly stumbling through the dark for so long will deny the truth even more vehemently now that these blind sheep have been exposed to the light of truth.

You do have to give the Klitschkos credit for dominating the division, even though it is incredibly weak. That in itself deserves SOME merit. You should not, however, put them among the all time greats after Vitali has been exposed by Lennox Lewis and Wladimir got showed up by Purrity Brewster and Sanders, and struggled against Sam Peter.

Again - I challenge any human being to try and refute my indisputable factual statements at the risk of making themselves look as incompetent as the Klitschkos in their attempts to be ranked among all time great heavyweights. If any human being can refute the irrefutable facts listed, I will respond and recognize their superior wisdom and knowledge. Unfortunately for Klitschko fans, the only people who possess wisdom and knowledge superior to myself would never try and refute these facts in the first place. For that reason, the chances of receiving a response from myself are negligible.

 

Dude you have to much time on your hands. Your hate for white fighters is just as bad as farmboxer's hate of black fighters.

 

Ridiculous hyperbole. He's the highest rated HW I can think of without any good wins. Mike Tyson kinda fits into the same pattern although his win over old Holmes was better than anything in Vitali's career.

 

http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?t=502573 Mike Tyson never really lost a fight and retired undefeated.