It's a great win. Only klittards would say otherwise but in doing so they are doing vitali a disservice. Vitali was a great fighter h2h and in another era with better opponents he may well have put himself in the running for being an ATG heavy. H2H no one can deny he was a monster and Lewis stopped him while he was past his best and vitali was prime. Great win.
both came at a time when the competition was mediocre at best. i don't rate either very highly especially when u consider lewis getting ktfo'd twice by C class fighters and klitschko quitting against a natural middleweight in byrd.
So you're saying Vits was only a mediocre fighter and so was Ruddock even though both were thenumber one contenders and Ruddock the favorite? atsch
I voted good win. Lewis was down in the first four and getting knocked about pretty good, but then started to turn it around in the 5th and 6th and landing bombs on Vitali. If he would have flat KO'd him I would have voted great win, but I think good win is sufficient enough for this fight.
Wlad was perfectly happy whiling away his years as WBO Champion. In those days a WBO Champion had to drop the belt to challenge for the WBA, IBF or WBC belt and he showed no interest in doing so to challenge Lewis. The first time Wlad announced his interest in a fight was in 2002 after Lewis beat Tyson by saying he'd be ready to fight Lewis in 18 months. That got derailed by him falling victim to a thorough thrashing at the hands of a semi-retired South African.
"Lewis didn't do enough to get the fight made". In hindsight Lewis not going after Wladimir has badly knocked back his own legacy. Especially now even more, now that Wladimir has likely surpassed 'The Lion's' accomplishments in the ring.
Saying he has done more and surpassed Lewis is a skewered opinion. Its like saying Marciano should surpass Ali or Louis because he retied undefeated. You need to look at the quality of opponents before and after said fights. Wlad may crack the top 10, but he wont surpass Lewis in greatness unless his comp shows they great contenders both before and after fighting Wlad.
Vitali Klitschko's best wins are: the 38 years old fat out of shape Sanders and the 38 years old Briggs. But Vitali Klitschko couldn't knock Briggs(Maybe Briggs is an asthma problematic man) out. The 37 years(nearly 38 old,fat out of shape Lennox beat him. Vitlai went only 6 rounds with Lennox.Lewis destroyed his face.He deserved the win.(Funny but the skinny(without significant muscle mass) Mavrovic went the distance with a better,younger Lewis. Rahman and McCall could destroy the glass-chinned younger,better prime Lewis. The fat Mercer(the 42 years old Holmes beat Mercer easier than the prime Lewis) vs. Lewis was a close fight. But Vitali klitschko couldn't go the distance with a bad version Lewis. This proves his low quality. Byrd beat Vitali(The coward quit). This says all.
The depth of their resumes are so far apart it's laughable. If Lewis's resume is rated 9/10, Vitali's would be 4/10. That's how far apart it is. Lewis is a top 3-5 HW of all time, Vitali isn't a top 10 in terms of resume, or even close to it. Waldo's resume is better than Vitali's even though Vittles is a better fighter than Waldo. I like Vitali but to say that his resume is even close to Lewis is a joke. Is it solely because of Lewis TKO6 Vitali? Discuss.