They have some common opponents. Bowe has some trouble vs Hide. Vitali Sparks Hide in 2 rounds Bowe looks bad and wins on points vs Donald. Vitali wins every round and stops Donald. Vitali wins here. Your don't know Bowe. He had trouble vs good jabbers in Tubbs and Golota, and avoided big punchers in Lewis and Morrison. If Herbie Hide bothered Bowe, what would Vitalii do to him?! Vitali would have his way landing rights and jabs on Bowe. You score card of Sanders vs Vilali is laughable. Outside of the first round, Vitali won the rest. Sanders clowned Vitlai in the first few rounds you say? Only by a clown's logic! As I said before you're not good enough to be a relevant player hater.
Bowe made an absolute fool out of Hide. He ran for his life and hit the canvas about 10 times. How does destroying prime undefeated Hide say anything about Vitali having success . If Hide is the benchmark for how Vitali does , then he gets destroyed in similar fashion. Sanders won the first 2 and maybe even the 3rd round . The fattest and most shot version ever of Sanders at that. He hit Vitali with a shot that sent him flying across the ring. It looked like he was running from a pack of hounds. He dropped him in the second and got robbed of the KD. Sanders should have been up 30-26 after the 3rd. Vitali only began to come on as Sanders blew his tank.
Dino, Dino, Dino...Sanders only won one round. None of the three judges gave Sanders any round after the 1st. Your comment that Sanders won a few rounds is false. Sanders was systematically beaten down by head and body shots and taken out. Sanders wasn't shot. He had plenty of speed, accuracy and power in this fight. At 6'4" 235 pounds is not too heavy for him either. He would have been better off at 230, but such is boxing. Vitali after taking a very hard shot to the side of the head early adapted and fought smart.
Yes, Fighting Weight has passed just before the WLad vs Haye match. He disliked the Klitschko's a ton, but wasn't a bad guy at all.
I think I heard from someone a while back that he had a heart attack or something. I've had a few discussions with him... And you're right about him having no love for the Klits.. I recall some pretty heated arguments between him and "WiDoWmAkEr" going back as far as 2007, and probably even before my time.
Vitali hit the canvas in round two? Did he or did he not? He got smacked and his glove touched the mat. I couldn't care less about any scorecards. I go off what my own eyes tell me. And what do you mean Sanders wasn't shot?:rofl:nut He was over the hill when he knocked out Wlad in under two rounds. In fact his prime was in the 90's . A decade earlier. Prime Corrie was taken out in two rounds by Tubbs. It took Vitali 8 rounds against the fattest , oldest and inactive Sanders. That proves what a bad era its been. The stiff as an ironing board Vitali would be no match for early 90's Bowe with one of the best tactical trainers ever in his corner.
I saw that fight live and have watched the replays several time since.. Frankly I'm still not sure if it really was a slip or if Sanders actually handed Vitali Klitscko the only knockdown of his career. Regardless of what happened, it was "ruled" a slip so that's the outcome that we have to work with.
Magoo, It was a pull down / slip. See the 4:21 mark. Sanders has his glove behind Vitali's head and yanks it forward while putting his lead foot in front of Vitali's. More Judo than boxing! [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL9lsLDtJFU[/url]
The version of Sanders that fought Vitali was, let's be fair, not the best version of himself by a long stretch. As a Sanders fan I was pretty disappointed to see the condition that he turned up in. That said, he did show great grit in going 8 rounds with a top-flight opponent in his prime. But to infer that Vitali was worse than Bowe because Sanders gave him a few hard rounds is, I feel, misguided. Sanders presented several stylistic challenges that not a lot of other heavyweights can present. I would also like to add: if Sanders managed to land heavy leather on Vitali, who is particularly hard to land clean on, what would he not have done to Bowe, who seems to me a lot more hittable than the Ukrainian? If Pierre Coetzer, with his average power, gave Bowe some hard rounds, I posit it that Sanders would have sparked Bowe clean out. Bowe does have the heart of a lion, however, as shown by the fact that he kept going in the Golota fights where he was getting clocked by some *big* punches. And he's also heavy enough to ensure that Vitali would not be able to tire him out in clinches. So let's not write him off. But I do think that Vitali's defence, chin, and ring generalship should pull him through on this one.
While Sanders was far from being a dirty fighter, he did sometimes 'help' a floundering opponent find the canvas with a tug, especially if the opponent was trying to hang onto him. That said, I think Vitali was very close to a legitimate KD at that point. Pity
The film shows it was a pull down / tangled up feet affair. Southpaws are known for tangling up the lead foot of an orthodox fighters. They are used to it, orthodox fighters are not. Vitali had his legs could quickly move around the ring when needed. Hurt fighters do not have their legs under then. To say Vitali was very close to a knock down is a stretch.