Lets get down to brass tacks. Vitally Klitschko's best wins are Corrie Sanders and Sam Peter. His next best win is Admek, and after that it starts to thin out. Does this reflect how good he was? Personally I don't think that it does. Having said that, we should be uber cautious, when it comes to picking him over all time greats.
The gap between his losses and the level of competition that they defeated, and his wins and the level of competition that they defeated is rather large. That is, he doesn't even have a win as good as Byrd would have been in terms of an accomplished, professional heavyweight and he has nothing even vaguely approaching Lewis. Against Lewis he was stopped in circumstances that are unfortunate. But like Liston he quit with a shoulder injury in strange circumstances. I'd go so far as to say...no fighter's reputation at heavyweight is so outstripped by his achievement. None.
Maxim's wins over Walcott& Bivins **** over anything Vitali did. Loughran's resume with wins over .Ettore Godoy Sharkey Risko Levinsky Griffiths Renault Charles London Uzcudun Schaaf Baer Hamas Campolo Is so far superior to Vitali's it's laughable.
Chisora was not ranked when he fought Vitali. Williams was not ranked If you don't have access to monthly ratings, how do you know Solis was ranked?:huh Vitali made 11 defences of the WBC title. Six of them were against men unranked in the Ring How about Gomez? his best win was over a past it McCall How about Johnson ? Best win over a 40 years old Seldon Vitali made two defences of the WBO title ,nether of them were ranked in the Ring. You keep banging on about Vitali's stats. Ever hear of Lamar Clark? Never mind the quality ,feel the width.
Mendoza All right, thank you. "Wlad has 66 fights. Wlad won 95.4% of the time." Fair enough points. He has had more fights and more tough fights than all those undefeated guys. But that is my point. "seldom lose to journeymen and have a winning percentage versus top ten fighters." Okay. "Machen lost too many to be considered elite." How elite? I rate Wlad in my top ten even though his career is not completed. Machen? I never really sat down and listed a top hundred, but Machen would probably fit in somewhere between 50 and 75, possibly a bit lower. Who considers Machen to have a better record than Wlad on almost any level?
"Ramos was #4?" Ramos was #4 in the 1967 Ring rankings. I didn't make it clear that the rating was the highest they reached. I am not talking about how they were rated when they fought Machen, which I don't have exact ratings for, but most of these guys were probably highly rated at the very time they met Eddie. Ramos wasn't, I think, but he then went on a winning streak which got him a high rating and a shot at Frazier and included a victory over Terrell.
on that top ten my question was who were the top ten heavyweights during Vitali's career---1996 to 2012 my list was--Lewis, Byrd, Holyfield, Tyson, Ike, Tua, Ruiz, Rahman, Povetkin, Chagaev I also admitted that many other posters are better informed about this era and so asked for corrections. I left Wlad off as he is Vitali's brother. Your point about Ike is well taken. It was hard for these guys to have a fight, so --my new list Lewis, Byrd, Holyfield, Tyson, Tua, Brewster, Ruiz, Rahman, Povetkin, Chagaev I am still interested in your list.
No he didn't. He retired. If he had solely backed out of a rematch against Vitali he would have side stepped him and fought someone else. There is a huge difference. All you have proved with your nonsensical opinion is that you are a Vitali Klitchko nut hugger. Nothing more.
Perhaps, but ... I'd rate Griffith above Carter as a middleweight. I'd rank Machen BELOW Johansson at heavyweight. :good
Lewis was beaten twice , he re-matched both men and stopped them. A complacent, aging, past his prime, Lewis at a career heaviest still pulled out the win against Vitali . With no more worlds to conquer and not wanting to put himself through the rigours and discipline of another training camp , he retired. Mendoza has stated several times that Lewis was more damaged around the face than Vitali ,that Lewis's weight is misleading because he weighed in in street clothes,that Lewis caused the damage to Vitali's face by fouls. Photographic evidence totally refutes these claims,it also gives us the reason for Mendoza's rabid support of Vitali [and Wlad] ie their skin colour. Talk of Lewis running scared is a ludicrous but predictable stance from Mendoza. I wonder McGrain has kept his cool with him in this thread , after painstakingly explaining his position several times he is still stuck at " Ground Hog Day" with "The Doza".atsch
Little trouble there. If you're accusing Lewis of backing out of a Vitali rematch , please explain why you have no problem with Wlad backing out of rematches with Williamson and Sanders?.
The old saying about putting pigs in suits, but never stopping them from grunting springs to mind as far as he is concerned. I don't have a problem with him rabidly supporting the K2 brothers, but it is taking idiocy to a new level with some of his claims regarding Lewis. I suppose at least we should be grateful that he hasn't reached the level of stupidity yet of one moron I read somewhere who convinced himself Lennox cut Klitchko with his " dreadlocks "