Vitali Klitschko vs. D. Jones, J Young and M Spinks

"I think that score would be very much a minority opinion."

It is.

But I have to call it the way I see it.

"Would you mind indicating which rounds you scored for Byrd."

Sure. I just watched the whole fight again, each round twice.

one--Klitschko--nothing much happened and no effective punches were landed, but I gave it to Vitali for aggression.

two--Klitschko--this was another close round for me. Vitali continued to miss and miss, but Byrd did very little.

three--Byrd--This close one I gave to Byrd. Compubox was quoted as scoring 6 power punches for each, but Vitali missed a great deal.

four--Klitschko--easily his best round so far and the first he won clearly.

five--Byrd--I had Byrd winning this one cleanly. Lederman gave it to him, and compubox has 13 of 62 for Vitali and 19 of 38 for Byrd.

six--Klitschko--one of his better rounds, as he shortened his punches and just tried to score with what appeared to be arm punches.

seven--Byrd--This is the round shortened by loose tape. No one did much but Byrd did more. Lederman also scored this one for Byrd, but it was close.

eight--Klitschko--I gave this one to Klitschko, but frankly, this, like the seventh was a very close round and could have been given to Byrd.

nine--Byrd--apparently all the judges and Lederman gave this to Klitschko, but why eludes me. Compubox had Vitali landing 17 of 66, and Byrd landing 24 of 38, and that jives with what I saw.

Bottom line--Vitali was punching air most of the time. Byrd either ducked or slipped or blocked punch after punch. Byrd himself didn't look very good offensively. He was passive, and his punches didn't seem to have much steam. But I didn't see Vitali landing anything impressive either. Both men finished unmarked.

I had Vitali up 5-4, but if I gave Byrd the benefit of the doubt in all the close rounds he could actually have been up 5-4 or even at 4-4-1. To me it was a close, if boring, fight notable mainly for Byrd's defense making Vitali look inept.

 

So, Vitali doesn't beat them all but Povetkin does?

 

yes you did make a joke of a reply.

what you write is however not my prerogative. the prerogative of each is to give their opinion asked for in the thread title.

 

That's the thing though, Young and Spinks fought old and shopworn versions of Ali and Holmes, if the point of the thread is to make a comparison between them and Vitali, wouldnt the fair thing be to use the Vitali of the Chisora fight? Doug Jones faced a pre-prime Ali (and lost), I think the two and a half year pro Vitali beats him too. I agree that a prime Vitali beats them clearly, but that would be a rather pointless comparison, wouldnt it?

 

Fair enough.

The consensus is what you state.

But I didn't see it that way at all and I'm just giving my opinion. Vitali did throw a lot more punches, but missed so often that he and Byrd ended up landing about the same number of punches.

Vitali was 28 years old, with a significant amateur career and 27 pro fights behind him. He was, after all, more than half way through his career measured by fights.

And he looked unimpressive to me, unable to cope well with a slippery opponent even though that opponent was much smaller and had no real punch to bother him.

*It is a curious argument to me that I am supposed to consider the world champion in a championship defense inexperienced.

**Lederman gave the 9th to Vitali, which I have to strongly disagree with, and many of the other rounds were simply close.

***I of course was not at ringside and only watching the tape, but I do have the advantage of watching the tape several times and being able to judge the punches that are landing and the punches that are not.

 

Yes, and in my opinion the fair thing would be to use this version of Vitali against Young and Spinks, since Ali and Holmes were likewise past their primes when they fought them. Do you disagree? I would hold a past prime Vitali as a favorite over all of them, but Young might give him the same kind of problems that Byrd did, an other injury is unlikely however, and I think Vitali would win a decision.

6-4 is an acceptable score, a draw or a Jones win is not. Ali was preprime and not fully grown when they fought, I expect a prime Ali to outclass him. The same goes for Vitali. Ali dominated Patterson from start to finish, I don't know how you come to the conclusion that he had problems with him? The same goes for slick boxer Jimmy Ellis, Ali shut him out. I will say that Ali generally looked his best against sluggers though, boxer types usually gave him more problems, He still beat all comers.

Holmes was a very good fighter and was technically better than Ali and much more so than Vitali. Ali was faster and more athletic though, and Vitali is of course much bigger and stronger.

Well, Vitali is much bigger, so a "smaller fighter", like Young, Jones or Spinks would be grossly outsized. Is he really more active? That is impressive for such a big man. Byrd did beat, but that was a very unlikely injury and I do think it would be a huge task for a smaller fighter without knockout power to beat him. The same goes for Ali and Holmes though, I don't think a small fighter without knockout power could beat them in their primes though.

It is very impressive. He didnt face the best opposition though.

 

Witherspoon would smash the sh!t out of Vitali, in my opinion.

 

V.K. goes 3-0, he may stop them all or they might all go the distance. Young was stopped early in his career by Shavers but drew with him in a rematch. Many felt he was robbed vs. Ali. He lost by SD to Norton. He beat Lyle twice. He beat Foreman.