Face the facts, Vitali is the #1 H2H fighter in heavyweight history

Only on Planet Klitschko...

 

Byrd and Lewis are better. They stopped him.

 

You forgot the most impressive fact;

-Only HW in history to play Batman during Pre-fight press conference.`

 

The only heavyweight in history to get KTFO by a card carrying member of the PGA

 

Greatest overall H2H in history. Lewis was a good matchup for him, but that is a 50/50 fight that I personally think Vitali would win more than he lost. But he would be less vulnerable to other fighters than Lewis was. Ultimately, no one combines superb size, power, reflexes, and instincts better than he.

 

Ridiculous. He doesn't have the scalps on his resume nearly good enough to call him the greatest of all time. Not even close.

 

"Scalps" are overrated. He had a critical mass of high level opponents. He faced about 10 top 10 heavyweights and another 10 top 25ish hw's (that included a top 5 ATG in Lewis, and three fighters, Sanders, Byrd, and Peter, who among the very best of their era). Of those fights, he probably had about 150 rounds and lost at most 10 rounds of them. That is unprecedented at that level. No other heavyweight who has had more than 50 rounds against top 20 opposition has anywhere close to a rate of success like that.

 

atschatschatsch


Wrong Klitschko...!!!

 

Scalps are NOT overrated when you are calling someone the greatest of all time. Not just great, greatest of all time. For a guy who mostly fought in a weak era beating class B fighters that distinction will never be deserved, period. Sanders, Byrd and Peter were class B fighters.

He was unable to beat the one class A fighter he fought when the class A fighter was badly out of shape, instead he got his face busted open like a cantaloupe. I know people like to think he won that fight because he had two good rounds against a guy that took the fight on two weeks notice, but he did not win that fight by any stretch of the imagination sorry.

 

He didn't win, but he showed his ability in losing on an injury that is fairly hard to duplicate. And (clearly, based on the years of debate) gave plenty of reason for people to believe he would have won a rematch. Sanders, Peter, and Byrd were all A level (totally arbitrary assigning fighter grades like that, but they were all belt holders, so I'd say ATG off the curve and the 3rd or 4th best of era guys like them should be considered A). And it only appeared a weak era because Vitali did such a good job of beating them. Vitali Peter was strickingly similar situationally to Ali Frazier I. If Vitali lost as Ali did, and then beat him later one that would oddly make his resume better?

No, you just have to look at top opponents faced and the success the ATG had with them. Holyfield routinely struggled with fringe top 20 guys. So did, to varying extents, most other ATG's, and all of them more so than did Vitali.

 

Holyfield didn't struggle with guys like that until he was pretty well past his prime. And Vitali technically didn't even beat Chris Byrd, but you argue for him being a great fighter for holding a belt that he won on a Vitali shoulder injury. Peter was a paper champion who won the WBC from a seven loss unknown, and Sanders got a fluke knockout over Wlad.

Greatest of all time is simply to tall of a distinction for a guy who never beat a great fighter in his prime. Its really just that simple.

Honestly with the difference of eras, I'm not sure its even fair or right to call ANYONE the greatest of all time. But If I was too it wouldn't be Vitali, he never beat a great fighter. Good fighters yes, but not great.

 

You just prove your lack of Boxing knowledge. Log off.

 

No, but he's a live underdog in any fantasy matchup.

Wlad...not so much...

 

number one HGH fighter? perhaps