Jeez, tough one. For me it's not only that Vitali could take a good punch, but also that he was a tall, awkward guy who was rarely there to get hit. Heck, more than once he turned his back and literally ran away from his opponent. I don't think he gets taken out with one shot (although anything is possible in this sport) so an opponent would have to catch him repeatedly with heavy shots, and that's quite clearly not an easy thing to accomplish since, to my knowledge, only Lennox had any sort of success in doing so. I think good picks would be Lewis and ironically, Wlad. Both have the reach, height, speed, skill to work openings and the power to possibly get the job done. Guys like Foreman and Tyson are 'maybe's' but not strong candidates for me. Maybe Louis too. There may be others but for me a Lewis and Wlad are most likely.
Interestingly enough, Corrie Sanders had him rocked a few times and might even have handed Vitali his first and only knocdown ( though it was officially ruled a slip. ) This was when Sanders was 38 years old and had sat Idle for a year.. Wonder if a younger and better trained Sanders could have stopped Vitali or knocked him out.
I pretty much agree with this. Other dark horses, might be Ike and Bowe and as someone else pointed out a younger version of Sanders, but the list is rather small.
Don't get 'em started reznick. Ask them to throw a 1920 post-Tsarist Vitali in against a 2000 prime Dempsey and their silence speaks volumes. I've noticed a lot of posts mentioning circa 1990's fighters. IMO that would be a more interesting ****ysis. of this thread. Of course I'm the "you CAN'T compare Eras" guy. I've said this before but maybe (like boxing when it started going down the tubes with multiple weight classes and champs) we need a new category here (between 'Classic' and 'General') Just a thought.