The Case for Vitali Klitschko for Top 10 All time

Sad to see Russians and Ukrainians at each other's throats. They're cousins as far as ethnicity and the world stage goes. I hope that mess gets sorted out peacefully, and soon.

 

There is no chance with the current leaders. Maybe 10 years after Putin is out of power things can change.

There are territorial disputes, a large debt issue, and too much negative history and feelings.

Vitali and showed tremendous guts standing up to mob like politicians, putting his family in the crossfire.

 

I only used those examples to give idea about Vitali's speaking skills. Please, spare me your views about Russian politics. Some of my relatives have lived in Ukraine for decades and still live there. I don't care about boxers' nationality. Especially that the fight was in 2008, long before the overthrow of the government in Ukraine and the change of their politics.

 

Vitali

6'7" or 6'8" depending on the source. 79" or 80" reach depending on the source. He weighed 243 - 252 solid Lbs. in HW World Title fights.

He went 45-2 (41) overall and 15-2 (12) in HW World Title fights. He was never behind on points in a fight and he was never knocked down. He was stopped twice... LTKOby9 Byrd (shoulder injury) and LTKOby6 Lewis (cuts). He beat these world title holders-

Hide KO2
Norris KO1
Sanders KO8
Peter KO8
Gomez KO9
Briggs W12
Adamek KO10

He really should have pushed for a rematch with Byrd. He was clearly beating Byrd prior to the stoppage. Vitali's brother went 2-0 (1) vs. Byrd. Vitali avenged his brother's losses to Puritty KO11 and Sanders KO8. He also beat Peter KO8 who had given Vitali's brother a lot of problems in their first fight, including 3 knockdowns.

Lewis retired even though Vitali was pushing for a rematch. Vitali was up 4 round to 2 after 6 rounds but he was cut badly. He wanted to continue but the fight was stopped. This may have not been Lewis at his best but he was still very good. I think Vitali learned a lot and improved after this fight.

What else can be said? I think he is top 10 but much of it is based on what he could or would have done vs. some of the other top HWs from other eras.

 

Ultimately a fighters legacy is based on who they beat with what they had.

And with the list you named above, I find it difficult to place him anywhere near the top ten.

 

Good post. Vits' stats are tremendous, and the "eye test" tells me that he could easily be top ten H2H. Unfortunately he never really fought a string of ATG's to get a resume that could support the listing as such on resume alone. The one ATG he did meet, Lewis, he was doing very well against before he ... uh ... lost. Such is life, I guess.

 

This is essentially correct.

I am not sure why there is the push to remember Vitali as something that he wasn't. Perhaps a case can be made for him as a top 30 guy--and there is nothing wrong with that. Lots of guys don't live up to their potential. It is what it is.

 

I say his strongest case was that he came back after a 4 year layoff and dominated champ Sam Peter...

Other than that what can you say? Who did he ever beat?

Arreola ? (I was at that fight)

That and the Sam Peter fights are his biggest wins

One thing I will always hold against him was that he let Derrick Chisora bich slap him without retaliation...and when they fought Vitali fought timidly.

There's just no excuse for that when you are 7 feet tall of pure muscle

 

Vitali fans try to paint him a something he wasn't.

I don't care if he was 7ft.
I don't care how hard he punched.
I don't care he good his chin was.

The question is who did he beat?

 

The eyes test. Vitali could land two good ones, then quickly pull back, making them all miss. A very hard puzzle to solve as he used his height, reach, and mobility to his advantage.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0RCsynXm0w[/url]

 

When it comes down to it, his paper resume is pretty thin compared to other great heavyweights.

If he was not so visually impressive, I doubt that we would even be debating his all-time ranking.

Is his record a reflection of how good he was?

No, personally I don’t think that it is.

I think that he got some extremely unlucky breaks.

We ultimately have to go with the record however.

 

I pretty much agree with this. That said the only unlikely break I think he got was the shoulder injury against Byrd. Lewis' injury might have been unlikely but I personally think the outcome would have been a Lewis win regardless.

 

Well, I was at the the Sanders fight. Vitali fought through a lot of adversity in that fight. Sanders came to win and displayed the scariest power I've ever witnessed, having a huge first round and a rally later in the fight; I've also seen seen Arreola in person and he didn't strike me as being in Sanders' class. That was a legit win for Vitali and was up there with Peter.

The Gomez and Solis wins were also okay. Neither of those guys had lost many rounds in their careers, although Gomez's chin failed him once. Gomez was a top 5 cruiser all time and Solis was basically the most accomplished am ever to turn pro at heavy. Their careers sputtered out badly after Vitali beat them, but they were pretty good going into those fights.

And Adamek was highly rated at least, although not the most capable guy.

 

Rahman, Byrd, Toney, Ruiz all have a better resume than him.

 

Hi resume is weak.

My problem with ranking him is his performances against Byrd and Lewis. Those were the two best he faces by a distance.

Sanders and Peter he dominated in impressive fashion but at the top level he fell short.