Is Vitali Kiltschko an all time top 10 heavy weight?

Foreman actually only had one title reign. After beating Moorer, he was stripped of a title for ducking Tucker, escaped via robbery against Schultz, and then stripped of the other title for ducking Schultz. That isn’t a reign in my book.

If you want to find the best old guy comeback after a long layoff at heavyweight, it belongs to Vitali, not Foreman.

People criticize Vitali’s win column. Guys like Gomez, Solis, Peter, Adamek, Arreola, Sanders, and Chisora would’ve handled most if not all of Liston’s opponents (not counting Ali).

 

Quite a few respected posters on here also had the fight close, i've never thought Vitali was ever dominating Byrd. Was Vitali ahead in the fight ? Absolutely. But Byrd made it competitive thoughout, there was also very little to choose between them in overall punchstats 132-124.

As i said in my write up yes it was unfortunate Vitali had the shoulder injury, but Byrd was also doing alot of good things in the fight to give Vitali trouble. He parried Vitali's jab constantly, made him miss alot of punches, at times backed the bigger man up hitting him with straight left hands, Vitali was also visibly starting to get more tired in the 2nd half of the fight. Lets not forget Byrd was also a very late replacement, so i think he deserves some credit for his performance.

 

Grant was the Ring ranked number 2 when Lewis bombed him out .
Any one care to explain how that was a cherry pick on Lewis' part ?

 

No because his resume is too weak and the one time he stepped up with a chance at a legacy win he lost.

 

I dont think it was a cherry pick but Grant was a 100% HBO Hype job who got exposed vs Mental Midget Golota who found another way to just quit.

You and I knew that Grant was not a significant threat to Lewis, worthy opponent based on his ranking , yes but otherwise no. Confirmed by Grants career afterwards, he completely fell apart.

 

Grant showed alot of heart vs Golota and hurt him late on with a right hand and dropped him heavily, and more than likely would of gone on to stop Golota who was in bad shape at that time. Yes Golota did quit but Grant was also on the verge of stopping him at that point anyway, and Golota at that point in his career had only really 1 legit loss to the best Heavyweight in the world Lennox Lewis. So Grant does deserve some credit for taking some punishment early on, and showing the courage to comeback and stop a solid skilled Heavyweight, who was a very credible opponent at that time.

Lastly Grant's career fell apart because of a serious injury, where he broke his ankle vs McCline which pretty much derailed his career.

 

H2H he's in there somewhere ....

 

Vitali may prove difficult for some all-time greats though I've never got this reputation as a head-to-head beast. He simply wasn't tested enough. It's like supposing some relatively thick steel posts have the necessary tensile strength for a skyscraper.

 

he is not a head to head monster either. based on what? tell me his best win then. he could not beat an overweight and old Lewis.

 

What would they have said if Lennox avoided him?

 

And good to see you, too.

Vitali would be a problem for most top heavies but because his younger brother dealt with the better competition - and the era itself was a mix of unskilled big men/incomplete smaller guys - it flattered their abilities.

Now there's a big difference between saying a fight would be competitive than saying one wins. Subjective as it is, those who claim Vitali is top 5 or 3 in a head-to-head sense are simply extrapolating what they saw. It's like giving an athlete a medal because he looked good at the Olympic trails.

I also reject this general favourtism the Big Jabbers enjoy over our smaller, more dynamic greats. Dempsey, I've always felt, would be a nightmare for both while someone like Frazier has all the tools to force a very uncomfortable fight.

 

I do not have a problem with Lewis fighting Grant, he had the HBO hype machine behind him which means purse $$, was a undefeated contender, there was no reason not to fight him before he would have gotten bombed out by someone else and the money would have been gone.

The moment the bell rang Grant was totally out of his depth............so was Frazier vs Foreman or Spinks vs Tyson.

 

Lewis fought 13 top ten Ring ranked fighters and 2 champions.

Frans Botha a cherry pick? He was 40-2-1 ,having lost to only Tyson and Moorer whom he took into the 12 and last round.
The Botha v Lewis fight was a sanctioned by the IBO,IBF ,and the WBC.Two years after fighting Lewis and getting stopped in2 rds Botha went 8 rds with Wlad.