I believe most people do so for obvious reasons. Usyk barely won against the smaller Briedis (who even hurt him a couple of times), if it ever was a victory, but a draw. Chisora managed to pressure him for few rounds. His only victory over a bigger and stronger man is against AJ who hasn't the heart and the attributes of Vitali. So the small and negligible chances he has against Vitali are surely on points, really running like a rabbit. So Vitali by KO or TKO.
A tough fight that could go either way, unlike Joshua, Vitali would definitely be more offensive and land more punches, also Vitali destroys opponents throughout the rounds by making them unable to continue the fight, Vitali by late TKO...
Looking at this fight through the prism of the Vitali vs. Byrd, I've come to the conclusion that Usyk would have won, as long as Vitali didn't get hurt. I think Usyk controls space and angles much better than Chris Bird. Of course it would be a tough night for both boxers, but I still think that in the end the "cat" would win SD. After all, Usyk is ATG.
Vitali is a mid range boxer and was less reluctant to attack than Usyk. You need to be extremely aggressive to beat Usyk. Vitali was not that guy. He had no inside skills. Usyk is more willing to engage and attack than Vitali was. His skill, defence and ring IQ is levels above Vitalis. He wins this fight by domination.
Solid analysis. Then again, there's a pretty good chance that you would pick Paulie Malignaggi to beat either Klitschko.
Good post. Big Vit's defense was very underrated. HIs lean back was very effective, especially against shorter guys.
Cause he barely lost a roujd and is remembered as an agressive high output iron chinned atg. That does well in fantasy h2h matchups.
Usyk isn't overrated here? He's beaten two good HW's. One, in AJ, whom everyone dogs now. Vitali beat more top ranked HW's then Usyk...but Vit's overrated??
He wasn't aggressive against Southpaw Sanders. Fought on the backfoot after getting nailed hard on multiple occasions in the early rounds. He wasn't aggressive against southpaw Byrd. Boxed him from the mid range. He fought mid range against pretty much everybody. Mike Tyson was aggressive.
Facts about Vitali Lost to 2nd best opponent underpowered, 6â, 211 lbs, southpaw slickster Byrd, on the front foot, in Germany, made no attempt to avenge Taken 12 rounds for the first time by tallest opponent 6â7, 253 lbs, Sprott-victim Hoffman, on the backfoot, in Germany Lost to best opponent 6â5, 257 lbs, final career fight, champion Lewis, in America, the sole instance where Vitali was the B-side and underdog Taken 12 rounds by 243 lbs spoiler Kevin Johnson, on the front foot, in Switzerland and by 262 lbs, 2nd heaviest opponent Briggs, on the front foot, in Germany Taken 12 rounds in hardest and most competitive win (211-163 punches landed according to Compubox) against determined 241 lbs Chisora, on the backfoot, in Germany 0 KDâs across 6 fights and 63 rounds against these opponents Vitali would have a near-zero chance of knocking Usyk out and judging by how much he struggled with Byrd (and made no attempt to avenge), he couldn't outbox Usyk either. It's more likely that Vitali gets stopped in this matchup than Usyk due to his susceptibility to injury.