How much Vitali quitting against Byrd should be hold against him ?

Vitali was ahead in a close fight. Forget the official card, in Germany it was almost impossible to win a fight on the cards. He quit, it is what it is. you know, there have been fighters with worse injuries that finished the fight

 

Yes I agree I only had Vitali ahead by 1 at the time of the stoppage, people make out Vitali was dominating it's a total myth.

What people don't often talk about is that Byrd was a late replacement, and was coming on strong in the 2nd half of the fight.

Vitali had huge attributes over Byrd is size, reach, weight, and couldn't really make an impression on Byrd.

So yes I do think Vitali quitting should be held against him somewhat.

 

Vitali didn't know that and Byrd was coming on strong since the 5th round and had his best round of the fight in the 9th when Vitali quit.

 

But he didn't know the scorecards. He quit in a competitive fight he might have thought was close and slipping out of his hands.

 

Hard to know what's going through a fighter's mind when he's tired and hurting and possibly feeling that the fight is turning against him.

What we do know is that fighters have continued with worse injuries. Cerdan had no use of his right (I think it was) arm whatsoever after the first round but still continued another eight against a bruiser like LaMotta. Gatti broke his right hand so badly against Ward that he couldn't use it anymore, but still saw out the fight and won. And Inoue got his orbital bone cracked in the first or second and toughed it out for a win against a huge puncher like Donaire. To name a few examples.

But Vitaly knew he had it in the bag against the lightest hitting contender in the division, but still couldn't go on for another three rounds?

 

In absence of a reasonable explanation, Vitali's quitting should be considered a significant question mark in his resume.

 

I think it has to be.

 

I think Vitali having a doctoral degree affected his decision .He probably knew he could possibly do long term damage that might be hard to come back from if he kept fighting. Which would make a big financial difference for him and maybe end his career. Some other boxers or athletes won’t give up because they don’t think about it. He quit but especially sometimes it can be a good idea.

 

A quit job can be forgiven. Its the avoidance of the rematch and letting his bro stand in for him that the real issue.

 

Could be that, yeah.

 

Every human being has quit in them somewhere.

In this case the decision probably was premature, but only Vitally knows what was going on inside his body.

He quit, its what it is.

Despite this incident, I do think that Vitally was a pretty tough customer.

He clearly wanted to continue against Lewis for example.

 

people do not realize in europe and amateurs RTD isnt a big thing, especially when injured. its only in america where totally selfless disregard for your own health is a virtue does this line of thought appear. same happened with rigondeaux. as max schmelling said, you have to kill yourself to win over the americans. and shoulder injuries are serious, theyre the boxing equivalent of an acl injury