Larry Holmes Versus Vitali Klitschko

Yes.

 

That's one way of putting it, JT.

Another would be that Sanders had been working harder on reducing his golf handicap than his boxing, before he got a short-notice WBO Title shot (he was playing off a 1 handicap by the time of the Wlad fight).

What was it? Less than three rounds boxed in almost as many years or something like that? And, less than five rounds in four years, by the time he met Vitali?

At that stage of his career, the "boost" was that he'd earned himself a solid payday. But, regardless of what he'd pulled off over a year earlier, Sanders did not turn up for Vitali, by that time 38 years of age, in good condition.

 

You're intent on ruining all my Klitoral stimulation lately aren't you

At any rate when he axed Wlad he'd had just over 6 minutes of boxing under his belt in the previous 2 years and 10 months. It didn't seem to bother him too much by any metric and was the best win of his life. Wlad would have been rated the second best heavyweight in the world at that point. For someone not turning up he certainly gave Vitali some moments of grief too.

Interestingly Sanders actually turned Wlad to golf.

 

Awkwardly but purely coincidental (I can assure you)

Wlad was indeed the best win of his life. He was also the only top-ten rated opponent Sanders ever beat.

But, I think the win said more about Wlad's inflated rating - which was subsequently confirmed just over a year later (and a couple of weeks before Sanders/Vitali), courtesy of Lamon Brewster - than it did about Sanders' credentials as a world level player.

And, I'm not sure what an additional 3.5 minutes of Sanders' boxing, on top of the 6 minutes in the previous 34 months, was going to tell anyone about his physical conditioning, anyway. We already knew he could punch and that he had relatively fast hands. Wlad's team obviously didn't get the memo, before offering Sanders a fight on 5 to 6 weeks notice.

He did, but he was notably in poor shape and gassing after a couple of rounds. Even so, he highlighted the defensive flaws in Vitali.

Makes one wonder what a younger, focused Sanders, with some actual roadwork, more tee'ing off in sparring and less golf-carting around the fairways, might have been able to achieve.

I'm aware. From what I've read, Wlad believed the taking up of golf, like his one-time opponent Sanders, would help with his post-defeat analysis.

 

Vitali's right hand would be too much for Holmes, the accumulation would gain VK a late stoppage IMO

 

Vitali's right hand would be too much for Holmes, the accumulation would gain VK a late stoppage IMO

 

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Mark DiMori leveller putting Vitali over with right hands ^

 

Vitali was ahead on 3 judges cards, 89-82 on 1 card and 88-83 on both of the other 2, after the 9 completed rounds vs Byrd.

 

It kinda makes the quitting even worse though.

Maybe Vitali and/or his corner didn't think he was ahead on the cards.

 

it was a close fight, officials are not always right especially when the fight is in Germany

 

I'm pretty sure i heard Vitali say in post fight interview after that he didn't think he could win enough points down the stretch to win a decision.

So obviously he didn't feel like he was as dominant as the judges felt he was.

As i've said before you have to take into account the fight was in Germany, so of course Vitali will get the benefit of the doubt in alot of close debatable rounds.

The fact is the statistics showed Byrd landed at over 40 percent of his punches to only 26 percent for Vitali, and only 8 overall landed punches separated them overall which shows to an extent it was a competitive fight.

Alot of people just look at highlights or see judges scorecards and instantly think it was a one sided fight that's not the case. Not too sound egotistical but i consider myself a fairly decent scorer of fights and i only had Vitali ahead 5-4 at that the time of the stoppage. I had a debate with @Showstopper97 about this fight last year and when he went back and watched it he felt it was alot more competitive than he remembered also.

Overall though Byrd was coming on in the 2nd half of the fight and only had a weeks notice not too mention being in Vitali's backyard. And i truly believe it was Byrd's elusiveness making Vitali miss punches that actually caused the injury so i think Byrd deserves full credit for the win.

 

You make it sound like Holmes was consistently getting hit with right hands over and over in fights, Shavers and Snipes were bolts out of the blue and when you're consistently fighting top 10 ranked fighters with all different styles of course you will get some fights that you still struggle in.

Vitali himself only beat 5 ranked fighters which is like 3 times as less as Holmes, if Vitali fought as many ranked opponents as Holmes maybe you'd see more flaws in Vitali aswell.

But Vitali hit a lackluster old Lewis flush with right hands over and over and never really came close to knocking him down, and i don't think Lewis is as durable as Holmes in the chin department.

 

Vitali's quitting against Byrd never made sense to me, but that's because I recall him being ahead by a bigger margin (and probably quite a bit bigger). I cannot find my card, so I'll have to get around to scoring that fight again.