Vitali Klitschko vs “The Golden era”? Contenders?

Agreed.

All of that bunch, most of them within the distance.

 

Tyson did want a rematch after his loss but Douglas had issues with Don King.

Also Douglas was pretty much irrelevant after his loss to Holyfield where as Byrd rebuilt himself with wins over Tua, Holyfield, and won a belt and was a top 3 ranked Heavyweight for 4 years.

It's not really the same situation.

Basically what you're saying is because Vitali got his little brother to beat Byrd for him he had no reason to fight him ? I'm not seeing the logic behind that.

Especially since Wladimir himself rematched Byrd and he'd beaten him comprehensively the first time.

Vitali had been criticised for his loss to Byrd and if he really thought it was a fluke then why not rematch Byrd ? Especially when there's the incentive of Byrd being a champion and a highly ranked Heavyweight.

 

The reasons usually given by the Klitschko supporters at the time -- I believe derived from what the Klitschkos themselves said -- is that the brothers didn't want to sign with Don King, which reduced their options. They viewed King as exploitative.

From a business standpoint, this was the right decision. The Klitschkos were different enough in their strengths and weaknesses from each other, and good enough, that they eventually locked the division down and took it away from the King fighters without having to sign on. But it took a while.

 

Whatever the reason was it still leaves a big answered question about how good Vitali truly was.

Because Byrd would've been far and away his best win of his career and Vitali doesn't really have a stand out win on his resume.

The hype for Vitali comes from losing efforts and dominance against B and C class opposition.

But he never truly showed that he could win against a real upper echelon Heavyweight and he had good opportunities to do so.

Lewis was old and out of shape and Vitali couldn't get the win.

Byrd had a weeks notice he also fought Vitali in his backyard so Byrd was at a disadvantage and again Vitali failed to deliver.

Yeah you can say Vitali was a bit unfortunate but but I still don't think he's proven enough against real top quality Heavyweights in regards to wins.

 

Don King, you said it yourself. Vitali preferred Lewis to whatever Don King wanted.

BTW, since you weren’t watching boxing back then, I’ll let you know that the Byrd fight caused the general public no question Vitali’s heart. Vitali put those questions to bed against Lewis. At no point did the general public demand that he fight Byrd or think that Byrd had a serious chance against him.

 

Couldn't get the win? He was stopped on a horror cut, this is one of the big 'what ifs' in boxing. It's not like Lennie 'beat' him in the accepted fashion...

 

At the risk of sounding morbid, I think it's a generational thing, so it'll run the same course as Dempsey and Marciano and some others did. We used to have lot of Marciano fans; I think a fair number were older. Now we don't.

Ali will survive relatively well, just because of how much he stood above his peers. A bit like Louis. But it'll dip.

We already have people in General looking back nostalgically on how great the Klitschko era contenders were compared to today. The gears grind on...

 

That's exactly my point "what if".

Lewis beat him fair and square he opened the cut up with a legitimate punch and Vitali would've gone blind had it carried on.

Lewis was old out of shape and Vitali couldn't take advantage of a good opportunity taking the mantle from an under par Lewis.

 

Fair comment man. Px

 

Don King had no involvement, absolutely none. Thats a non-truth originated from Mendoza , an known peddler of lies.

When Byrd fought both brothers back to back he was under the promotional banner of Universum which later became K2 promotions.

Hes on video saying Universum wanted him to fight Wlad. Vitali had the rematch clause over Byrd. Byrd had no options despite holding the belt. K2 contracts are well known.
3 years later Byrd signed with Don King. Understand?

 

You don’t seem to understand. Wlad beat the absolute crap out of him and by the time a fight with Vitali would’ve meant something, Byrd was doing the fake title dance with Don King.

 

You be slacking Dino 8 pages on a Klitschko thread and you only show up now? Come on man step your game up!

 

Vitali ducked the immediate rematch and got lil bro to step in for him.
This is the situation based on 100% fact.

True atgs take immediate rematch and overturn the result.

Vitali ducked rematching Byrd despise holding a rematch clause. He then became one of the very few guys in history who lost his passing of the torch fight.

 

You're not as confused as u sound , just parroting Mendozas lies.

Wlad should never have pasted Byrd. It was vitalis duty to get his belt back himself.
Hello anybody home !!???

 

I don't get it either. I hope he's well.