Vitali Klitschko vs George Foreman

Yeah i can't see how old George beats him but young one don't. Young George has a chance to take him out early, but old George can't imo. He'd be severely outpointed. A lucky punch here and there won't do it, given the shots he soaked up from Lewis.

 

i dont agree with this at all. Injury is part of boxing. Guys lose their lives, and that is unfortunately a real part of a sport thats main purpose is to try and decapitate your opponent. If you approach the sport any other way, maybe ballroom dancing would be a better fit.

 

Sure, thats why athletes in other contact sports like football, rugby and hockey are escorted off the field and benched for several weeks until they recover.... Why not make them go on playing and brawling until they're permanently disabled? :conf

 

This is tough guy talk without substance. Yes, guys have died boxing. Do you think they would've stepped in the ring if they knew they'd die? Do you think McClellan would be a warrior and yes "sure, i'll be reduced to a vegetable for the rest of my life so i can say i'm not a quitter" if he was told that another round would lead to those injuries? On a side note, he did quit, so in your eyes he's not just a quitter that would be better suited for ballroom dancing, but also a ****ing cripple.

There is always a 1/50 or so chance to suffer a serious injury. Sometimes you can finish the fight, sometimes you can't.

One thing i do know for sure. I'd rather be called a quitter by desk job working fans and keyboard fans, and have a wonderful career where you're still world champion at age 38, instead of finishing a fight and finishing your career with it and be able to call yourself "warrior". At least Lacy has that pride, while knowing that after the injury fight, he can barely compete with journeymen, journeymen whom he used to knock out inside 3 rounds.

 

These aren't words that should come from someone who doesn't fight for a living himself. For me, a pro fighter can get away with this sort of talk since they have to back it up, but no one else.

 

Have you suffered a severe shoulder injury? I have, twice. I've had shoulder surgery to repair the damage. You can recover from all kinds of injuries, but athletes don't come back from shoulder and wrist injuries, you're never the same. Evander may have also blown out his rotator cuff, but that does not mean the severity was the same. I'm sure he could have kept him off with one arm, but we don't know how bad the injury was, and whether nerves were affected, thus increasing by an order of magnitude the pain. Also, in a clinch his shoulder could have been hurt.

Well Larry Merchant isn't a ****ing athlete and he has probably never suffered a serious shoulder injury.

Has he ever looked like a quitter, or mentally weak to you in any other circumstance? You're being unfair dude, can you at least concede you don't have experience with shoulder injuries of that magnitude and you don't know the physiology of the shoulder? A torn rotator cuff can hurt like Hell... it can also be relatively mildly painful. The first time I dislocated my shoulder the pain was such that I was trying to jam it back in myself, the second time I was screaming obscenities and red-faced. Pain can vary from injury to injury, I consider myself a pretty tough guy but that second dislocation had me praying. I destroyed my rotator cuff in that instance.

No way of knowing that, and I saw nothing of the kind. Your prejudice is blinding you man. Vitali fought like a warrior in that fight, Lennox just got the better of him physically. I never saw any signs of quitting. They were both tiring and hurting, Vitali with the worst of it.

Blah blah blah, Lennox was clearly still a great fighter, but that's not what we're arguing here. I really think you're overstepping to call Vitali a quitter based on the Byrd fight. Come on man...

 

Exactly. The pain can be excruciating, you don't want to move your body much less your arm. To make it further frightening you don't know how badly you are injured, you could conceivably be crippled by a shoulder injury.

Are you a fighter? That's a ridiculous statement.

 

Well unfortunately its a cruel reality. Of course noone wants to think that, but yes I have boxed hundreds of rounds and been around and worked with many pro fighters, and when you go in the ring, you have a warrior mentality, and yes the thought of something serious happens always crosses your mind and the feeling of adrenaline is overcoming. Why do you think so many fighter pray before they leave the dressing room and in the corner before the fight, you have to prepare yourself for it. Has anyone on this forum actually gotten into the ring for a competitive fight? Unlike football there is no time outs for broken noses or rotator cuffs. In most cases you dont get a second chance at glory so you have to go. How many other world class fighters have quit in a similar circumstance? you can count them on one hand. :-(

 

Cant compare a one on one sport like boxing to team sports. There is no time outs, no substitutions, and a lot of times, no second chances. In most cases these are one time chances for guys who have trained their entire life for it. Its a risk you know your getting into when you first enter the ring. Thats most likely why you chose a hobby like bag pipes, over boxing, or jumping out of an airplane.
I also learned very early on that I would never be able to compete with the top fighters, because of my lack of God given physical abilities. You can only go so far with ring smarts and decent ability.

 

little different scenario, really and yes thats one, keep going. Duran had already been to the summit.

 

Thats me the arm chair warrior. Lets get some trainers and fighters to chime in please.

 

If Vitaly should have quit or not is one thing, but throwing glib remarks around that you should be prepared to die or go ballroom dancing just doesn't cut it for me. There are too many fighters who have done just that and ended up dead, blind or braindamaged and with no money to show for it.

Yes, as a pro fighter you have to be aware that you always take a risk of serious injury and even death when you walk into a ring. But that doesn't mean that we have right to call them cowards every time they try to limit this risk in a reasonable way.

Yes, we all love Frazier for wanting to go out into that last round in Manilla and for always getting up when Foreman hammered him. But would it have made him more cowardly if he thought "hey, I have no way of winning this, but run a pretty big risk of getting permantly injured if I continue. I have a life and a family outside of boxing, it just isn't worth it."
Would this really make him less of a man?

Btw, Foster admitted to staying down when Ali floored him for the sixth or seventh time. He could have gotten up, but it would only have meant unnecissary punishment with the same end result. I think he was right on with that decision.

One should be very careful with making "ballroom dancing"-remarks about guys who are in a line of work where you have to make these decisions. If you're that guy wanting to go out for the last round in Manilla you have at least showed that you yourself live but such a credo, but very, very few are that guy.

 

Dont make excuses Foreman fought Stewart with a broken nose, I seen Tommy Morrison banged up and didnt quit, Vitali is a quiter and a loser and he could never hand with the real big boys of boxing.

 

Yes he is.

Oh, and I think I'll pick draw for this one, yup, both fighters just jab, jab, jab yawn...zzzzz and straight rights at each other for 12-15 rounds without either having the required power to ko the other.

 

Aw cmon. Now you dont like my wording. Yes I tend to be brash, maybe you've heard cornerman talk to fighters in the same manner?
Your right, sometimes it is smarter to stay down, but in the case of Vitali, consider the threat he was facing. In my mind it was not the right thing to do. He wasnt getting hammered into the canvas in a one sided fight. In the future Ill try to tone down my critiques.:good