Kevin Johnson said he could beat Klitschko from the outside because he has a longer reach. They just had the armpit to the fist measurements and Johnson was 26 inches, while Vitali's was 29 inches. I've seen VK's wingspan listed as 79 inches, which for a 6'7 inch tall guy seems average. Last week when Paul Williams fought who they claim has an 82 inch reach, his armpit to fist measurment was only 25.5 inches. That means the 82 inch reach guy, is actually at a 3.5 inch reach disadvantage to a guy with the 79 wingspan. Now of course the wingspan measurement includes shoulder width, and Vitali does have narrow shoulders, but when you also include the tips of the middle fingers I wouldnt be suprised if Vitali had an 84 inch wingspan. We saw when Vitali and Lennox fought, Vitali had no problem at all hitting Lennox despite having a 5 inch wingspan disadvantage. Also a couple of other things, HBO lists him as being 6'7, Emanual Steward was mentioning before the Arreola fight as to how tall Vitali fights, against the 6'4 inch Arreola Vitali looked closer to 6'9 as he dwarfed Chris. Also I saw a pic of VK standing next to 6'10 inch LA Laker Lamar Odom, and he only looked slightly shorter, rather than 3 inches.
I just hope boxing isnt going to go the way of the WWE in order to generate interest by inflating statistics Andre the Giant was listed as 7'4 when he really was 6'11 and closer to 6'9 after his back surgery Big john Studd was listed at 6'10 when he was 6'7 Hulk Hogan was billed at 6'8 when he's 6'5 As for all the talk about Paul Williams and his huge height and reach advantages, he gets hit way too easily anyways, cuts very easily, and if it wasnt for having excellent stamina and being able to throw 100 punches a round he would be a big dumb amateur. After seeing his last fight i could see why he wants to fight at 147, and he's actually very lucky that he could make that weight, because if Williams were to ever try to fight above 160 he'd get knocked out easily. Williams is the biggest hyped fighter in boxing right now.
Quick point of order on Andre: Whereas he was 6'11 when they started advertising him as 7'4, he never stopped grwoing thoughout his life due to his medical condition, so he may have gotten over 7 feet.
Vitali has the longest listed reach the way HBO defines it from the pit of the arm to the fist. I have seen 29" and 29.5" for Vitali. Kevin Johnson was 26". Box rec says Vitali's listed reach is 80". I'd guess its a bit more than that.
