Chris Bryd TKO 10 Vitali Klitschko- Let's revist round 9

I'm not blindly accusing.
The man quit.

I dont think that defines his career or his character or anything, but I know what happened : he quit.

 

Question: If you are in the same situation against Lewis, will you keep fighting?

Klitschko: This fight against Lewis is the most important of my career. I do not have another chance to sit on the stool. I will give all my best. It does not matter what is wrong in the ring, I will do everything to win the fight.

 

Agreed. Vitali is an all-time great heavyweight and so is his brother. I know it isn't popular, but the truth is, very few heavyweights in history could deal with the skilled size of the Klitschko's. And either Klitschko would wipe the floor with Marciano. I love Rocky and size doesn't matter as much as some people think, but the skilled size of the Klitschko's would be TOO MUCH for the Rock to handle. This is another statement that most, if not all people on here will attack, disagree with, etc......The Klitschko's could beat Joe Louis. There, I said it.:deal

 

Yes, if you shrink everything you see to one simple term, you can say that. That's called a binary. It's the easiest way for any human to compute things is to say yes/no, true/false, black/white, champ/chump. That's what you're doing.

Look:

Your words: He quit.
My words: He quit under the circumstances that he understood if he pushed his body any further he could seriously injure it. Take into account he has a PhD in sports medicine from the University of Kiev!

I see you ignoring certain points of information that flesh out the account. I'm taking things into consideration instead of openly ignoring it.

 

these accusations by keyboard jockeys (of which I am certainly one) against world class athletes engaged in an extremely dangerous undertaking ring a bit farcical and baseless...

 

What did this come from? I'm asking out of curiosity.

I hope you guys realize I'm trying to encourage you to do some extra research. I hate "thread warring" it looks so unprofessional.

 

An interview on the ESB main site before the Lewis fight.

 

Thank you, just found it on google.

Here's my response, how many boxers have you heard say this? How many fighters do you hear say, "If I was in my prime, I'd have beaten him" or "I'm going to bring my best to this fight". Lo-and-behold, it doesn't happen. Roy Jones Jr said he was going to beat Hopkins again. That didn't happen. Have you ever heard a fighter say before the fight, "I think I'm gonna lose, don't bet on me"? That would obviously suck any hype or interest out of the match.

 

Without proof, it is ridiculous. With proof, it becomes history.

 

Well, considering that Vitali did suffer another career-threatening injury to his face, yet wanted to continue on when the doctor stopped it, proves to me that he did change in his mentality. He knew that he could not afford to quit on his stool another time.

 

I never said he wasn't a true fighter.

 

I don't see what proof we are looking for. I have never been severely injured in the ring with a world class fighter in the other corner waiting to unload on me. The closest I ever got was a slightly dislocated jaw against a mediocre hitter. It sucked and I quit immediately. Granted I wasn't being paid. But I'm not going to make claims against any of these guys, Klit, Liston... People railed against Tszyu when he quit. Then we find he had bleeding on the brain and some still weren't convinced he wasn't a pansy. Basically, I don't follow this line of accusation having never been offered the opportunity to be hit by a world class fighter whilst injured.

 

Not really.
We the fans are the ones who pay the wages. No one pays to see quit-jobs like that.
I've noticed a lot more quitting in boxing in recent years, and some of it seems unnecessary and an absolute rip-off of fans money.
I've noticed a lot of fans defending it too, which in my opinion is a bit sad.
I'm not saying all fighters should fight "to the death" or anything, but there does need to be some standards. We need to strike a balance.

Accepting quit-jobs so readily just opens the door to abuse, more fight-fixing and encourages greedy bums to come to fights to get paid and with no intention of an honest effort.

I dont include Vitali in that, his career shows he's been a solid fighter. BUT on that one night he was a disappointment. Maybe his injury was serious. I think he could have outpointed Byrd with one arm, but I'm not exactly upset about it. I've seen far worse quit jobs. And repeat-offenders too.

I think the paying boxing fans should reserve the right to call a guy a "quitter". Sometimes it's out of order, sometimes it's justified. These guys get paid a lot of money, some of them get millions long before they've truly proved themselves "world class athletes".
I think lots of us have done dangerous jobs for far less money. And when we pay to see a fight we want to get something for our money.

Back in the day, right or wrongly, the crowd would have pulled the seats out and had a riot.
Boxing commisions demanded investigations of every quit job.
So, I dont feel we should *****-foot and tip-toe around the issue. Some fighters DO quit too easily, take the (substantial) money and go home, leaving the true fans feeling cheated.
We should call them out on it, or at least raise questions.

 

If there was proper proof of VK quitting when he did, I bet you lot of people would clam up. That's all I'm saying. I acknowledge your point as well. Basically, we're talking about things in which "we don't know". I'm trying to get posters to look at the entire situation. Knowing VK is a sports science doctor does change the paradigm (and that's just an example).

I mean, look at the recent Hopkins-Jones II fight. BHop openly fouls Roy, then when it turns around to BHop he can't "take the foul". Or was he actually fouled? Afterwards there were reports of vision spots and pain. Is this correct? I don't know. What I can say is that boxing has always had this form of confusion. Years later we might hear a new "revisionist" theory with proof and people would still stick to their guns. Still from the beginning nobody knows the truth and yet here we are arguing about it like we do know something.

 

Interesting. I see your point. Certainly, a guy looking for the canvas (Seldon, Etienne, Liston v Ali II...) pisses me off... A late fight injury seems a bit different to me, though.

What bothers me in a similar vein is the faked or dubious injury a la Hopkins v Calzaghe or v Jones, Jr. to stall for recovery time because you are winded, tired or buzzed... I have lost tons of respect for Hopkins over that past few years.