To me, his resume does not look impressive at all. The only time he faced a great fighter in Lewis, Vitali lost by TKO and that fighter was out of shape and out of prime. Vitali also quit against Byrd. What is his best win, Sam Peter, Sanders, that is hardly ATG? Vitali gets credit for his longivity and for dominating his opponents but his resume is not very impressive. I mean fighters like Arrela, Johnson, Gomez they would not even have been contenders in the early and mid 90's of the heavyweight division. It is easy to dominate fighters like tthat, it is another thing when you face a prime LL, Mercer, Holyfield, Moorer, Foreman etc..
Yeah Vitali's resume is **** but the problem is he has fought everyone he can, its a shame because his legecy will never compare to that of other fighters. The fact that he is dominating a weak divison (Aside from his brother and maybe Haye if he can perform against either of them) with such a boring style and next to no hype for his fights (Tyson dominated a weak divison and look how he ended up just because of hype) seriously damges his legecy. If he gets beaten by Haye too (If Haye steps up) man... Vitali will be remembed for getting beat by the best and beating up bums, while somehow making it look bad.
tyson KTFO holmes, Trevor berbeck, and spinks last to your champions. He beat the best that was out there in 86 till is lost to buster
this is pretty much a bang on post:good vitali has fought the best he can: no doubt about it. I think his resume compares to tyson's resume except for the top tier guys: when tyson did his tear from 85-89 he beat quite a few champs and ex champs. Vitali's resume is on par with some of them but lacks a spinks or a holmes.
That's what I have been saying ever since these steroided bums first came on the scene. The only skills the Klits have is that they are tall. That's all!
that's swinging the pendulum way the other way. they are fantastic boxers without the resumes to back up they're talent.
But what top contenders has he matched? Who, ranked inside the Ring's top 3, has Vitali actually beaten? Open question, and i'm genuinely curious.
it says a lot about a fighter when his most famous fight was getting his head ripped of by a fat lennox lewis
If any of the great heavyweights were around today they would still be as good even if they were in a poor division
off the top of my head, likely only sam peter who i believe was in the top 3 at the time. good point but it's worth noting the number of legitimate top 10s he's beaten, especially since his return. peter, gomez, arreola, kevin johnson. not exactly world beaters but consistently solid comp *just read bkamins post: i think sanders was top 3 as well
The only fight Vitali hasn't totally dominated is Lewis. He was well ahead of Byrd before the rotor cuff tore. However, who has he not fought that's been available to him? Between the 2 of them they've fought every top contender of the era bar Haye and Valuev, neither of whom seem keen to get it on. Just a really weak division at the moment.