So Vitali Klitschko has retired. First thoughts on his historical ranking and legacy?

This is the fight he quit in right?

 

Briggs,Sanders, and Gomez were all older than Louis. Briggs was nearly 39 Sanders was 38, etc.

Vitali's opposition has been woeful, and in several cases unranked.

 

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Top 25 is all he has earned. Anything in the top 20 is too high, I think.

 

Top 20.

 

George Foreman actually had that record prior to retiring in 1977, with a career total of 45-2-0-42. It wasn't until he returned to the game 10 years later and in his forties, that he accumulated enough decision wins for Vitali to surpass him. Bare in mind Foreman fought until he was 48 years of age and compiled something like 80 fights for this to happen. At one point his record during his comeback was around 63-2-0-60, before Everett Martin extended him the distance. But at any rate you make some excellent points in the other comments you made in your post. His career left a few things to be desired but there are a lot of other facts and accomplishments that go unnoticed by a lot of people.

 

Resume he's top 20. H2H him and Lewis are the cream of the crop. Sorry different eras.

 

Do you remember when the term bigot had to be explained to you on this forum? I do.

Rainman.

How about Briggs and Sanders?

ps How many of Vitali's title defences were rated in the Ring's top ten?

How many of them had actually beaten a top ten rated fighter?

 

compared to his brothers competition, vitalis is pretty embarassing at times. at least wlad tries to fight the best and takes #1 contenders. adamek and arreola were solid enough in rankings at least

 

defintely above tunney imo. but an atg heavyweight not for me. top 20 ? maybe 18/19/20th place.

 

I cannot envision past dude's like "Langford, Jeffries, Dempsey, Wills, Baer or Marciano" beating V.K. prime-4-prime via a time machine.... V.K. is just too much of a hulk with good boxing skills and incredible strength and willpower to lose to a group of midgets, etc...

NOTE:

I'm gonna squeeze all the cider outta the next guys throat who brings up the "Byrd" fight of 2000. That stoppage was due to a shoulder injury and not from anything physical that Byrd was doing in the ring...

MR.BILL

 

" It's ok ,its ok" Trainer. " No, its over , it hurts too much"Vitali.

" He doesn't have the mentality of a champion".Larry Merchant.

Bottom line he quit.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN9D6ssUIns[/ame]

 

Exactement!:good

 

I'm almost certain I judge him to harshly at present.

I think his is the best hw comeback in history.