Haye backed out of a Vitali fight because in event of Haye winning K2 wanted a rematch clause that gave them the right to dictate not only the site but the next 2 opponents.No prizes for guessing who they would be! Haye passed on the Vitali fight because ,should he win K2 wanted options on his first two defences,no prizes for guessing whom they would have been against! As an alphabet Champ Vitali fought more unranked ,undeserving contenders than anyone ever has.
McGrain has amply demonstrated that Vitali fought a bunch of unranked patsies. As to Haye, it was widely written about .In The Telegraph, The Times, The Sun and The Daily Mirror. Sorry Mr Trump ,you're wrong yet again!
Source for this please? FYI Vitali was out injured so Byrd defended against his brother just 6 months after beating Vitali.Wlad was ranked higher than Byrd by the Ring, and Vitali wasn't even in their top ten.
Thats a falsity. It was Vitaly who ducked the rematch when he opted to fight Timmo Hoffman instead of triggering the rematch clause he had over Byrd.
I never understood why he never rematches Byrd if, according to some fans, he was "gonna win anyway" and Byrd was lucky he had a shoulder injury. Just clear up the confusion and settle the score ffs. It's bad enough the 2 brothers are in the same division and won't fight. At least avenge your losses and have better match making. Im so glad that era is over. Part of the match making wasn't Vitali's fault but at some point you have to slam the breaks when reading threads like these and question his overall legacy. Just how exactly do you rate a guy who enjoys such a huge size and technical skill advantage over mostly mediocre opponents? Forget h2h, other than the rare gems like the chisora or lewis fights when did we really get to see what Vitali was made of and actually put his heart and skills to the test? Before you think "can't criticize him for being dominant and skilled", no of course not, but as the OP shows there WERE better options available and we simply never got the most ideal or entertaining fights. Hence the "waste of talent" head line. I think it could be compared to Bill Russel and his elite team utterly destroying the relatively weak basketball era he competed in. No one denies Russel's skills but there's an asterisk* if you compare his era to the most recent couple of decades and the difference in overall talent pool.
Arguably, Vitali lost against the best two fighters he fought in past prime Lennox and Chris Byrd. His record does not look very impressive. His best win might be Sam Peter.
Vitali's first reign, consisting of a single defense before retirement due to injury, speaks for itself. I'm not sure how much we could have expected from a returning 37-year-old (and aging), injury-prone and, in my opinion, somewhat overrated heavyweight. I've always had the impression that Vitali came back from injury, just because he knew he could; making some relatively easy money in the process. Vitali's shared reign, on his return, formed part of what, I think, will be remembered as one of the most depressing periods in heavyweight history.
He some how missed quite a lot of ranked guys out during his era. Tyson Holyfield Tua Ruiz Oquendo Golota Povetkin Chagaev Ibragimov Dimitrenko Maskaev Boytsov Helenius Pulev But found time to face Mahone Sullivan Hoffman Puritty Bean Donald Williams Sosnowski Briggs Solis Charr A very good fighter but his record does not live up to the hype. He plundered the WBO rankings defending against fighters who were basically journeymen.
Obviously, I wouldn't dispute the 'misses' and the OP poses some interesting alternatives, as well. Although, I must admit that I hadn't considered Vitali's ledger, as far back as his spell as WBO titlist, which provides extra scope to add to that list of 'what could have beens'.