Which fighter would you pick to breakdown Vitali with body shots. I’d ask you to not just pick the best heavyweight body punchers, but who is also skilled enough to keep a consistent paste of body shots throughout the fight without being disrupted by the superb boxing and power of Vitali Bonus question: who do you think did the best best body work on Vitali
I think a prime Riddick Bowe would be a good candidate to break Vitali down with body shots. Although Bowe was a big man, he really liked to fight on the inside and I'm sure he would go there against Vitali. Lots of folks on this forum don't think much of Bowe because he had such a short prime but a young Riddick Bowe was a beast of a fighter that would have been a handful for Vitali.
Bowe would certainly ransack Vitali worse than Lewis did.. . Too much skill in close and from range. You would see Vitali take leather the same way Jorge Louis Gonzalez did..
Vitali would certainly mallet Bowe even worse than Golota did. He does it at a higher level than "Big Mac" Bowe.
Golota beat a shell of Riddick Bowe. He was already suffering from CTE at that point. Listen to him speak when he was in his prime and then when he was fighting Golota. He was definitely on the slide. It certainly didn't help that he wasn't training like he did when he was younger either. He has himself to blame for getting so out of shape in between fights. I honestly think prime Bowe vs prme Vitali is a pickem fight. I just think Futch would have Bowe attack on the inside against Vitali were all Vitali could do would be try and tie him up.
"Chop down" doesnt mean TKO (from cuts etc.)...so its more difficult. I would guess many of the GOATs could stop him through cuts. He had a very good chin but a very weak skin. Chop down...Bowe would be a top candidate, yes. On the other hand he didnt have the same punching power like Lewis for example, so he must land more shots in a short time on Vitali to put him down. Watch the 1st round of Vitali-Sanders again, especially the last 30 seconds. Sanders landed one blind left on him and at the end, after running and holding, Vitali was suddenly on his knee...so you could make a point to score this as knockdown, even if the ref Jon Schorle didnt count it as KD. Schorle was also a ref in Kickboxing, K-1 etc., so maybe a "traditional" boxing ref like Kenny Bayless, Randy Neuman, Jay Nedy, Eddie Cotton, Mitch Halpern or Arthur Mercante would have counted it as KD.
Well Marciano feets were too slow that Ezzard Charles couldn't get away from him and Klitchko is not near fast as Charles. Marciano didn't have fast legs but his legs were as fast as Liston/Frazier legs and I would say that if Byrd could do that with chest,arms and nose punches to make Vitali head bloody messed then Marciano would have power for sure to stop Vitali since Marciano is better in every department than Byrd who is the weakest puncher of that era!
Vitali was injured in the Byrd fight and putting pressure on Charles is gonna be a lot easier than putting pressure on a 6’7 iron chinned power puncher. Rocky was also a light heavyweight, Vitali toys with him
>>> Lewis and Bowe are different fighters. On Bowe, it took him 5 round to stop Hide, and he calls him the biggest puncher he ever meet. Vitali did the same job in two rounds. Jorge Louis Gonzalez lasted six rounds with Bowe. IMO Vitali get the same guy out of there sooner. Bowe was very good, but his defense, problems with good jabbers, and dentable chin by the likes of Golota show his limitations. He would not be fighting Holyfield, far from it.
Vitali was injured in Byrd fight by Byrd who was poor mans Marciano.It is alot heavier putting pressure on fast slick boxer like Charles than on stationary target who does not move.Rocky is cruiserweight not LHW even by today standard.Rocky is bigger than any current lhw just like he is bigger than Kovalev in every department.Vitaly could not toy against 40 years old Lewis and poor mans Rocky.Marciano would kill him same way Byrd did with possible Ko!Rocky would beat his arms and chest even worse than Byrd and then would chop his head and nose even worse than Byrd who had no power.
