Vitali just has no clue how to fight on the inside.The thing is you meet somebody of Lewis caliber those weaknesses get exposed.It is very telling to me that Vitali as a much better conditioned athlete could not pull this off
He does have a better inside fighting game than his brother though. That's not me, it's Byrd who said so.
Vitali had been preparing for 7 months. It was Lewis who took the fight on short notice. Tuesday, December 3, 2002 Question: What is your game plan for pulling an upset over Lewis? Vitali: I do not want to reveal my strategies for the fight against Lewis. My preparations right now are top secret. I will present my strategies and my plans in the ring. http://www.boxinginsider.com/interviews/interview-with-wladimir-vitali-klitschko/
Yes. People seem to forget that there were multiple lacerations all over Vitali's face; it wasn't just the one cut, across the eyelid. His mouth was busted up terribly, as well. Something VK fans find hard to acknowledge. Vitali's early start petered out fairly quickly. He wasn't being all that effective after round-2, in my opinion, and his punches, by round-6, had nothing on them. I also think you could argue the fight was even after 6 rounds, with Lewis appearing to be the more dangerous of the two. It's academic, but the point is that Vitali was looking anything but a winner by the close.
Sorry to be nitpicky, but there's no way Duran was past prime. It's arguably his best performance, and he was absolutely in his prime even if you prefer one of his other, lightweight showings. Even the idea that in 77/78 he was burning out due to weight cuts doesn't hold up there, because those issues went away as he moved up to 147 - as seen vs Brooks and Palomino.
71 fights is long in the tooth. He had a long, amazing run at lower weights and then after losing to Leonard at 147 he was much more inconsistent. I don't know. Maybe he was at the absolute best he ever was at 147, but overall? I doubt it.
I'd add Peters as well to the better guys he beat, maybe Chisora could qualify there as well. Vitaly is quite hard to get a grip on. He didn't beat much top tier opposition and when he came up against them he fell short, even though his injury against Byrd likely changed the outcome of that fight. But he dominated the rest like few ever has. He really ruined guys. Hard to let him in the top 10 with no real top wins, I think, but top 15 seems plausible.
In terms of what he actually DID do, he scrapes the bottom of my top twenty. Head to head, top five or six.
Agree with this. His resume is ok but not amazing. H2H however, he dropped a handful of rounds in his entire career. He'd give a hard time to virtually any fighter in history. His brother has the much better resume and yet I think Vitali is, on the eye test, ahead of him H2H.
Well I guess we disagree ... I'm shocked The Lewis rematch would have cleared up a lot of questions one way or the other.
Hasim Rahman and Oliver McCall were able to KO better versions of Lewis while your hero got his face rearranged trying to beat old and fat Lewis in just 6 rounds Marciano KOed Louis, Ali beat Liston twice, Holmes defeated a sick Ali, Tyson stopped Holmes, and Vitali .... Failed to beat Lewis
