Is Vitali really an H2H monster?

It was the worst Lewis yet he gutted it out, showed huge heart, spirit and good old fashioned bottle. That was the defining fight of his career for me, against his most damgerous opponent and boy did he have to go to the well...

 

Yes, however he wa

Yes great effort, but he looked even more gassed than Vitali & should have not come in at 256 lbs., so great effort, but without the cuts I am not confident he could continue turning the tide.

But if Klitchko is considered the most dangerous opponent of Louis...you must have him rated very highly indeed.

 

I can see your point, but it’s damn strange that an inactive and even more overweight Mercer—who couldn't beat guys like Jesse Ferguson or Marion Wilson—performed much better against a far superior Lewis. Mercer actually has a terrible résumé, even compared to Vitali’s. McCall, Mavrovic, Rahman, and Bruno all performed better than Vitali did; so I don't understand why it’s Vitali’s fight with LL that defines him as an H2H monster, while the others—who fought a better version of Lennox and were quite competitive (sometimes very, very much so) or even outperformed him—don't get the same recognition.

 

His H2H status is not defined by one fight, it is defined by his career...and that is why I don't habe him nearly as high as Vitali, Usyk, even Mercer H2H, NOT ATG. When we imagine these mythical lists we are surely using the absolute best version of any fighter, a mythical version who has 100% of the attributes they have shown for 100% of the fight we imagine. My 100/100 Lewis has more flaws than my 100/100 Vitali, Usyk or Mercer whilst being comfortably higher than them all on my all time top ten list. My 'method' of looking at H2H fighters may be unorthodox; I don't know how others make theirs, but I am consistent with myself and that is all I can be.

Lewis beat Bruno, Mercer, zelko etc in fights he was supposed to win. He was younger, fitter, fresher. He didn't have to 'go to the well' to do so. He never took punishment like he did in the Vitali fight and whilst that fight DOES NOT DEFINE his H2H status, it was the one that convinced me he was a handful, had heart...I'd always thought him a little 'flaky' in my younger days. Another fight that showed Lewis as a fighting man was his war with Briggs. Jeez, he showed he liked a fight in that one, didn't he. Dumb, foolhardy, but devil may care. Lewis was a bit of an anomaly. A boring, methodical chess player, a seek and destroy marauder (Ruddock), a bar room brawler (Briggs) and an ageing gun fighter going out on his shield but turning it around with four bullets in his chest (Vitali).

It is this range of crazy that means I mark him higher in a H2H list than many..

....for what it is worth, Holyfield and Bowe both rank very highly in my H2H list.

Anyhow, we seem to be going round in circles. Lots of people don't rate Vitali, and that is absolutely cool. I do. Its a funny old world ain't it? I read and respect y'all opinions because as JS Mill posited, ' if the entire human race shared one opinion and only a single person held the opposite view, society would have no more right to silence that lone individual than that person would have to silence the rest of mankind'

Thanks for your thoughtful reply as ever. Have a wonderful day, Px