Anyone siding with me here? I know Vitali gets a lot of credit for being tough and "natural born fighter" who allegedly adepts better than his brother when gameplan A doesn't stick but honestly, I don't buy it. The consesus is that Wlad is the more skilled one and yet I'm surprised to see people rate toughness/heart/chin over skill. Having a good punch resistance is valuable but being ridiculously skilled a privilege and while Wlad probably does lack the former he negates it WITH EASE with the latter. Let's be honest, his chin is a non-issue these days. Vitali's last bout versus Chisora didn't answer any questions as to whether Vitali has aged over night after humiliating Adamek in front of his homecrowd or whether Chisora was just an unfortunate style match up for him. I assume it's the latter and furthermore, this is one of the match ups in which Wlad would've fared significantly better. Boxing fans tend to underestimate a good jab and, quite frankly, Wlad's jab makes up for his vulnarabilites big time and is much more valuable than Vitali's toughness. Chisora was highly competitive for 12 rounds and even though Vitali won 8-10 rounds he won virtually all of them worringly close while losing other fairly clearly. In fact, he looked uncomfortable in round 12 being in the ring with Chisora. Klithuggers will be all over me for this, but Vitali won this fight purely based on him being way taller. All I'm saying ist, don't overerstimate toughness. It's fine to have, it's a popular trait among boxers but masters of the game will have no need for it and Wlad's skillset is visibly superior to his brother's. Current Wlad is better than any version of Vitali.
Very good post but try comparing how this version of Wlad would do against the Lewis Vitali fought? were talking about Heavyweights here, one shot can change it all, Wlad is a good technician but if someone was able to crack his chin and keep hacking at it ala Sanders, Peters, Brewster then its lights out where as Vitali would take it and resume putting on a beating. Not taking anything away from Wlad but IMO Vitali is the better Klitschko prime for prime
