The guy couldnt fight with his knee... period. When his knee started to give out during sparring, he chose to retire. i dont see why or how anyone really comes to another conclusion.
Right. He had a bone spur removed which was pressing on a nerve, causing him pain in his leg, (and apparently also hindered his movement, as well), and once that was correctly and fully healed, and he was back to training for Rahman, then his knee tore, which required 6 months, minimum to heal before he could even start back training, all over again. So, after this second setback, he then realized it was best for the sport to not hold up the title any longer, and did the professional thing, and stepped aside to allow others to fight for the title, losing his 8 million dollar payday, in the process. Here's the bone spur details from an old article from ESB;
He fought Lennox (A far superior fighter) not long before and he desperately wanted Lewis again. He had hoped to fight Tyson ( and punished Williams severely for denying him the chance). And some folks think he was afraid of Rahman ??? A fighter he and most observers (and probably Rahman) knew he could demolish (if he was healthy). Foolish question.
No doubt. I heard these rumors that Vitali is scared of money, so he faked the knee injury and retired.:good
The short answer NO. Did it ever occur to you that Vitaly was actally injured? If Oleg can stop Rahman twice, odds are very high that a healthy Vitali would destroy HR. Instead you peddle these conspiracy theories and the reading of Vitali's mind. :-( Only Vitaly haters keep bringing up this lame and :dead argment. Debating Lewis-Holy II is one thing, this is just silly.
Noone avoids Rahman, it's the opposite, people want to fight Rahman because he is a "name opponent" and easy to beat.
He really wants to fight Peter after McCline. Rachman would have lasted 2 rounds,ala Kirk Johnson. Vit's no coward.:bbb
this is one of the most ridiculous discussions that's going on on esb. to sum it up: vitali wasn't afraid of lewis, who kfto rahman; not afraid of maskaev, who knocked rahman out twice; not afraid of kirk johnson, who almost killed maskaev, yet vitali stopped him in 2.
Yes, Vitali wants to show little brother how to stop Peter in his tracks. I predict Vitali would be the first to stop Peter, and he'd do it by late TKO.
I prefer to believe the injury problems were legit, and that Vitali had enough respect for Rahman not to come into a fight like that not at his best.
That was considered unlikely even at the time. Rahman was hardly leaving a trail of broken bodies on his way to the top--he won an ugly fight with Barrett to win the crown. As to whether Vitali was "afraid", you haven't provided evidence other than surgery-related cancellations and a vague claim of insight into his mind. The facts bear out that Vitali wasn't afraid--his opponent was not formidable, he had a long history of injuries, and he had legitimate surgeries to fix those injuries. Now, you can speculate that the facts don't matter since it's only Vitali's inner thoughts that count. But if you do that, you're speculating without any evidence at all, since you--like everyone else here--cannot read Vitali's thoughts.
IMO there's no doubt he retired due to injuries. They have plagued him for a long time, inevitably ruining the career of a guy many to this day might consider the best in the world. If Vitali doesn't fight at 100%, i wouldnt want him to fight...it would be a shame if he lost again due to injury or had to back out of another fight.
Rahman knocked out Lewis with one punch, something Vitali couldnt do, so he has verry much respect of this man. So basically yes, Vitali avoided him.