Did Vitali retire to avoid Rahman

Corrie Sanders brutally destroyed Wladimir Klitschko, who was the #1 contender at the time if memory serves...as he is currently.

Johnson--he'd beaten Maskaev and Donald in the same timeframe as Rahman going 1-3-1. They were as good or better than Barrett, and did it more impressively.

These guys were both at Rahman's level going into the Vitali fight. Rahman was better at his peak than either of these guys, but he was definitely no longer at his peak.

 

But that's the problem--Rahman did NOT show up in the better fights. He lost to Tua, Ruiz, and Holyfield, which were all major fights. He only showed up against Lennox Lewis.

 

Put it another way--Vitali's opposition throughout his career was mediocre. But Hasim Rahman would have only been another mediocre opponent on the ledger if the fight had come off. I see nothing differentiating him from the slew of equally questionable opponents that Vitali faced instead of going after the other beltholders or young contenders.

 

Nope. He was a legit contender, but not a very good one. Like the other "filler" in Vitali's resume.

That's another issue, though. Vitali wasn't a great fighter, but he was a much better one than the version of Rahman he would have been facing.

 

Looked over Brian Nielson's resume again. There are certain similarities, but he never beat a fighter ranked in the top 10 by Ring Magazine (at least, I do not believe so) and his loss to Ryan is far worse than Vitali's losses to either Byrd or Lennox.

 

He only beat Toney after Vitali made the decision to retire. As to the Tua fight--that is the same sort of reasoning given for Vitali's two defeats by Klitschko fanatics. He lost one fight and drew the second, neither of which are really impressive. Also lost to John Ruiz.

 

No, they wouldn't have granted a fifth postponement. Again that is not the issue. Vitali held the belt hostage for as long as he could.

He should have relinquished the belt, and had an injury layoff. That way he would remained in the rankings by legit means, rather than via the "Emeritus Champion" bull****.

Instead he "retired due to career ending injuries" that miraculously weren't career ending once Rahman was out of the picture.

 

He got injured, plain and simple. Funny how he's scared shitless of Rahman to some people but was running after Lewis for 1 year to get a rematch, don't forget that he took the first fight on short notice.

 

Yeah, a near 40-year-old Lewis. I didn't see him running after Lewis when he was 25 to 30-0 and Lewis was in his prime... :think

He had no choice. How would it have looked if he turned it down.
Both fighters were training and both took the new opponent on short notice.

 

You're drifting from the issue. The issue is whether Vitali was afraid of Rahman and ducking him. If Vitali had wanted to duck Rahman, postponement or an "injury" layoff amount to the same thing. Both delay the fight but do not eliminate it, and neither is a very good method for ducking anybody.

Again, if Vitali was afraid of Rahman why wouldn't he recover from his injuries and fight for another belt instead? And why do you conclude he was ducking Rahman at all when Vitali was actually injured?

As I said above, the method he used was irrelevant. Postponement or injury layoff amount to the same thing.

I'm honestly beginning to think you're arguing for the sake of arguing, or for annoying Klitschko fans/fanatics, rather than trying to have a serious discussion. If so, please tell me now. There are always other, more serious threads I could resurrect discussing the issue. :hey

The answer to your objection is obvious. He ran for mayor and was retired for three years before coming back. Nobody in their right mind would be willing to take a permanent job and waste three years of their prime just to be able to avoid a lackluster fighter like Rahman. That's absurd.