The guy has a sick ko ratio and is known to have power, but i thought this also vs arreola and sosnowski and again last night that his power seemed a bit decreased. he was landing bombs on briggs in the final rounds to get him out of there but just couldnt, briggs even smiled it off once in the 10th or 11th.
Vitali's stamina declined a bit IMO. He's 39 for Christ's sake. He was never a sick puncher and my take is the operations took a bit of snap out of him.
yes that is why i thik he will be seen as a atg heavy and a serious p4p opponent for everyone in history. You cant win rounds against the guy. To bad hayden doesnt go with vitali one night so we gan have some fresh brotherly hate which could give us the greatest fight the division has to offer.
his power most certainly decreased, he has nowhere near the power he once had. But the shots he landed last night would have stopped/KO'd the vast majority of the division. And Shannon got wobbled multiple times also, after 7 I didn't expect him to make it trough the full 12 and in 10 I was certain. Only he still did.
Up to the shoulder injury in the Byrd fight, in 27 Vitali bouts, only FOUR went past 3 rounds, so Vitali's power first declined there. He also chanced his style a bit for his comeback, got rid of the clubbing power punches and now throws mainly arm punches with better speed, volume and accuracy. So there was a decline of one-punch power about a decade ago plus a style change.
His change of style has to do also with his relatively small fists. He admitted he beats them into bloody mess in every fight. Similar to Joe Calzaghe changing his style because of china hands.
Maybe it the case.. Plus he was not hitting Briggs clean IN THE CHIN. The one punch landed flush on the chin I noticed was at the end of 7th and Briggs was ready to go.
It appears that guys like Briggs and Johnson were standing sideways a lot trying hard to not get hit flush on the chin. It works well as a defensive strategy if all you care about is not getting knocked out but it takes away any reasonable chance of mounting your own offensive.
Yep. His power decreased considerably after the Byrd fight and and has gradually decreased from fight to fight due to declining hand speed since his comeback.
As I now see it, the fact that it went the distance is not as big a reflection on VK's lack of power as was due to **** poor refereeing, and a very wreckless corner on Brigg's part. VK was dishing out the same kind of hellacious powershots he always does, and by rights, should have been awarded another TKO win......Fact. I think VK's power has apparently not diminished as previously thought, given the facial fractures, and possible neuro effects that Briggs has suffered. Hope he comes out OK. Maybe the statements Briggs made about VK"s power were based on the hellacious power he was taking, and he knew he was much more f*cked up than he was when Lewis and Foreman fought him, even though he did stay on his feet, it certianly should have been stopped and recorded as another TKO win for VK. Not as big a reflection on VK's power as previously thought, I would say.
