I'd list Jerry's most important fights and there were A LOT OF THEM 1-ALI I (THE GREATEST) 2-FRAZIER I (NYAC ALL THE MARBLES) 3-ELLIS (WBA ALL THE MARBLES) 4-ALI II (NABF) 5-FRAZIER II (FOR A SHOT AT TITLE) 6-PATTERSON II (ELIMINATION 1/4 FINALS) 7-SPENCER (SEMI-FINALS) 8-PATTERSON I (FOOT IN THE DOOR) 9-LYLE (COMEBACK FROM OBLIVION) LYLE 19-0. 10-FOSTER (MAC 24-0 NO.1 CONTENDER) 11-MATHIS (FOR A SHOT AT FRAZIER) 12-SHAVERS ( EXCEPTING THE CHALLENGE) 13-NORTON (VACANT-NABF) 14-CHUVALO (GRANITE GEORGE) 15-MIDDLETON (UP AND COMER IN LONDON) 16-BODELL (JACK HAD 3 TITLES) 17-MACHEN (UNDEFEATED 2O BOUTS) 18-LONDON I (IMPORTANT BOUT) 19-ALONGI I (MSG NY DEBUT) 20-(TIE)-ZANON/NEUMANN (COMEBACKING "MUST WINS")
Very good points Colonel sanders. I touched on this earlier, Vitalis resume is poor, i believ Peter and Adamek are his best wins because outside of their losses to him, both men had good careers. Point about Sanders, prior to beating Wlad, Sanders best wins were.....Michael Sprott and Bobby Czyz.
Getting stopped by 3 fighters combined, one of whom is perennial bridesmaid Norton, is no worse than getting stopped via cuts TKO by Lewis? Talk about a framing an argument.....that takes some mental gymnastics and a love for all things 70s that borders on hipster doofus level to type with a straight face.
Even with lesser competition, Vitali's run & # of victories has got to rank him at least top 15. Do you know any other long term champion who you could argue was at least not close to the top 10? The competition cannot be THAT much worse. Also just the increased average size would reduce the gap in outcomes, even if the skills are reduced. It is one factor. Not top 25 as a HW seems extreme. Wherever you rate Quarry. Who besides many more losses & 4 draws when still young just never had anything like a near 9 year win streak. Though I can see a critique that he averaged less than 2 fights a year during that period, he still has the best KO5 in his wins.
to be fair lots of HWs shiit on vitalis resume, because he was never the number one hw, always lagging behind someone else. vitali is really a good contender.
Two very difficult fighters to rank over the other. One of them has a long list of better wins, while the other was seemingly nowhere near as vulnerable. I'm not sure Vitali should get extra points for holding a fragment title. In Quarry's day to be champ you had to beat either Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali or George Foreman. The one exception of course was when he got a shot at Jimmy Ellis for the vacant crown in a fight which from what I was told could have gone either way. I think in addition to Peter, Adamek, and Sanders we can also ad Herbie Hide and Kirk Johnson as being decent wins. Kirk was terribly out of shape but had a pretty good career up to that point.
resume = stoppage losses too and we know whom had more of them. Quarry even got KOd, not just stopped, by someone whom could never stop Vitali. Vitali could beat any1 Quarry beat. Reality realm also includes far more than resume, which is why my vcash is worth 3.5 times of yours and it would have been even more if you tried to bet, and lost.
Haha. Nice try. Vital was ring magazine champion and rated 1 by all parties that mattered including fight news and box rec. Quarry never achieved that status. Quarry was blown away vs Ali, Frazier and Norton. All stoppage losses and he wasn't very competitive in them save the first few rounds of the Frazier fight. Vitali was more than competitive in Every fight he was in. Even when was injured or took a fight on two weeks notice Did Quarry even win an alphabet belt? Look at how many title defenses Vitali made. Many of the top names for Quarry were blown up heavies and cruiser weight types. This is a fact. Vitali eats them all alive and beats anyone Quarry did in a more convincing fashion.
I think that Vitally Klitschko rates higher head to head, than he does in terms of resume, and I can see a case for putting Quarry higher in terms of resume. It doesn't really matter what would have happened if they had actually fought, because its all conjecture at the end of the day.
