drop Jimmy Young into today's heavyweight picture..

I don't necessarily think that means that Young would....

Foreman was ill-prepared, poorly trained and not listening to Gil Clancy's advice when facing Young, then ended up throwing up in the locker room and seeing Jesus at the end of the fight...

Young was a crafty and durable fighter, but I don't see him beating either Klitschko brother, and possibly not david Haye either....

 

Chris Byrd did not "beat" Vitali Klitscho.. He was losing handedly in that fight, and was only awarded the win because of a voluntary corner retirement... You might say what you will about Vitali's heart, tougness, whatever, but the fact stands that it had nothing to do with what Byrd did to him... As for Lewis, he legitimately forced a stoppage, but was also behind on the cards.. The thing with Lewis was that he had the right combination of skills, size, power and other factors that led to landing a shot that caused that gash over Vitali's eye..

In order for any great fighter to duplicate these losses, they would either:

A. Have to have the same attributes that Lewis had, and hope that the same sort of cut would result from hitting him at the right place and the right time...

Or

B. Pray for another freak injury like a torn rotator cuff, and hope that Vitali would retire in the very same fashion....

These things do not bolster a very strong argument for automatically picking any great man against him.. Now, had he been soundly outboxed to a one sided decision by the much smaller Byrd, or dominated from round one by an aging Lewis, then we'd have a case.... As it stands however, the FASHION in which these stoppages occurred don't exactly speak volumes for how other fighters would take him...

 

Young was an elusive, tricky, defensive master cutie who was also tough as nails. he gave a woefully out of shape Ali one of his most difficult fights. He fought an outstanding fight against Ken Norton in the fall of 1977. In this close fight Kenny finally was awarded a very close decision but many thought Young nicked it. He went 3-0 against the two of the premier sluggers on the decade - Lyle and Foreman. He also held the fearsome Earnie Shavers to a draw in the early 70's after being kayoed by Shavers in their first fight. Before he got old and flabby in the 1980's Young was a premier heavyweight in the mid to late 70's.

He could easily beat all the contenders now but would probably lose to Wlad. I have him even money against Vitali and Haye. I don't rate Valeuv because he looks like he belongs in a freak show and I hope he retires soon for the good of the sport.

 

Young was a good fighter but lost interest after a close disputed loss to Norton and became lax and grew a pair of breasts that implied he lost all self respect. Even if you were not a fighter a man should not want to walk around with tits like he had for the 2 Ocasio fights. Young was crafty and an excellent defensive fighter, may have copped a crown from the lesser alphabet champs like Ruiz, Valuev,Chagaev, but would have trouble with the Klitschko's and a few others...Eddie Chambers fought a bit like him but when Young was fit he had quick hands, good legs and decent stamina but Young was better .

 

1. I think one can make the arguement it was bryd's defensive ability to make vitali miss that caused vitali to throw out his rotator cuff in the first place. Is it a coincidence that evander holyfield suffered the exact same injury against chris bryd only a few years later?

2. There have been a lot of untimely quit jobs over the years, but when you take the circumstances/conditions of the fight into place, this ranks up there as possibly the worst quit job of all time. This loss went unavenged too.

1. Age had caught up with Lewis. He was 37. The extra weight around his midsection didn't help him either. Only made him slower and less sharp. Lennox was ripe for the picking in this fight. He was in worse shape than he was against Rahman the first time. Vitali could not capitalize on this. I think many champions would have beaten this version of lennox lewis.

2. Lennox was starting to get to vitali. If you watch round 6, lennox was coming back and you could tell that cut was really bothering Vitali. I think had the fight continued, vitali would have wilted under adverse conditions again. just like he did vs bryd and just like he did in the amatuers vs oleg maskaev.

I feel these losses are only a preclude of things to come for Vitali. I don't think these are the exact scenarios vitali would lose to against other greats. I think vitali has demonstrated quite a few flaws on film that would allow great fighters to take advantage of vitali. I think vitali showcases a few of these flaws in these 2 fights.


Part of the reason vitali has the "greatest won/lost rounds ratio" in history as some vitali fans like to spew, is because he has fought such weak competition. Out of the 14 Alphabet Soup Champions from 2000-2010, Vitali has beaten just 2 of them.



I like Wlad over Young. Wlad has serious skills, jab, usage of angles/controlling the distance, and two fisted knockout power. Vitali, at age 38, would be too slow and plodding for young at this point me thinks.

 

:rofl..Very true about the tits and losing interest..but prior to this he was a defensive master whose work I admire very very much and think he beat both Norton and Ali. Young should have been crowned heavyweight champion in 1976...damn boxing politics and the Ali-worshipping judges with their belief that you have to destroy a champion to win the title. Young was deserving of the crown on points.

 

I have said this before in other topics Magoo there was more than one cut on vitali's face in fact there are three significant injuries one cut above his eye another nelowe his eye, both of these were bad enough to stop the fight on, he also had a lacerated and swollen lip.

Photos of Vitali after the fight show that Vitali had taken a huge battering over the first six rounds whether he was up or not on the cards, Lewis had found a home for his right hand in Vitali's face.

 

It doesn't change the fact that you still have to put a fighter in front of the guy who can hit him often enough and has the ability to cause the damage, and hope that history can repeat itself.. Not too many guys have been able to connect on him and do anything meaningful..

 

He'd be a world champ,for sure. Not too many around now could have beaten him. Maybe the Klitschkos could have. Would have been close fights.

 

wow. rehashed klit arguments.

fascinating.

 

Yeah, there aren't too many around as good as Randy Neuman.

 

I think Young's career today would mirror that of Chris Byrd. He may have grabbed a piece of a belt at the top of his game in today's world.

 

jimmy young = chris byrd

 

Think about the top men of prime Jimmy Young's era,though and compare them to now.