oh so now it has gone from 0 rounds to 2 rounds. the punch stats were near level and despite your "one arm" outright lie, if you had actually watched the fight, you would know that vitali was throwing openly and normally,even in the round before he quit. the fact is that vitali was missing a lot and was frustrated, byrd had just had his best round of the fight and vitali took the easy way out. if byrd had not have been coming on strong, vitali would not have quit. so byrd made vitali quit, and that is a fact.
Frankly, I don't think that many SERIOUS fans have ever claimed that Vitali Klitschko is an all time great... Just a very good fighter who for physical and stylistic reasons MIGHT have TROUBLED a few champions who were truly great, and frankly I agree. He's never managed to capture the imagination of the public nor really defeated anyone elite, but he's certainly pounded a large number of men who were well better than average. At nearly 6'8", a well conditioned 250 lbs, a solid chin, decent power and good outside fighting ability, he damn well could have given a lot of great fighters hell. That said, I agree with those who claim that his legacy ( and not his actual fighting ability ) isn't sufficient to make a signficant all time rating. He needed to win his fights with Lewis and Byrd to boost himself into the upper tier, but fell short, no matter how controversial those affairs were. In addition, losing 4 years of his career to injuries while being in his prime didn't help matters either.
Head to head or legacy wise? That's the most important question. Vitali is a hard fight for any Heavyweight in history bar none. His legacy though isn't near his potential.
A nice KO of Wladimir would put Vitali right in the top 10. :deal I'm not saying that's what would happen mind you, but it could. :yep
Cheer up Over 80% of Klitchko fans claim to have suffered some sort of shoulder injury in their sport days. You are not alone :good