Facts about Vitali

"You can go back and delete the inactive claim now before someone notices."

"- Only active for 1657 days (39%) of the 4235 days that constituted the Klitschko era"

This is a fact so it won't be deleted. Vitali's win over Sanders started the Klitschko era but beyond that he was playing 2nd fiddle to his brother (2005-2015), retired or fighting weaker competition for the most part.

His first 24 fights were uniformly against stiffs, which is why he was a considerable underdog vs Hide in Britain. And he didn't need so many development fights due to any lack of maturity or experience: Vitali turned pro at 25 with 210 amateur boxing bouts and was a world kickboxing champion prior to that. In terms of quality opposition fought and beaten, I don't think he stacks up favourably with the top four heavyweights right now.

 

"mayor of kiev" = scummy "liberal" politician, currently on Putin's hitlist.

"But threads like this are the big downside."

Critical evaluations of boxers are not permitted on this forum.

 

I'd say that Sanders was the most dangerous for the first few rounds but Chisora had the best combination of physical and mental toughness and conditioning. Many would say Peter over Chisora but he quit in 8 vs Vitali, had previously been battered by Wlad, went 50-50 with Toney and got dropped 3x by McCline. And Peter shares mutual opponents with Chisora besides Vitali; Helenius and Pulev. Chisora performed a lot better against all of them. Chisora also dominated Kevin 10-2 with a KD, who gave Vitali one of his more difficult fights (probably trying to get Vitali to injure himself, which wasn't a bad plan).

 

"How much of this was down to lack of funding to get quality opponents"

K2 had/have deep pockets. Wlad didn't have a problem in this respect.

"You cannot always downgrade or down rate a fighter because of poor opposition"

Ducking is real and I have no doubt that Vitali was avoided by some but was Vitali being ducked as WBC champion? Wlad was less durable but he was also almost 5 years younger, far less injury prone, more athletic and hit a lot harder.

Vitali vs Byrd 2, Thompson, Ibragimov, Povetkin, Pulev, Haye and Fury would have all been interesting fights that would have told us more. Even Valuev, Helenius, Chagaev or Chambers over most of Vitali's defences.

 

I've posted the quotes earlier in the thread. Lewis wanted 3-4 fights before hanging up the gloves, had a tough controversial win over Vitali, didn't want to rematch as it was too great a risk to his legacy and retired to avoid it.

I don't blame Lewis for retiring, it was probably the right decision. If he didn't want to fight Vitali again then he didn't really have anywhere else to go without souring his legacy. Maybe Wlad but Lewis didn't want to risk getting cold KO'd again either.

It's perfectly possible to win a fight but die after, so it shouldn't be surprising that a fighter can be retired by his opponent in victory, as Lewis was.