I agree, except I see no dispute for his height being 6'7". I do not think Fury could evade enough shots or put a dent in him.
Fair Enough. Except that I dunno if Fury would dare a fire fight like Lewis did. And Vitali has more skill & throws higher volume than does Wilder.
Vitali threw a lot but didn't land a lot. His throw to land ratio was poor. Which means he would throw but wouldn't land a lot because he was slow and Fury is faster defensively. But in reality Vitali wouldn't throw as much once he realized how hard Fury is to hit clean. Wilder threw hail marys with speed and absolute savage stopping power. Vitali was a predictable arm puncher
You may be right about Vitali's punch to landing ratio, can you provide a source for that though? Individual fights prove nothing, but please link some commentary on it or statistics of many or all of his fights-or some of his major fights. Fury is faster. I am not aware that Vitali was slow for a HW-& not for his size. It does not compute for me to believe that a swarmer would not throw that much when it is hard to hit a guy clean. Vitali did not throw pitter-pats-he was more of an arm puncher, but given his leverage, size & strength he still hit pretty hard even for a HW, although not on Wilder's level. Vitali rarely lost a ROUND. For many years. I am happy to consider your position & certainly you can make an argument either way, but given his level of success, & you saying nothing positive about him, I am afraid you are amongst the hordes who at least overstate their positions because you psychological identify with a fighter, or have contempt for others-if only by comparison to your favorites. Feel free to go point by point with what I just said. But would you at least acknowledge that either fighter has a good chance here?
Individual fights matter because Lennox Lewis and Chris Byrd were the only noteworthy opponents he fought. We seen all throughout history that guys can have success at B&C level , then completely fall short at the top level. That happened to Vitali when he proved not to be good enough to take the torch from the faded Champ of the previous era. Tyson Fury passed that test with flying colours. Therefore Individual fights at the highest level tell a lot about a fighters ceiling. The punch stats are available with a google search.. Vs Lewis , Vitali's total throw to connect was 432 to 156. He threw over 200 more than Lewis to land only an extra 50. It also says he missed 276 punches in lets say 5 rounds , because he was mostly holding on in the 6th. 276 missed punches over 5 rounds on a guy who was plodding forward face first proves he threw a lot but had poor accuracy. Against Kevin Johnson he missed 800 total punches.. But Kevin Smith was awkward.. Yeah , so is Fury. Against Byrd - Klitschko landed 132 of 502 total punches (26%) . He struggled hit Chris Byrd cleanly. That individual fight matters because Fury is harder to hit than Byrd. Ike for context landed a connect % of 31 against Byrd Vitali was not a swarmer. He was an outboxer. His style was dependant on short range distance. His style was effective at beating small come forward plodders and thats why he picked guys who were his bread and butter. There's no range of styles on Vitali's record. He beat the same guy over and over. The Byrd fight showed his style doesn't mesh with movers. While Byrd didn't move his legs in that fight , he moved his head and upper body plenty. Fury had some of the best legs , movement and upper body defence in SHW history. He would befuddle Vitali and reduce his output by half. Fury on the other hand can swarm , box at range and box on his feet. He has more ways to beat Vitali than vice a versa. Look how poor Vitali was inside when he was being swarmed by Lewis. Louis Ortiz also rarely lost a round. Thats not an argument because Vitali never won any rounds against someone of Fury's calibre.
I am not sure what you are talkng about. Vital's resume is pretty average particularly considering that he lost against the best 2 opponents he fought.
I gotta say you make some excellent arguments! I This content is protected cannot disagree with your points, but have some objections, mitigating circumstances, & questions. Norris, Bean, Kirk & Kevin Johnson, Arreola when undefeated, Adamek & Gomez each ~ 44-1, Briggs, some of these guys also with 0-2 losses only... It is false that Dr. Steelhammer only fought 2 live fighters & all bums. Yes they were not ATGs, but they were largely A-B fighters (A fighters are not just ATGs), & almost ALL boxers, & certainly HWs, feast on many lesser fighters. If you added up the record of all those he fought it would be Top Notch. The last at least 29 fighters he faced had an amazing W-L record. Yup you can pick apart their opposition too: but even '70's Ali could receive that treatment, & Vitali had no gift decisions. Some say compubox is inaccurate, but I have no good cause to dismiss it here. Still if he is landing more even if inefficient, that can work very well indeed. If like say his relative physical opposite Marciano he is not wearing down himself but breaking down opponents. Nobody critiques all the misses against say Moore because he drowned him. He had excellent endurance, as did Vitali for his size... The landing rate was similar to Ike vs. slippery Byrd. I just do not understand how you can say he was an outboxer This content is protected depended on short range distances. With his jab & length & in close fighting I think he did both. With Lewis, he did lose fair & square, but it was a relatively freak occurrence, & he was up by a couple of rounds. Fury gets credit for his performance against his brother, BUT it is limited because Wlad was so gun shy, seemed psychologically inhibited...It was facing a top boxer yes, but his actual *performance* was more faded than Lewis was. I never saw that he was so inaccurate against a 256 lb. Lewis, you have a good point there. Althugh he got better later, that counts for something!
Norris, bean, Kirk & Kevin Johnson were bum fights that prove nothing. Lets breeze past them. Adamek was a puffed up 175lb and was literally half the size of Vitali. What did Briggs do to get a title shot? He was operating at club level at the time. Fighting in hotels , bar rooms and such. Sam Peter was totally washed as was Sanders up so it leaves Chris Arroela as his best win because he was prime. Otto Wallin , Whyte and Chisora are as good as those guys , but I would never make the argument that Fury was good because of those wins. Fury was good because he is a multi faceted and multi dimensional boxer with the most fluid movement ever seen for a man his size. He has a genius level Ring iq and reads the game better than Vitali does. Wlad wasn't gunshy he was made gunshy . Two years later Wlad showed he could still flatten a target that was stood in front of him. Fury out manoeuvred and out skilled Wlad. Wlad had Fury problems , not personal problems and Wlad was technically better than Vitali on the front foot. Thats why he was able to destroy Byrd. Vitali was better at beating guys on the back foot , hence why he easily beat Arroela and Peter Well , why don't you name me a fight in which Vitali was a swarmer?
You know his record better than me, but without any evidence, just asserting a premise I do not accept that 4 guys with superb records were "bum fights". I accept that records are usually padded-but that also applies to ATGs. It is too much to say that when collectively these guys hardly ever lose in many fights that they were all "Winos from the Alley". Unless that alley is actually Paradise Alley! You did not answer how someone could be a short range outboxer, that is a contradiction in terms. I guess it could be half-true for a man who was way shorter, shorter arms than his opponents so could only jab in close. I suppose that it is fair to say Vitali is a hybrid, but anyone throwing so many punches, & not making elusiveness a priority like a boxer type & not mainly landing jabs is at least partly so. You have somewhat of a point on Wlad-but I do not think that the evidence supports that Wlad was not also afraid to pull the trigger. Fury gets much credit, but when a guy rarely throws leather, not just misses, it is not all his opponent... Please do not misuse " This content is protected " in speaking with a literal guy lol! Although if This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected
You did not answer how Vitali was a swarmer. He was an out-boxer and short range boxer. When Fury takes it to him in close he'll be out of his depth just like he was against Lennox Lewis. On Wlad being gunshy , was he not gunshy against David Haye when he was in his absolute prime? Did Haye not go 12 rounds in that fight because Wlad was being to tentative to throw hands? Fury implemented a game plan of movement and angles because he knew that was Wlads weakness. Wlad doesn't tend to throw unless he knows he will connect. Vitali would face the same stylistic challenge of not having an opponent stand in front of him.
