[GIF] Vitali Klitschko slipping backwards, being hard to reach

Great video thanks for posting. That's one of the big reasons that I loved watching him.

 

Nobody can say it's not effective. He's keeping his footing and leaning beyond the wingspan of his opponent. But That only works when you have the height. Two guys just as tall? No way.

 

Works against a certain level of fighter. Didn't work for him against Lennox Lewis and wouldn't work against any of the ATG HW's.

 

Gave him some scary moments against the 38-yo, inactive-for-a-year Corrie Sanders too.

 

Kind of reminds me of Monzon's tactic...

 

Vit really reminded me of Monzon vs Sam Peter.

 

Exactly. You fight a skilled tall man and those moves wont work well.

 

Here's a good reason not to use defense like that:

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And even with his height advantage, he can't counter effectively from that move since his weight is on the back foot.

 

Correct. There's no doubting however that He was a good champion.

 

He was. It really was a shame with the injuries and that the other dominant HW of the time was his brother. It would have been very interesting to see what he would have achieved otherwise.

 

If he slips a punch then counterpunches with that head movement he'd be better off.
Otherwise yes he gets out of the way but leaves himself open for a left hook plus he
can't get off a punch himself.

I agree it's too bad he had such injuries because he sure had more of a warrior's attitude than
Wlad did/does. If Vitali had Joshua hurt, it's all over.