Its amazing the way he came back after 4 years...I think he improved after the Lewis fight and gained confidence from that fight...he was walking through tough fighters like Kirk Johnson,Corrie Sanders and Williams.....now the guy is 37....how good would he be if he did not have 4 yrs off
Assuming he had no injuries and fought 5-7 times in those years, he might be starting to look a bit worn because of taking the extra punches, although he's pretty good at his lean-back defense. I shudder to think what the heavy's would look like though. Many think it's bad now, but what if BOTH Wlad and Vitali were fighting the best guys they could for the last 4 years. They wouldn't be able to fight each other's leftovers, so the top names would have been gone much quicker unless one lost, and then we could have "revenge of the brother".
He would've had a very solid resume, and Wlad would've stood in his shadow. The fact that he beats two top5 contenders back-to-back while only losing one round (rnd 1 tonight) in both fights combined, and winning both by knockout, after a 4 year layoff and at nearly 38, is impressive as hell.
He might've looked very good, but then again, he might've just suffered more injuries. That time off apparently helped his body heal, but even then, he suffered an injury in his scheduled comeback against McCline.
The four years Vitali was off let Vladimir rebuild his reputation. Now that they are both on top of the division, the Klitschko brand has gained strength. It's a shame that the cut caused the loss to Lennox Lewis because Vitali had won over the crowd in Los Angeles and the Klitschko brothers may have become more popular with american sports fans. I think Vladimir should pursue a fight with Areola in L.A. and the brothers should actively promote the fight with appearances on the talk shows like Vladimir did on Conan O'Brien before the Ibragimov fight. Also it would help if the fights ended in spectacular knockouts and not turn into 12 rounds of snore inducing pitter-pat like the one mentioned above.
The time away from the ring may have helped more than anything. At least he is healthy now. Sure that it robbed him of several fights, but Brewster, Briggs, Liakhovich, Ruiz, would not have improved his legacy much.
Vitali would be champion today with an even better legacy and more of a right to be the man at HW than now.
You're right. I mean destroying a shot weak chin Barrett proves it right? Lol wasn't Haye even knockdown by Barrett? If Haye fought the same way vs Vitali the way he did vs Barrett, Haye won't last 6 rounds vs Vitali that's for sure.
All in all, it was for the best that he took the time to recover; had he kept fighting, I think he'd have burned out by now.