How much does Vitali's comeback add to his legacy?

Vitali retired at age 33, with a record of 35-2 (34). His two most significant fights were stoppage losses due to injury, with Klitschko fully conscious and ahead on all scorecards. Though Byrd legitimately won the fight, most observers feel that Vitali had dominated him before the injury. The Lewis loss was a classic fight against a top-level ATG that did nothing to harm Vitali's legacy. After Lewis turned down a rematch and retired, Vitali won the WBC belt and defended twice in emphatic style, establishing himself as one half of the division's dominant force. Then he retired due to a growing list of injuries. So that was a good career for the big Ukrainian.

Anyway.

After four years away, he came back at age 37 and immediately challenged the consensus #2 guy in the division, a powerful pressure fighter whose only loss was to the reigning champion and who had gone 6-0 against good competition since. Vitali won basically every minute of every round and became the first man to stop Sam Peter.

In his comeback Vitali has gone 9-0 (6) against a variety of styles. He doesn't have a good division, but he tries to fight the best competition available. He has remained absolutely dominant against average to lesser competition up until the age of 40.

SO.

How much does Vitali's 2nd career help his historical standing? He still lacks career-defining victories against ATGs, but coming back after such a long layoff and being so dominant against mediocre competition has to add a lot. There aren't many fighters in HW history who could have taken 4 years off, returned at age 37 and remained undefeated against Vitali's competition for the next three years. :smoke

:hat