How much Vitali quitting against Byrd should be hold against him ?

You left out ODLH vs Pacman. Anyway it looked like a judgment call in the corner. Nobody really knows what the fighter is dealing with so "quitting on the stool" is frowned upon of course.
To be fair though I believe Vitali bitched out and quit.

 

Neutral. He had a serious injury in a fight he was winning against a guy who wasn't in his class. And it was at a fairly irrelevant point in his career. He also proved his heart several times after that.

The two things that hurt Vitali's legacy are the layoff and that Wlad shared the division with him during his second reign and took most of the best scalps.

 

Considering he mocked future opponents who got stopped early, I'd say he deserves all the stick he gets and more. Having said that, his actions as Mayor of Kiev show he's brave and tenacious.

 

This. A rotator cuff injury is freaking painful to begin with but if you keep straining it you definitely make it worse. I think its very likely that he saw it as a pragmatic decision between winning a fight and quite possibly messing the rest of his career up or losing a fight and carrying on with his life. He probably didn't see beating Byrd as *that* important. It's certainly true that in the fight vs Lewis which WAS of great importance he was willing to go on with half his face slipping off.

 

sounds more like an excuse to me. He quit, it is what it is. People need to get over it.

 

Yeah he should’ve fought through it for us arm chair quarter backs - Byrd was an elite fighter and Virali had a career changing injury, the shoulders are never the same after that.
Vitali probably just respect enough for someone like Chris to realise he couldn’t win one armed - Who would?

 

Are you a Dr? Who says the shoulder is never the same after that.

 

Exactly!

I don't get this never-ending campaign to paint Vitali as a coward! At no other time during his career, did he show a lack of heart - and yet the Byrd fight is being brought up time and again, as "proof" of just that.

It makes me wonder, why the "no mas" thing rarely is being held against Duran... though it was surely far worse than Vitali quitting with an injury.

Another example is Holyfield bitching out against Sherman Williams! Why do we never hear about that? Why only Vitali?

 

Fighters have continued with worse injuries,fighters have continued with the same injury,Buddy McGirt v Whitaker for one.Vitali quit against a much smaller man who was a late sub. Vitali was winning and only had to gut out a couple of rounds against a light puncher to win the fight, he chose not to.The quit should be factored in when assessing his standing,how much is up to the individual assessing him.

 

It is not so much even the quit in itself, it is that Byrd would have arguably been his best career win. I mean who is his career best win? Corrie Sanders?. Vitali was very dominant but his resume is not just that impressive

 

I also believe Byrd caused the injury with his excellent defence Vitali missed alot of punches.

I think Byrd deserves more credit he was a late replacement, Vitali towered him, Byrd has no real power yet fought a brave fight vs the much bigger Vitali.