How on Earth could Vitaly be so successful?

Kinda like Golota getting respect from losing to Bowe, twice. :smoke

 

He did better than Holyfield against Bowe, where Holy gained so much respect....you can lose a fight in boxing without being truly beaten by the other guy. The fight - ending punch happened in the third round, a round that Vitali won clearly. Without being outpointed or knocked down, a loss is a little different than if the other guy actually was clearly better.

 

It was skin and some subdermal tissue, his eye was not harmed at all. Cuts are overrated in terms of danger to a fighter's health, just because it looks gory doesn't mean an injury is dangerous. Even if the cut would have worsened, it would have been nothing that modern plastic surgery can't fix The monster uppercut Vitali took in that fight probably posed much more danger to his long term health than the cut. You can fix skin injuries, but not retrieve lost brain cells.

 

Smokin Joe, I would point out that Vitlai is a smart fighter. He is a master or range, moves his feet pretty well, and is hard to hit with more than one punch.

Vitlai has great punch anticpation. Manny Steward says this, and he is correct. At 6'8", he can lean back and make shorter guys miss. See the Williams, Johnson, or any of his fights. They punch air many times.

In additon, Vitlai is an intimidating fighter in stare downs, and keeps the pressure on. Few fighters can match Vitlay punch out put.

Vitali can punch, take a punch, his hand speed is pretty good, and he can hit guys on odd angles. His skill level is good as well. Vitlai is just not a text book technician. I think part of the problem is Vitlai is 6'8", and tall people just don't look as smooth in general.

Smaller men can't get past his size, jab, power, work rate, ect... Many big fighers just don't have good chins, stamina, or smarts. Vitlai does.

Regading Vitlai boxing ability, are you aware he has the best round won to rounds lost ratio of any heavyweight in history? Better than Ali, Louis, Holmes, Tunney, ect.... Its true. Vitlai has never been down on the cards after round three in any of this fights, and I say round three because he lost round one once.

Vitali was also never floored by a punch, and has the highest knock out percentage in the hisotry of the entire sport of boxing. Two injires are why he lost, and he did well in both fights, and neither Lewis or Byrd would accept a re-match. Vitlai beats Bryd in a re-match for sure. Maybe Lewis is harder to call.

Vitlai is a pretty good fighter if you ask me.

 

winning every fight on cards and before beeing pulled out and winning every other fight except 1 by ko is not bad.

 

Is has alot to do with his back ground in kick boxing.
The kick boxing style of fighting is different than boxing.
He simply adapted.

 

He had dangerous power, very tough chin, incredibly long reach and good movements for a big guy. Its not hard.