Is Vitali Klitschko an ATG?

I still like and admire Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano, and I still go over their entire pro records and say to myself: "Who The Hell is That Guy?" I think Louis and Marciano are all-time great fighters, but I also feel they've got some serious padding on them records too....... But hardly anybody complains about that today............ So, why not cut Vitali Klit some slack.?.?
hat

MR.BILL

 

I cut him some slack, thats why I say I think he has improved a lot and would now be competitive with some of the better guys, but just not sure how much. He still has that big flaw that separates him from a lot of great fighters, and thats the ability to fight when boxing goes out the window.
You have to take into consideration what he did in the Lewis fight. There are no other comparisons to use with Vitali, because Lewis even at the end of his career was still leagues above the rest of the fighters Vitali has faced and Lewis exposed that flaw that I talk about. Vitali sunk like the titanic when Lewis closed the gap, and that leaves a huge question mark in my opinion.

 

Foreman could very well KO Johnson at 42-44 years old.

He honestly has, just not officially.

Vitali's chin is gravely overrated. I think Arreola shook him up and I know Lewis had him seeing stars. His surviving skills are good, he holds/clinches for dear life and drags himself on your body moving you across the ring. That's the sign of great surviving skills, not an iron chin. See Lewis vs Vitali and Sanders vs Vitali (Flops like a fish via round 1).

 

I would say no his resume is very thin, I can't think of any boxer who I regard as all time greats with a worse resumes.

 

Absurd, Foreman couldn't even KO the great boxer/spoiler Tommy Morrison.

:rofl


And Vitali's career can only be placed in proper context until long after he's retired.

 

Vitali's resume is lacking somewhat.

Head to head he is a beast though, he will go on for years more just because he throws a lot of punches. The ultimate style.

 

Top 100? No.

However, he is in my top 30 heavyweight list, which is good since he hasn't retired. I doubt he'll have many more wins to enhance that (unless he beats Haye, Povetkin and other very good challengers) but that's doing very well since many of the people he beat haven't retired yet and are likely to increase their standing as time goes on.

Some people focus on statistics and "firsts" (selectively, of course; no-one thinks much of Lamar Clarke or Edwin Valero) but that ignores Vitali's key claims to fame: a good performance against an ATG (Lennox Lewis) albeit one who was admittedly past his best and out of shape and unfocused and totally unmotivated, and consistency throughout his career against many decent opponents. Many heavyweights can claim one or the other, but few can claim both.

 

The key difference is that Morrison turned up in shape and Kirk Johnson looked like a beached whale.

 

atsch

He was refering to Kevin Johnson.

 

Actually, extremely high KO percentages, never being floored and rarely losing rounds are signs of being protected, not being great. Great fighters fight great opposition and therefore having to struggle to win.

Coming back when you're older is a sign of longevity, which isn't the same as greatness.

Vitali's claim to fame is his consistency at a world level and his performance against Lewis, neither of which are top 100 P4P material.

 

That's even worse. Kevin Johnson is mediocre and unproven as well as fat and lacklustre. It's an insult to Morrison to compare him with someone like Kevin Johnson, who should be banned from championship boxing for the rest of his career and arrested for wasting the valuable time of the ring-doctor.

 

I agree, and regardles of any of those other wonderful statistics listed, its still against an absolutely horrible group of fighters.
Really when you think about it, there was plenty of worthy contenders that could have enhanced Vitalis career had he chose to take on some more dangerous fighters.
I kind of liken it to Joe Calzahges run, only worse. At least Joe was able to get rid of Jones and Hopkins. On paper their records look really impressive, but realistically lack a lot of depth and substance.

 

Its also a sign that the division stinks,and has done throughout his reign.
Not his fault but, not only has he never beaten a great fighter,he has never beaten a very good one.
Just watched the last 6 rounds of his defence against Johnson.
Vitali looked to have lost some steam off his right cross and also a bit of accuracy and fluency in delivering it, he was also reachable with a jab, not usually easy to do.
That said Vitali made what fight there was.He came forward and threw punches .Johnson was deplorable,in survival mode for all the last 6 rounds ,I don't know if he was more aggresive earlier,but he was content to go the distance from what I saw.
Johnson seemed to absorb Vitali's head shots well ,but threw nothing in return
Referee Kenny Bayless ,would have been justified in warning Johnson to up his work rate imo. The challenger never went for broke ,his corner must have known he was way behind , but it made no difference to his actions.[ I won't call it fight], in short he stunk the joint out.
I would fine him for impersonating a challenger.
Vitali looks like he might have gone back a bit,but to be fair its hard to look good against a man who just wants to survive, it was the public who took the punishment,as another unproven and unqualified "challenge " was foisted on a gullible public.

 

I give up..... BUT! I still insist that any ex-champ going back to 1887 if he was pitted against Vitali Klit in a time machine would **** a brick in his shorts and give V.K. some respect once the action in the ring got going.... Resume or not, V.K. can fight and take a good wallop as well.... No ex-champ is gonna go through V.K. like a hot knife through butter...... I know goddamn well that ain't happening...... Cheers.....

MR.BILL