Jess Willard vs Vitali Klitchsko

Timo Hoffman was not a bum club level fighter. He won silver medals in major amateur tournaments, and Intercontinental Heavyweight titles as a professional.

Willard never face a big man on Hoffman's level and that's a fact. While Hoffman wasn't exactly top ten material in his time, he could very well out box Willard or beat some of the opponents who defeated or drew with Willard.

Open your eyes, Willard was a stationary low guard type, many the worst defensive heavyweight champion of all time.

 

intercontinental title? thats for upcoming prospects trying to confirm their top ten status. exceptionally hard sell, mendy.

"open yor eyes"? take a look at yourself, trying to prove that this eurolevel guy is better than the hw world champ. I hope to god i never have to see through your distorted lens.

 

More drivel

 

You've written enough already if you are in denial that lewis ripped vitalis face up in a few rounds, because it happened.

reality is drivel to you and the people who liked your post, good luck with life then!

 

You have obviously tried very hard to identify areas where Vitally is technically superior, and I find it quite telling that you have not been able to come up with very much.

You raise the matter that Vitally uses his jab to set up a right cross, while Willard prefers an uppercut or bolo punch. This could equally be used to argue that Willard had a better inside game, or that he set up a punch that was much harder to anticipate.

As for the respective merits of the forefoot rear foot stance, that debate is as old as boxing.

Come on now, Briggs is an irrelevance to this discussion.

He hadn't been world class for years when this fight took place.

 

That's a simple comparison of their styles and how they are superficially similar but in fact very different. The footage bears me out.

The footage shows that Vitali is hard to land clean on while being busy himself.

The footage shows that Willard is easy to land on while doing comparitively little.

Show me the boxing coach that says its better to throw bolo punches or to lead with uppercuts rather than a jab - cross combination and I'll show you an idiot.

What's not up for debate is that Vitali has great distance control and Willard does not. IMO that's due to the way they use their respective stances and reflects their boxing nous.

And yet he fought and beat better guys at that stage of his career than Johnson did Fact is, after Willard beat Johnson, JJ went on to fight a bunch of true barrel scrapings with maybe 2 out of the lot that could fight a bit. Briggs fought in comparison a murderers row (of journeymen) and he took an ungodly career ending type beating from Vitali before doing so. JJ mostly won his fight against Willard.

 

Don't knock Herol, he's the kind of guy that would argue Valuev is better than Lewis because he's got a bigger reach

As a matter of fact Vitali tried hard to make a match with 85 inch reach Valuev who declined.

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I HOPE I DIDN"T JUST BLOW DINO'S ARGUMENT OUT OF THE WATER

 

It might just be that Willard is up against somebody who is prepared to take some punishment to force the fight, and has a slightly better idea how to handle that sort of fighter.

The glove size might also play a role.

I could show you plenty of great fighters who have lead with an uppercut or bolo punch, and I could find a boxing coach who suggest that this ability should be part of your arsenal.

In which fights do you feel that Vitally particularly showcases this control of distance?

I think that who they were fighting leading up to the fight, is more important that who they fought after.

Johnson was the reigning champion going into his fight with Willard, while Briggs had not been world class for a while going into his fight with Vitally.

Frankly the fact that you are even bringing up the Briggs fight to bolster Vitally's record, is more a sign of weakness than strength!

 

Willard is hard to land on. Very little of what Jack Johnson threw at Willard landed clean.

If there was footage of Willard bouncing off the ropes into a punch like there is of Vitali, we wouldn't hear the end of it.

 

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Have a nice day, son.

 

Exhibit C:

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Floyd Johnson http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/16892 is a midget at 6'1, 195lb compared to Willard. Note how it is he that is forcing the fight and landing repeatedly on Willard with the greatest of ease. Willard sort of flails away up close and is clearly looking to maul the smaller man into submission. Willard has no defence. He makes guys like Pierre Coetzer look like Willie Pep.

Yeah, let's give Vitali little gloves and let him tee off on Willard

Willard is not a great fighter.

Find me a boxing coach that suggests that leading with a bolo punch over a jab/cross on a regular basis. And no, Herol doesn't count.

Pretty much all of them. Against Sanders he adjusted after a torrid first couple of rounds and managed to make Sanders miss repeatedly by fractions. Sanders is about twice the puncher Willard is.

LOL you brought up a "winning streak" consisting of bums, debut fighters and fighters with losing records .... and is more of a statement of how garbage Johnson is than anything else. Better that you'd have kept quiet.

 

I guess prime Roy Jones must have been really bad too.

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Or are you only allowed to judge fighters from cherry picked fights to show them in the worst possible light with certain fighters.

 

And David Haye was useless, yet he beat Chisora much more convincingly than Vitali.

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Can we mention that Willard was 41 and hadn't fought in 4 years when fought Floyd Johnson?
Willard was not a great fighter.Neither was Vitali ,imo

 

Very dangerous to try if the opposition is capable