No. Vitali is holding a title that he won off of Sam Peter... who Wlad had already beat. Wlad has beat much better opposition and is clearly the true Champ. It's really isn't even debatable. Wlad was already Champ for over 2 years and the Unified Champ of the IBF/WBO before Vitali even came back from his retirement. The WBC title means absolutely nothing right now, because Wlad isn't holding it. The WBA title meant nothing when Wlad wasn't holding it either. You can't come out of retirement, fight for a title against a fighter that the true champ already beat... fight lesser opposition and somehow leapfrog in status over the true champ or become equal. I am a big Vitali fan, but that's just silly. The Champ makes the belt, the belt doesn't make the champ.
:good And Wladimir shows his strong mentality in 2004/05. He stays with Emanuel Steward, worked his way back to the top (alone, without a strong promoter), Wlad fights his way back (very hard fight against Samuel Peter). This shows very strong mentality.
I always thought Peter was overrated. It's very possible that the newer heavies emerging are a better crop. Adamek, Helenius, Povetkin, Wach, etc.
Peter was not overrated in 2005. He was a very hard hitting puncher and he takes every punch Wlad throws. So this fight shows strong mentality. The fight does not go as expected, but Wlad fights and won. After this fight Peter was broke. They change his style (before Peter was a brawler not a boxer) and this was the end of Sam Peter. In 2010 he was in better shape than against Vitali but Wlad won. But you are right Adamek is a much better boxer than Peter. But in 2005 Peter was a hard hitting boxer and this kind of boxer was more dangerous for Wlad than any other boxer. Styles makes fights. So this fight was a key-fight for Wlad. The loss to Brewster the circumstances around makes the fight more difficult for Wlad in 2005. But he shows heart and won a very hard and difficult fight. IMO Admak will be a much more difficult opponent for Vitali than the others before. Adamek will be in perfect shape and will have a game plan. Vitali is not undbeatable, and the fight will take place in Poland. This can be a factor too.
True that. At the time Peter was the next big thing in HW boxing and most people expected him to KO Wlad.
:good And this was the reason the IBF sets this Eliminator and HBO airs the fight. They expected Samuel Peter to KO Wlad. Wlad shows very strong mentality, he knows this would be his chance to become Champ again without a promoter. The winner could fight against the IBF Champ Chris Byrd. Wlad take the fight and he won it. The fight was very very difficult, Peter took all of Wlad´s punches, but Wlad stick to Emanuels plan and with Steward in the corner Wlad won the fight and deserves the shot at Byrd.
Byrd won against Golota. In 2005 it was a Eliminator. If Wlad fought against Golota in 2005, he never would have get a fight against Byrd. Wlad had no promoter who could have bought him a world title fight. He had to won the Eliminator. Just simple.
Had Wladimir not been allowed to hold 100 times in their fight in 2005, Peter would have knocked Wladimir out.
And yet another butthurt hayboy, with another completely off point remark about Vitali's brother about a fight from 6 years ago :dead