Larry Holmes vs. Vitali Klitschko

Larry by UD is the logical choice, if it's a 15 round fight Vitali gets TKO'ed

 

Matching older era fighters with the klits is usually so random bc the opponent usually never fought anyone nearly as big.

Larry fought Cooney or course who is almost as big but wayyy different fighters.

I think it goes to the cards. I think it could maybe edge Larry and I think it would be controversial either way.

 

It's Holmes for me via clean decision. Just a faster better fighter. His movement and jab would dictate the fight and when he invariably came off his toes he'd hold his own. The only fighter in Holmes class Vitali fought was a past peak Lewis.

 

Vitali certainly wasn't giving up rounds to Tim Witherspoon and the light heavyweights of the world. He hardly gave up a round to anybody besides Lennox, and while Lennox was a little past it, Vitali was way outboxing him. Vitali KO.

Holmes obviously greater with far better resume, but the dominance of Vitali in out-boxing everybody he boxed, even against his best opponents, make him the H2H better fighter in my mind.

 

Vitali Dec. He didn’t lose rounds like Holmes.

 

Hard fight to decide on.

Watching Holmes vs Cooney Larry certainly didnt look his usual dominant self at range, Cooneys height and own jab bothered him a lot, he had to pick his shots and ate a lot of licks.
Vitali knew how to use range to his advantage and was a high volume puncher so I expect it would be a war with grit Being the deciding factor.

 

The Witherspoon and Spinx Holmes faced would be the best opponents on Vitali's entire resume. They could actually box.

When your best opponents are Chisora, Peter, Briggs, and Arreola, it isn't shocking that Vitali didn't give up many rounds.

There are an awful lot of opponents far inferior to Holmes that Vitali failed to knock down, let alone knock out.

 

"Awful lot"? Nobody went the distance with Vitali until he turned 38, and he still has the highest KO to win rate of any retired HW champion. And man, I know he had to pull out a couple rounds early due to an injury, but he dominated Byrd almost every minute of every round in that fight. Byrd would beat Witherspoon 100% and would at the very least give Spinks a good fight.

 

Like he didn’t take rounds off Byrd, Lennox Lewis, and Juan Carlos Gomez. Sit your ass down.

 

You might want to try actually reading my post again. I said there were an awful lot of opponents Vitali couldn't knock down or knock out. I never said there were tons of people going the distance with Vitali. His power was very overrated and many guys were stopped on their feet despite his terrible resume.

It seems quite unlikely he could knock out Holmes who was KOd once in 75 fights when he was old and coming off 2 losses against a prime Tyson.

 

Vitali by clear decision

He almost never lost a round in his entire career.

 

A fat 38 year old Lewis in his last fight, and a feather fisted Byrd who was 34 lbs lighter. Two fights he lost.

So once again, not very amazing that he was rarely outboxed lol. Out of all the people Vitali BEAT, which opponents do you think Holmes struggles to outbox?

 

Probably has something to do with his god awful resume.

 

If they surgically destroyed Vitali’s shoulder and cut his brow open in the locker room, Holmes would probably win.