Let's review Vitalis big wins..

I can't say Vitaly can compare with the past heavyweight champs before him like Lewis, Holy and Tyson. But he did some things noteworthy for these anemic times at his division.


He stopped Vaughn Bean, Ross Purity, and Larry Donald. None of which had a KO loss on their records despite facing a lot of 90's top heavyweights.

He beat Corrie Sanders much easily than Rahman did. (Although for the record, Rahman's fight was more exciting)

He defended his title stopping Danny Williams who was riding high from a win over Mike TYson.

And some side notes that is also positive:

He was a legitimate beltholder at heavyweight.

He was giving Lewis as good as he got before getting stopped.

He was leading against Byrd before quitting. (A fact a lot of fans ignore is that Vitaly felt he is facing a career threatening injury. Who knows what could've happened if he went on.)

He may not be your ideal heavyweight champion, but at least he made haveyweight worthwhile during his brift stay at the top.

 

Reason and Logic :deal Nice Post.

 

No, he made his "legacy" by:

-LOSING to one of the top 2 HWs of the 90s/00s, and LOSING to another one of the better HWs of the time frame
-Beating a guy whose claim to fame was beating an old injured fighter who peaked in 1988
-Beating fringe contenders like Donald and Hide
-Beating out-of-shape contenders in Sanders and Johnson

 

For a short time period he was the best fighter in the division.

He shouldnt have quit the byrd fight and he learned his lesson there. He didnt "quit" the Lewis fight. The ref stopped it and it was a good stoppage. His ****ing eye was almost falling out.


His accomplishments in terms of legacy are obviously not alot, he doesnt have the wins, the longevity, ect. to be considered one of the best. I dont think anyone is claiming he is an ATG. For a while it seemed like he would be the next champion. Wlad was struggling and Vitali was obviously a better fighter than the likes of Ruiz, Toney, Byrd. He would have made easy work of them but didnt get the chance to.

 

Perfect assesment.

 

Decent fighter, but frankly nothing special imo; lewis was way out of shape in when Vitali fought him and getting very old.

i think Vitali would give any heavy in history a good interesting match, but he certianly wasnt a "great fighter", at least he never managed to prove that.

/Theo

 

Vitali took about 20 seconds to even find his corner at the end of the 6th round.

 

best assessment IMO. more than a few good performances, showing to be the most dominant heavy behind LL in late 90s early 2000s

 

Oh, is that right? atsch

 

With the present state of the hw division I can conclude that you don't like this guy much. Vk is the most talented out of the bunch, not giving him any credit is unlike your previous threads.

 

Hide was knowwhere near a huge favourite over Vitaly!! atsch

 

just how the **** was he robbed against lewis?

when you've had your face beaten to the point that it is causing potential damage to your eye and half your skin has fallen off, you've lost the fight, no robbery. end of ****ing story.

lewis tko6 vitali.

 

He wasnt robbed but he was winning that fight until the doctor, not lennox, TKOed him.