Of the last 40 years, does anyone besides LL have a chance to beat Vitaly?

Pretty good list. I will add Joe Frazier and Andrew Golota.

 

He retired because he was no longer hungry for the sport and he achieved all his goals. It maybe had for you to believe but Lewis never intended to stay in the sport forever. He wanted to get out as soon as he achieved all his goals and financially stable.

 

Foreman would serve up a server beating.

 

Vitali would give ANY ATG HW boxer a very good fight. Vitali himself may not be a top ATG boxer (by achievement, not by head-to-head comparison) and unfortunately may never become one, but that doesn't mean he couldn't go to war with many of the best fighters in history and edge out a victory against many of them.

 

Vitali is no George Foreman, Foreman was a Murderer

 

Vitali is getting ridiculously overated here. Its not hard to see why, he looks very hard to beat.

But his skills are not great, he is hittable, he is awkward, robotic, slow.....he uses his size to great advantage, but against highly skilled monsters like even Holyfield, Frazier and Tyson, the only thing he has going for him is to outlast and outstrenght them, though this does give him a shot. He is not in the same league pound for pound. Let alone the bigger boxers like Lewis, Ali, Foreman, Holmes.

Its easy to look good against C level fighters whom you dwarf. Vitali is a very primitive fighter.

 

And the 'Vitali is a three time HW champion' stat is one of the most horribly misleading in boxing.

He has picked up three TITLES from subpar opposition. Dont even begin to compare that to Ali, Lewis and Holyfield holding the True HW championship multiple times.

Vitali has never held that title. Let alone thrice.

 

If you want to look at it like that why don't you just call him an African? Why don't we call Klitschko Kyrgyzstani via Germany via Ukraine?

 

Vitali doesn't hit like Lewis. Big difference.
Tua was fat in that fight too. Tua's best was a year or 2 before that fight.

Still think Vitaly beats him, but can't see him stopping him. Vitaly could do no more than wobble Lewis when he hit him right on the button, who according to this forum is as chinny as ****. How's he going to stop Tua?

 

Why should he have to face Vitaly again?

You name me ONE other voluntary challenger, who was legitimately stopped at the half way point of the fight, and was instantly made the mandatory challenger.

In reality, Lewis was just milking the belt for money. He admitted so not long before the Vitaly fight.

There's an interview around after the Tyson fight that says basically something like after beating Tyson, Lewis felt he really had no more to do in boxing, and he only fought Tyson because he felt it was something his career would miss if he didn't, even knowing Tyson was past it.
Then he looked around and thought he could still beat everyone, and was being paid loads of money to do it, so why not? Clearly he had zero desire and passion any more.

Anyway, find me another instance of the challenger getting more favours than the champ, and I'll find you a champ that can't be ****ed going on any longer.

 

King of Gays, err I mean David Haye by supersonic KTFO RD1...just as soon as he gets the WBC belt so he can negotitate a non-slave contract ;-)

 

Maybe Briggs that fought LL could have a punchers chance!

 

Yep, that's the truth right there. VITLAY has fought 2 decent fighters in his career and came up short both times. Notice I only say 'decent' not 'great' or 'prime'

If he'd faced prime versions of several fighters in the last 40 years he'd have got seriously, seriously ****ed up but of course that's unlikely to happen.

 

Vitali has always chased the rematch with Lewis. Why? Because he believes that he can beat him. I agree. Lewis was a good champion, but without the cut Vitali would have won. I don't want to bring up all the crap about this fight that has gone on this board, but that is how I see it.

 

Learn to read, ******! Let me repost my message to that other dude who can't read:
I don't dispute that Lewis won. But for the purposes of a discussion on Vitaly's skill level and the potential for past greats to successfully apply their strategies in a hypothetical match, the scorecards are more relevant than the fact that he lost on cuts.
Otherwise, it would be like saying: Usain Bolt isn't the fastest sprinter because he tripped and fell once.
Or: Michael Phelps isn't the fastest swimmer because he anticipated the start once.
Clearly, those are arguments only a mentally deficient individual would make.

To recap: this is not a discussion about the outcome of that fight! It's a discussion on Vitaly's skill level. How bad he was cut is irrelevant to a discussion about his skill.