Prime: Vitali Klitschko . Vs. George Foreman

Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying Byrd BEAT Vitaly?

 

It's a known fact that Vitaly had problems with injuries. Or did he retired for 4 years because he was scared?

We can have a discussion about the Lewis fight but saying that Byrd BEAT Vitali makes anyone look like an idiot.

 

That's interesting, becuase it clearly says 'L RTD9' on Vitali's record for the Byrd fight. An RTD loss is still a loss, hence Byrd certainly did beat Vitali.
http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?cat=boxer&human_id=7033

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc5a4N9c_T8&feature=related[/ame]
Go to 5:57...
"It's over we are giving up."
"It hurts too much."

 

So how do you classify the outcome of the fight?? A loss but not really?

 

Vitali lost to Byrd. It's not like he was robbed, he retired on his stool and on his own accord. Byrd was then presented the title Vitali had held. That's a loss. I'm not saying that we should judge Vitali based on one loss but I'd say that his brother handled Byrd better than Vitali. Vitali handled Sanders better than Wladimir.

 

Couple points to add. Byrd was having his best round before Vitali quit. He landed his best shots. Vitali had never gone that deep in a fight. Byrd did something to make Vitali quit. It showed a flaw in the guys character at the time as much as anything.
He did rebound from it, and I think he became a better fighter because of it, but at that time, he lost for more reasons than the shoulder injury.

 

He was missing a lot which may have aggravated the injury. I thought he was expending a lot more energy than he should have and displayed his lack of experience at the time. Wladimir did a great job in dispatching Byrd in his very next fight.

 

Yes he completely tore Vitali's supra-spinatus tendon. Not sure if that is an accomplishment to Byrd's credit as a boxer but it did win him the fight and handed Vitali his first loss.

Vitali probably is happy that he made a full recovery, it wasn't at all clear as the extend of his injury became public. Partial disability (limited range of motion) from a fully torn supra spinatus is not uncommon. He obviously had world class specialists for his surgery.

Here's some history on Vitali's injuries. He's been plagued:

2000: Torn Supra Spinatus. Operation in Hamburg, Germany.
2001: Knee tendon torn (left knee). Operation in Vail, CO, USA.
2002: Elbow and lower back pain. Operation in Heidelberg, Germany.
2005: Knee tendon (right knee). Operation in Inglewood, CA, USA.
2007: Lower back pain. Operation in Innsbruck, Austria.

 

foreman by 3rd round ko