Sonny Liston vs. Vitali Klitschko

FALSE! Vitali wasn't training for Purity 2 weeks before he meets Lewis.

He was training for 10 rounds vs. a relatively unknown and undefeated fighter.

Lewis was training for 12 rounds. Lewis had the advantage.

 

quote=Mendoza;17517130]FALSE! Vitali wasn't training for Purity 2 weeks before he meets Lewis.

He was training for 10 rounds vs. a relatively unknown and undefeated fighter.

Lewis was training for 12 rounds. Lewis had the advantage.[/quote]

Vitali was training to fight the undefeated 21-0-0 Cedric Boswell ,[not as I said Purrity,] on the Lewis v Johnson undercard ,and he actually went to camp before Lewis.

 

although since it was tko6, being fit for 10 rounds isn't a disadvantage, though being 37 is.. so no lewis actually didn't have an advantage, quite the opposite.

 

Neither of them has an outstanding ledger of wins by ATG standards, but if forced to choose between them, I would have to pick Liston’s.

Vitally Klitschko’s signature wins are basically Sanders and Peter. Most of his other name wins were either unranked when he fought them, or ranked in the lower half of the top ten. Ten out of ten for dominance, but a less than stellar bunch of contenders.

Patterson, Machen and Folley were fine fighters with very good records. The only thing you can really say against them is that they were a bit on the small side. Indeed Patterson is a borderline all-time great. The only reason you don’t see him on most top 20 heavyweight lists, is because of the way Liston beat him.

Of course if you treat size and power as unqualified measures of greatness, then guys like Williams are suddenly legitimised in the argument.

 

Vitali said he was more than ready for Lewis as he and Wlad had sparred a huge number of rounds (mimicing Lewis closely) together in anticipation of facing Lewis at some stage in the future.

 

Vitali was to be the next challenger after Johnson.

 

When do fighters not say they are not ready?! Simply stated Vitali was training for 10 rounds vs. a no name. Had he known for months it will be 12 rounds with Lewis, he trains much harder.

Vitali took the fight on less than 2 weeks notice.

 

^ Correct this time.

 

He took the fight on the same notice as did Lewis.He was to be Lewis's next defence anyway,[in December of that year]. Vitali was in excellent shape and his weight was just right, stop with the bullsh*t.You are convincing no one.

 

that's not a disadvantage since it was tko6.

extra fitness wouldn't have helped vitali at all. in fact, less fitness training left more time for other types of training, so vitali arguably had yet another advantage over lewis, who had to schedule in training for 12 rounds.

already said this but you keep conveniently ignoring the truth.

 

I cannot contain my indifference at the question of which of them had to make more adjustments to their training camp.

Such questions are only regarded as being of the most passing interest for most historic fights, and so it should be for this one.

 

Both of them basically stank as far as technique is concerned, it was more akin to Foreman v Lyle , but without the kd's

 

Vitail's technique improved post Lewis. Vitail also said they should not have stopped the fight. He said Lewis did not hit that hard, and he had him.

Anyone who thinks he would have not trained hard if he knew it was Lewis all along if full of it.

But this is a Vitali vs Liston thread. Liston never fought anyone like Vitali, but Vitali fought his share of shorter fighters who can punch.