His and Wlad's PHD are widely considered a joke in the Ukraine from a joke of a university that gives them away to athletes. He wasn't thinking about anything other than 'it hurt', just because he has a PHD doesn't mean he knows jack about rotator injuries, he didn't/doesn't, and once its ripped your not going to do a whole lot more damage to it anyway
lol You're pretty in touch with Ukraine.....i see. The University of Kiev is not a joke and Ukraine, Europe for that matter, doesnt hand out degrees to illiterate crack dealers because they can throw a inflated ball into a hoop. The fact that Klychko speaks Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, German, and English is all fake too.
anyways instead of posting relevant media. he quit because of a rotator cuff as we all know, and needed surgery. but stop making it seem like it was a noble & smart thing to do because you know had it happened to any other fighter it would of been a "oh he has no heart" trouncing by most here. solis tears his cruciet ligament and vitali has the audacity to bowl over and scream at him for quitting. you have no ground to complain. he had 9 mins to go. well ahead...byrd could not win in any other way.
Well did yours require surgery? Also keep in mind Vitali is a smart guy, and this is his how he makes his living. I believe his decision to stop had a lot to due with his career, which at that point was just starting to take off. Some shoulder tears are worse than others. Byrd got lucky here. If this were tennis, he was down 2 sets to 0, losing the third badly, then the other guy got injured and had to withdraw.
Do people honestly hold this against vitali? I mean unless your atg lists are based solely around courage (which he later proved against lewis, sanders and peter) but in that case you'd have to put guys like gatti at the top of your lists. Anyone objective can see the fight, see vitali was in control until the injury and I don't see a reasonable argument against that.
The hall of fame is fighters who quit with lesser injrues. Examples: Sugar Ray Robinson, Jack Johnson, Harry Wills, Ezzard Charles, Sonny Liston, ect...
I agree with your speculation. Vitali and Universum probably did not yet know how a medical withdrawal in mid-fight would be perceived in the UK and USA. Had they known better, I'm sure Vitali would have hung in there another three rounds, just for appearance's sake. As for the torn cuff, it was the reason why Vitali quit, in my opinion. However, Vitali must have believed that he would be batterred in the final three rounds...that he'd be on the run, and hit a lot, due to the lame arm. It's interesting to speculate what Vitali envisioned happened in the final rounds. Supposedly Byrd can hit harder than people give him credit for.
I'm not so sure about this. Certainly Vitali dominated the first four rounds. But Byrd won the fifth and ninth hands down. Rounds six, seven, and eight appeared to go to Vitali, but only by slender margins. Had the bout continued, Vitali definitely would have lost the final three rounds.
Shoulder's don't need to be operated on, surgery can sometimes make it worse. I opted for rehabilitation through exercises and swimming has helped. Vitali did not have to quit here. Thing's weren't going his way and he didn't like it. Byrd does deserve some credit too, making an opponent miss will sometimes make their shoulder go - see Clay-Liston, Byrd had Golotas rotator torn and 1 or 2 others too. A little, H2H he'd beat Byrd without the injury, but injuries happen all the time and you fight through them. It shows a degree of bully syndrome, where he needs to be on top, is very used to dominating and may fall apart when things don't go his way. We haven't seen Vitali in against an elite except the 38yo Lewis. Would he quit in a harder fight when he's not on top? His resume doesn't reassure me that he wouldn't