Vitali Klitschko turns 45

Just watched Solis v Barrett, Solis was slow clumsy flat footed out of shape and Barrett was looking for the door. Solis is a worse version of Sam Peter,a predictable clubber who telegraphs his shots.

 

Never followed much at the time but was it true Vitali ducked a Byrd rematch and their camp insisted Byrd fight Wlad?

 

Not at all. Don King refused to fight Vitali with any of his " champions ". He had his own signed men fighting each other...Golota, Rahman Byrd, Oquendo, Ruiz, ect...all fighting each other. It was utterly forgetful.

Wlad's team offered a large purse for Byrd to risk his IBF title and fight him when Vitali was out of the game for a while. Byrd got blown out, but at least he was paid.

 

The following fighters off the top of my head quit in fights.

Jack Johnson, Sam Langford, Ezzard Charles, Sugar Ray Robinson, Harry Wills, Roberto Duran...many more in the hall of fame, and none of them had a torn shoulder.

Can you forgive all of the above fighters for quitting? Likely. Once again there is a double standard at work here.

 

Originally Posted by Mendoza View Post
I would not call anyone in the top ten a weak defense. Like I told you Solis, Arreola, and Johnson was ranked, and undefeated when Vitali fought them in title matches.

50% you say? BUZZ....WRONG!

A weak title defense would be any number of Jack Johnson's.

If you want to use a much better fighter, say Muhammad Ali some if his title choices would get crushed by the likes of Solis, Arreola, or Johnson.

How about we look at some of them:

Jean-Pierre Coopman, pretty much a bad journeyman.

Richard Dunn 33-9!

Chuck Wepner 30-9-2!

Brian London 34-14!

Now, McVey, those are weak title defenses, well below the types Vitali gave title shots too.

1 ) Both Wepner and London were ranked at the time? That would be one very weak division! Please prove this.:deal

The others I mentioned in Dunn or Coopman were journeyman at best, way below ANYONE Vitali gave a title fight too.

2 ) For your bigoted brain, I feel Ali and Holmes are #1 and #2 best. I have defended Holmes plenty of time here and have been saying this for 10+ years here. I've also had good things to say about Jackson, Langford, Shavers, Lewis, etc... dozens of black heavyweights. The only one I dislike is Jack Johnson, a pimp, wife beater, law breaker, and a champion who ducked his best opposition are reasons why. Greatly over rated and boring. Plus he's a fouler.

To play devil's advocate here.

Ali clinched his way to beating Frazier in the second match. Frazier was shot in the 3rd.

Liston either quit or threw BOTH fights.

Lyle. Sure Ali was behind on points late in the fight and did not look good. When was Vitali ever behind on points? NEVER, after 3 rounds. Vitali beats the Ali that fought Lyle.

Patterson. Had back issues and was much smaller.

Terrell said he was poked in the eye. Photos after the fight show this. Terrell was decent, nothing special.

Norton - He beat ALI TWICE on fair score cards.

Shavers - He hurt Ali. I'd like to score this one sometime as it was close

Young - Many felt he beat Ali too.

 

You have to view Vitali as K2, they both cleaned out two or three scenes between them. Only Lewis resisted but quit ignominiously.before the issue could be settled as we all know. It's only in Vitalis absence that names have emerged like Wilder. Wilder would be smashed in three rounds by prime Vitali.

 

It's what I heard, but I haven't tried to verify it.

 

I've zero interest in your opinion welcher,look up the rankings yourself.

 

Perhaps you're so old that your vision is failing you?

Btw Solis was about 20 pounds lighter for the Vitali fight, which is unfortunately one of the only times he trained somewhat reasonably.

 

If it wasn't for Wlad Vitali would have had one of the best resumes of all time

 

as we all know by tko6, oldest lewis vs prime vits, not even half the distance. shame wlad didn't have the guts to turn up on the same night to soak up a ko in 2.

naa K bro only "avenges his bros losses" when hes fighting imps/ nobodies.

 

I can forgive Jack Johnson since he was 48 years old! Plus he fought 7rounds with a broken arm when he was 36 years old! Keep that hate coming!
Langford had a serious eye injury against Jeannette,which I was not aware of until I read Clay Moyle's excellent biography of him ,so I can forgive him too.
Robinson was completely out of it with heat prostration , he was a middleweight fighting a lightheavy, a gamer fighter never lived.
An older Wills I think may have been prone to quit when the going got tough.
Vitali was bang in his prime fighting a much smaller, light hitting man and he was in front.
Buddy McGirt fought with the same injury against an ATG and went the distance.
Sonny Liston whose courage some question went the distance with a broken jaw and fought and won with a broken nose in another fight.
Danny Williams fought on and won with a dislocated shoulder!
Fitzsimmons fought many fights with broken hands and, against George Gardner he went the distance and won when nearly 40 years old despite having his shoes filled with blood from blisters.
Tom Sharkey went the distance with Jeffries despite having broken ribs and a busted finger,and believe me broken or badly bruised ribs are incredibly
painful!
Scott Quigg has just gone the distance with Carl Frampton despite sustaining a broken jaw early on.
KevinFinnegan did the same thing in a fight .
No need to mention MUHAMMAD Ali
I only do, so you'll learn to spell his name correctly.:yep

You talk about double standards ?

You love to mention that a 48 and 50 years old Johnson retired in two fights, but you're not so keen on applying the same strictures to a prime Vitali!

As well as being a liar ,and a bet welcher, you're hypocrite!:nono

 

What are you blabbering on about? :huh

Wlad was mandatory challenger to Chris Byrds title. This was in 2006

How is that a response to they guy who asked did Vitali duck the Byrd rematch in 2000??

Vitali had that rematch clause and he wanted nothing to do with it . The contract bound Byrd into fighting Wlad instead. That's the choice they made.

Don King had nothing to do with it because he was not involved with Byrd until later. Pretty sure Byrds wife was his manager.

Vitali baulked at a second fight with Burd. Its a FACT.

ATG??? = :nut

 

At 246.25lbs 6'1.5" Solis was only half a pound lighter than the 6'7" Vitali


Perhaps you don't know WTF you are looking at?

 

Vitali was a special talent with a few question marks.

He came up short against Lewis in his biggest fight. He did beat Sanders for the ring belt but never secured lineage because Byrd was ranked the next best HW and holds a victory over Vitali.

He beat a slew of 5-10 type guys in dominant fashion and has one of the best HW comebacks in history.

Ironically his decision to retire is probably the only reason that Waldimir became world champion. Had Vitali rematched Byrd, he probably beats him due to the decline and lack of shoulder injury and aside from Haye I don't see anyone who comes next that can trouble him.

He was a high volume fighter with great durability and incredible stamina but I always felt timing was his best weapon.

He'll never ever go down as the greater brother but it's my hunch he was always the better brother. He didn't achieve as much as Wlad and he didn't beat as high a level of opponent as Wlad did but I just don't see Wlad surviving if Vitali tries to walk him down. And if Vitali did get to Byrd in 05 Wlad never becomes unified champ.

I remember Vitali as one of the greats. And probably the best HW never to be considered lineal champion.