Vitali Klitschko vs “The Golden era”? Contenders?

Isaman who came forward and beat up Purrity just like Swindell. Anyone can pick out performances to represent a fighter but he lost to a dozen journeyman yet Foreman is disadvantaged here ? It's too dishonest for me. Rahman in that specific timeframe had his way with Purrity, I don't see him prime Foreman lol

 

You left out that he destroyed a Cooney who was supposedly better than the version who wiped out Eddie Gregg and was favored over Spinks, and that his performance against Holyfield counts in spades whereas others like Dokes, Holmes, Cooper, Bean, Ruiz (he even won) and Stewart aren’t afforded the same glory for their performances.

 

Sanders was 38 years old inactive and out of shape.

Adamek is not an upper echelon Heavyweight and neither is Peter.

As I said Byrd would be far and away the best win of Vitali’s career and there's no evidence to suggest Vitali would beat Byrd when there's no opponent Vitali beat that was on Byrd's level.

 

Baring any fluke injuries I’d make Vitali Klitschko the favorite against all of those men. A person can make whatever criticisms they want about the man but regardless you had to be a pretty damn good fighter to beat him.

 

No he wouldn’t. The version of Sanders who Vitali fought would knock Byrd out and it might come in round one.

Byrd would probably split a bunch of fights if he fought Vitali’s best five or six opponents.

Adamek and Peter were both right near the top of the division. Peter was a champion.

 

So a 38 year old inactive out of shape Sanders knocks out Byrd in the 1st round ? I don't think so.

Byrd would beat Peter, Adamek, and the version of Sanders that Vitali fought.

Adamek and Peter are not upper echelon Heavyweights as I said before and neither would be in the top 10 of their era.

 

I was at that fight. Vitali walked through hell and had to beat the crap out of Sanders to get a ref stoppage. Sanders was faster than Byrd with his hands and feet, regardless of the scale. Byrd would have nothing for him.

Byrd wouldn’t complete Vitali’s title reign. He wouldn’t even make it half way. He was barely leaving with the title during his brief reign with a fake title.

Adamek and Peter were near the top of the division and Vitali dominated both of them while pushing forty.

 

Sanders was a natural who could do a bunch of things wrong and still make it work. When he fought undersized guys like Cooper and Al Cole, he generally knocked them out of the ring. Chris Byrd usually looked bad against guys with handspeed and he had nothing to keep Sanders off. It’s an easy pick.

 

Rahman beat a younger fitter fresher Sanders in a war and stopped him earlier than Vitali did.

 

Considering Sanders only briefly made the top 10 rankings and was 1-2 against top 10 rated fighters I disagree it's a foregone conclusion especially against the version of Sanders that Vitali fought.

 

Go find the sequence where Vitali tore his shoulder and get back to me.

 

Feel like that’s mostly a Facebook boomer thing, pretty much the only place you’ll see people say that shavers or Lyle dominate today.

Nostalgia is powerful, we just gotta wait a few decades.

 

It was a great slugfest one of the best Heavyweight slugfests of the past 25 years.

I seem to remember Sanders gassing yes but the thing I remember most about the fight is when both fighters came close to scoring simultaneous knockdowns that's engrained in my memory.