A prime Ali wouldn't do the rope a dope though he started that trend in 1974 when he was considered to be past his best. A prime Ali is a fleet footed, quick handed, athletic fighter. Vitali had all kinds of trouble vs Byrd who had a weeks notice and he's smaller than Ali. Vitali is a tricky opponent to overcome with his size, durablity. But his best win is against a 38 year old out of shape semi retired Sanders. He's not proven at the upper echelon level he doesn't have the wins to back it up. So you can't really make Vitali a considerable favourite based on that even if he has a size advantage. I also think with Vitali's more robotic stiff arm punching style he'd struggle against elite smaller faster fighters like Holmes, Ali, Usyk, etc.
Vitali struggled vs Byrd who had a weeks notice who's also smaller than Ali. Everyone on here knows it too ? Why ? Because his best win is against a 38 year old out of shape Sanders ? Actually I think Vitali would find a smaller mobile fast Heavyweight very troublesome actually Holmes, Ali, Usyk, etc.
Vitali had a very awkward lean back style, was very tall, and had an Iron Chin. He also was able to anticipate and ‘pull back’ from punches that would miss by mere centimeters from his opponents. Based on this alone he would be a hard out for any Heavyweight in history. I’m NOT saying Vitali beats everyone just that it would not be an easy night fighting him for anyone. Could Ali beat him on cuts stoppage or via injury? Absolutely as could several other Heavyweight ATG’s. Vitali Klitschko could fight and is a head to head nightmare for a lot of ATG top ten Heavyweights. This is far different from being a Top 10 ATG which Ali obviously is and Vitali isn’t. Those are two distinctly different things.
Vitali wouldn't punch himself out like Foreman did. He would physically bully Ali. Ali wasn't exactly unhittable either. But if you want to hold Byrd against Vitali(a fight he was clearly winning before suffering an unfortunate injury) Why not hold Cooper(several weight classes smaller) and Frazier who wouldn't even be a big CW today (and probably could boil down to LHW if he really wanted to) against unbeatable demigod Ali?
You're right. Clay was like an ascended kung fu master right out of a Shaw Brothers flick with super human speed, agility he couldn't be touched. But tiny Cooper somehow cracked the code with his left hook so much so that superhuman Clays corner had to resort to some sly trickery to get their demigod time to recover.
Struggled? No. He tore his rotator cusp, yet still won virtually every round. Interesting how some people go on about how Ali was old and rusty at age 29, and that's why he lost to Frazier and Norton, yet give Vitali NO CREDIT for coming back after a LONGER layoff in HIS LATE 30s and still putting together an impressive, dominant string of wins. Ali at around that age lost to the mediocre Berbick, who was about on the same level as prime Arreola. Any heavyweight in history would find Holmes, Ali and Usyk troublesome. But Vitali had some very good skills, so I wouldn't count him out against those fighters. One thing I'm sure of: an age 40 Vitali would beat and age 40 Ali or an age 40 Holmes (although I'm not so sure an age 40 Vitali would beat an age 40 Usyk).
Vitali missed 370 punches against Byrd and landed only 8 more than Chris. He tore his shoulder while swinging at air when Byrd was making him miss. So yes, he struggled, despite the home cooking on the cards. He quit and wanted no parts of Byrd after that.
People keep referencing all the trouble Vitali had with Chris Byrd are delusional The official scores at the stoppage were: 89–82 88–83 88–83 All in favor of Vitali!
Official scores aren't end all be all. Check the official scores for Lewis vs Holyfield I. Vitali only landed 8 punches more than Byrd, missed 370 of them, and Byrd was the one landing bigger shots from counters. At the end of the day he injured his shoulder while swinging at air and quit. Never rematched Chris. So that's that.
Different styles. Frazier was a come forward elite swarmer that analogy doesn't work that style is poison for outboxers. Usyk's toughest fight was against Breidis at Cruiserweight who's much smaller than his Super Heavyweight opponents. As I said style makes fight its not always about size. As for Byrd it's a myth that Vitali was winning that fight comfortably. Only 8 punches separated them and Byrd had a way higher connect percentage. I only had Vitali 1 point ahead at the time of the stoppage.
I don't know why you're being sarcastic I've never stated that Ali is unbeatable. But you suggested "Vitali would beat the crap out of Ali easy". Which is even more ludicrous than what you're portraying that I'm saying about Ali. Vitali's opposition for the most part wasn't that good and Ali would be atleast 2 levels above any of his best wins.
Vitali was clearly winning the fight on the scorecards, in my opinion, probably every round. But a fight can be one-sided on scoring and still be competitive; Byrd caused him a lot of trouble. Byrd made Vitali miss a lot of punches, which contributed to the shoulder injury. Ali is levels above Chris Byrd (so I lean for Ali on PTS), but I still imagine this fight being competitive. Vitali Klitschko has ATG-level skills.