I think Vitali's size would be the determining factor. Just like Bowe-Holyfield I: both men were easily at the top of their career-long games during that fight; it was entirely about the just-that-day-an-ATG big man beating the (overall greater) ATG smaller man (though of course that doesn't always apply). Vitali doesn't look so great the first four rounds, after that Holy starts getting caught by nasty stuff.
Vitali in a great fight in which Holyfileds heart is on display while going down to certain defeat. Holyfiled will stand and give as good as he gets and perhaps a little better for the first few rounds. But, Vitali eventually gets in rythm and grinds him down. Holyfiled is an ATG but Vitali is his bridge to far.
That is quite a statement considering Vitali lost against short notice Byrd and fat/old Lews. Not to mention that Vital's best win was who?
Vitali haters just keep riding on the Lewis and Byrd fights. Both fights he was clearly winning before the stoppages
Vitali had lost zero rounds to Byrd before he blew out his shoulder and they stopped the fight. He was beating Lewis and would have KO'ed him had the fight gone on much longer. Once again, it was injury that stopped the fight. Vitali almost never lost a round in his carreer. That was against ALL styles , all skill levels and all comers. Even on short notice. He Beat Chisora, Adamek, Sanders and was easily beating Byrd and was on his way to stopping Lewis. Vitali has the skill, chin, workrate, size and meaness to give every ATG heavyweight in history a loss, and NONE would dominate him. There is a reason he is the Toughest H2H Heavywieght there is, Because he would be favored over most, and at least 50/50 with any of the rest. Holyfield will give alot, but Vitali dominates with his reach and workrate, and Holy will stand and fight him, He will lose. Holyfield is one of my favorite fighters, so I do not want to see him lose, I just see no way he could be favored.
Dream alert.......the two best fighters VK ever met he lost to......full stop........no matter how much you fall on your knees in front of him his record is TKO 9 and TKO 6 , FACT.
What can I say? It is a fan post...everything you comment is purely from a fan perspective...I am not going to address it because I feel it would be a waste of time the way you see things. All I can say, Vitali's resume is not impressive.
Vitali was ahead by a couple points but a fight is not finished after just 6 rounds, come on. For you that may be a great accomplishment but for others not. Lewis was old and out of shape. In fact, Rahman knocked out a better Lewis. Holyfield did good too against a better Lennox. Lewis destroyed Vitali's face, it was a legit stoppage. You may downplay that just as an injury but Lewis exploited flaws in Vitali's defense (lean back low hand defense).
Well, Vitali was still clearly winning the Lewis fight and wouldn’t have slowed down anytime soon. If the fight had carried on I’m positive he would’ve stopped Lewis.
You were not even born or in Diapers when they fought..... I was LIVE at the Staples center Ringside when they fought..............your hero got cut above the eye...below the eye.....cut lips......cut tongue...cut cheek.......cut inside and outside of the mouth.....there was not much skin left where he could not be carved up.........Grandpa Lewis carved him up worse than a Thanksgiving Turkey and stopped him in TKO6. Mccall and Rahman, both B minus level one shotted a FAR fresher Lemmie. Fact, Something VK could not do to the oldest and fattest version of Lemmie alive, as a matter of fact, old Lemmie put his face thru a neat grinder and stopped him in 6.End of. Vk failed the passing of the Torch test, decisively ....................if a prime Tyson/Bowe etc would have gotten a hold of that old Lewis he would have tgaken the 100 count nap, guaranteed, yet, arm puncher VK got TK'ed in 6. Fact. BTW, there is a current sale on Amazon for VK Lego figures, go hit it.
Vitali was still winning the fight and he got cut. Doesn’t matter how dramatic and stretched out you want to make the situation, that’s what happened.