Vitali Klitschko's power.

Thanks.
Do you mean Holyfield I or Holyfield II? Both fights are wins for me, but the second one is a coin toss. Moreover, Holyfield looked very weak in them, clearly past his prime, as evidenced by both Bean 1998 and Ruiz 2000. Yes, Holy was at the peak of his fame, but not his best form. Furthermore, Lewis was a stylistic nightmare for him, like Tyson for Spinks or Foreman for Frazier. When did you see Holy fight a tall outfighter before Lennox? When?

Ruddock, a great victory, but Razor made a fatal mistake when he slid a left diagonal right into Lennox's right. Ruddock himself said this about that fight:https://www.givemesport.com/i-have-...sKdckWb7uIDAB-QmjA_aem_LJf5JjHCbWiDNZHwzXgNsA

Tucker, I'm sorry. A great and underrated boxer, but after his drug problems in 1987-89, he never showed his best form again. His true legend is the fact that he lasted 12 rounds with Tyson. Just like he did with Lewis.

As for Vitali – he looked bad, lost on points, won through injury, and Vit really wanted to keep fighting. It's not an impressive victory. It's a controversial victory. Just read the arguments from over 20 years ago.

What does Vit have? Not much (all the more surprising considering that his injury-related victory is one of the most frequently cited successes of a top 3 heavyweight ever).

But:
Peter, the WBC champion who gave Wlad a close fight, is being declared by Klitschko, returning after four years. Arreola – then in his prime, Klitschko breaks the punches landed record and destroys the career of Chris, who was then in his formative years.
Larry Donald – isn't that someone like Tucker in 1993?
Vaughn Bean – another underrated tester. A fair fight against Moorer, a tough fight for Holy (before Lewis), and completely helpless against Vit.

Okay, shall we now try the worst performances of both?

 

Tucker was 48-1 losing only to Tyson ,and he was Ring ranked no 5 Donald was never ranked and his best wins are over washed up Holy and Witherspoon.
Bean never beat anyone worth talking about. Arreola was a mauler slow and defensively porous what did he ever do?
Peter was a lumbering slow clubber.

Holy beat Bowe , Douglas.
I never said Lewis was a top 3 heavyweight I do put him comfortably in my top ten.

Anyone credible put Vitali in the top ten all time?

 

1. I don't know why Buster Douglas was still ranked according to the July 1991 edition. But LL was there.
2. The September 1991 edition has: "...8) Carl Williams 9) Lennox Lewis 10) Pierre Coetzer".

LL has one of the most difficult resumes out there for a HW. I am not going to say otherwise. I have minor criticisms, but I'm not going to get into them now.

I'm not going to rate Vitali's best 3 wins because whatever they are LL has a better list of 3 wins. That's not really Vitali's fault moreso who was available to fight.

My issue with LL is very simple. He was losing the fight against Vitali. Immediately talked **** after the fight. Decides to retire instead of facing Vitali again in one of the most anticipated rematches of all-time (even though he was planning on having more fights). On top of that, you have all of these LL supporters back him.

 

This might be the dumbest boxing related thing I've read in a while. You think that "Vitali's punches had fallen through the floor..."? What? Vitali is one of the strongest men that's ever walked into a boxing ring. He also has great stamina, too. This fight has gone just like most of Vitali's fights. He's up on the scorecards while the opponent is taking severe damage until the opponent / referee call it off. "Turned the tables". LL barely won the last round. Vitali landed more than 50 punches over 6 rounds. Follow another sport.

 

It's called math genius. Vitali fought 47 times. Only 1 was stopped by cuts. You divide 1 by 47. It gives you ~2%.

You seriously need to think some of this through before you post. Okay, LL faced more top ten guys than Vitali, great. There is this guy called Wladimir that was around at the time. He fought a lot of the top ten guys. So, ultimately, that deludes the number of top ten guys Vitali faced.

Making adjustments is just a tactical strategy. You Lewis fans crack me up. It's always Lewis was out of shape blah blah. It's like an automatic excuse. Gets knocked out by McCall...out of shape....Gets decapitated by Rahman....out of shape...Gets beaten up by Vitali...out of shape....Maybe you are a professional fighter....get in shape.

You're one of those guys, eh? Vitali was afraid of Rahman? So Vitali comes back at 37 and beats the brakes off Sam Peter who KO'd Maskaev who KO'd Rahman twice. And if that's not bad enough Wlad beat him up again 2 years later.

 

In a while? I assume you haven't been reading your own posts then. You've littered this thread with "dumb" from the outset.

What does this even mean?

First, you quote me out of context, and then you somehow use that as a platform to go all man-crush on Vitali again.

I think by now we get that you love Vitali.

Really? OK.

Have you even watched the fight?

If you have watched it, then I think you're the one who needs to follow another sport, son.

What good did all those punches do him? Which, after all that bluster, is the the point you completely missed; preferring instead to just go on another Vit Klit rant.

Please go and wet yourself somewhere else.

 

At what point can we say a boxer is worn out or not? Or to what extent? Was Holyfield, who fared exactly against Ruiz in 2000 as well as he did against Lewis in 1999, a completely different boxer? In my opinion, he lost both fights by one round.

Is beating Tucker or Vito in such style comparable to the FOTC or Big George's knockout of Frazier? Or to the crushing of Patterson, the equivalent of Holyfield in the 1950s and 1960s, by Sonny Liston?

I know, McWey, that you're not a Lewis fan who gets hysterical every time someone writes that his idol is outside the top 5. For me, he's a comfortable top 10-15, given his career management skills and outstanding resume, but watching his fights against Holyfield, Klitschko, or Tucker is a real treat. I'd be dismayed if someone told me I was watching the top 10 HW ever, not to mention the top 3. Best regards.

 

What do these other fighters wins have to do with Lewis?The only relevant comparison is between Lennox and Vitali and there is only one winner there!

Vitali's resume is very underwhelming by any standards, he was a cherry picker plain and simple.I admire both the Klits as men but we are solely concerned with their boxing here.

 

Nobody has implied/suggested Lewis was out of shape for McCall or Rahman,He got nailed by a terrific shot from both guys,but unlike Vitali, when he got beat he sought and got revenge.
Gets beaten up by Vitali?I think you need to look at the immediate post fight ,in the ring photos .Lewis was coming on in that fight and it was Vitali who had 4 cuts and over 60stitches put in his face. It was Vitali who was taking severe damage inthe last couple of rounds not Lewis ! If you land a right hand that splits your face open that isn't luck ,its a planned punch!

 

You aren't going to list Vitali's 3 best wins,because to do so would expose the paucity of quality wins he actually has.

You don't like the admiration some fans have for Lennox's career?
How do you think others who see fan boys spinning BS and altering the narrative to undeservingly hype Vitali feel about that!
Show me any list in which Vitali is ranked anywhere near the same stratosphere as Lennox?
Lewis is a top ten all time heavyweight.
Vitali isn't top 15.

 

In 2017's The Ring's survey conducted among trainers, boxing promoters, historians and journalists, Lennox Lewis was rated as number 11th all-time and Vitali was rated 17th all time. Still far apart, but I would say same stratosphere.

 

These gentlemen are polar opposites when it comes to the boxer/resume ratio. Lewis has a better resume than his class. Vitali is the opposite. Lewis crushes Vita's resume, but they were very competitive in the ring.
Honestly, I think Vita was the better fighter. But Lennox was also a stylistic nightmare for Vita.
I think prime to prime is a classic 50/50. If Vita were put in Lewis' shoes, he would probably achieve the same thing; I even think he would remain undefeated. If Lewis were put in Vita's shoes and his career was managed in the same way, it would be worse. Of course, it's impossible to prove, but Vita didn't lose even a round against fighters like Mercer and McCall, and he destroyed fighters like Mavrovic by knockout.

 

They were competitive because Lewis at 37 and a career high weight was past his best.

Vitali never fought Mercer , McCall or Mavrovic, so thats just projection on your part. This is getting silly now so I'm out!

 

Partly true, but slightly misleading.

The Ring was not ranking every heavyweight boxer in history from an open field. It was running a poll from a closed ballot of 20 preselected heavyweight champions.

So yes, Vitali placed 17th in that particular 20-man ballot. But that is not the same as saying an expert panel ranked him the 17th greatest heavyweight of all time.

 

[

Kurwa, it had the same amount of damage as Holyfield in his fight. But he didn't have as many fights as Holyfield and didn't have to close the distance like Holyfield did. He didn't have an opponent who was a disastrous match for him. Arm reach and physical condition don't age. Holyfield had everything to age faster. He also looked worse in the fight before, but to me, the fight against him is the most impressive performance in the career of any third boxer in history.

Lewis has quite a few excuses – poor form against McCall, poor tactics against Mercer, too much weight against Klitschko, two hours spent filming before Rahman.

You know Mercer was overweight before the Lewis fight? And Fury before Usyk? And that's in a fight where speed was key, in a fight full of cliques and shoving, extra weight can be an advantage. Damn, if I were Toney, I'd cancel all my heavyweight fights.

How much weight did this nearly 2-meter-tall, powerful man actually gain between the Tyson and Rahman fights?

More than the short boxer named Mike Tyson before his fight with Lewis?

How is it possible that we apply different standards to different boxers?