Were they Ring rated where I said and posted them Yes ? or No? I don't expect you to admit you were wrong ,that would be asking too much!
Why not appreciate a great fighter ,great champion, and a nice ,modest guy ? He makes a refreshing change from blow hards like Wilder and Fury!
McVey said : Vitali's comeback opponents Peter 2008 Ranked. Vitali didn't have any choice here he had to fight him if he wanted the title. Arreola 2009 Ranked This content is protected 2009 Unranked Sosnowski 2010 Unranked Briggs 2010 Unranked This content is protected 2011 Unranked Adamek 2011 Ranked Chisora 2012 Unranked Charr 2012 Unranked NB 3 out of 9 is not" many".lol If I liked fighters that ducked top competition I would be a fan of Jim Jeffries, who ducked Childs,Johnson,McVey ,and Martin !lol - Mcvey >>>WRONG!!!! Johnson was ranked 10th by ring magazine Solis 9th was ranked 9th by ring magazine. I'm sure, and we have been over this before, which makes you either a forgetful dolt or a liar. Now try your math once again and you will " see " the majority of VItlai's opponents when he was 37-41 were ranked. Also, Chisora was robbed against Helenius a then-undefeated fighter. Had the judges got that one right, there is a chance he's ranked for Klitschko. Briggs was a puncher and former lineal champion. We get it, you hate him but it doesn't allow you to post bad information. You should admit errors and move on. As for the other part of your thread, Jeffries often meet the top of the division.
Glad to see yet another poster correcting Mcvey. I was out on vacation for a while. McVey has been told this several times before.
The thread title is odd. Vitali was only the top vote-getter in his hall of fame class, making it on his first year of eligebility. I think McGrain if he wanted to due to the title of his thread justice, he could have said multiple shoulders and back injuries which required surgery and politics took about five years away fro his ring career. Most of these injuries were due to being both an amatuer and professional kick boxing champion. While Lewis ducked the re-match and Haye and Valuev backed out of fights with VItlai, surely he would have fought top ranked opponents in 2006, 2007, 2008 if not for taking a hiatus from boxing to help his country
I took the Annual ratings for my posts I don 't hate Vitali I think he is a decent man who has stood up for what he believes in,but he missed too many top men out to ever be classed as a great fighter.That is my take on him. As champion Jeffries refused to meet any black challengers and he many times stated he would not do so no matter what.There are so many numerous quotes from him in contemporary papers to that effect it isnt even debateable!
That's just it. Vitali didn't make his name beating up washed up versions of Holyfield or Bowe. He didn't fight old man Foreman. He almost fought Tyson, but Williams spoiled it. He tuned pro Nov 1996. By 1999-2003 the above manes have seen better days, He's the only boxing heavyweight champion that also was a pro kickboxing heavyweight champion. Kick boxers do not have one careers for the most part.
Annual ratings are not current ratings, and after Vitali beat them they dropped out of the ratings. So now you know, the majority of Vitali's title opponents were in fact ranked inside the top ten when he beat them when he was 37-41. Can you find ANY heavyweight at that age wh beat more ranked opponents? I think not. Also Charr later became a champion of sorts. You are wrong, as champion James Jeffries fought Hank Griffin, who was coming off a win over one Jack Johnson in a professional fight with his lineal title in the line. To suggest that Jeffries ducked Childs is a real joke. Martin wasn't viewed as highly as Sharkey, Fitz, or Corbett...EVER. But hey if you want to go on reported results, Jeffries has KO wins over Childs and Martin. One day we might find the news write up instead of the news just mentioning it.
I wouldn't say Odlanier Solis' and Kevin Johnson's respective rankings are all that important, given the thread's subject. The point is that Vitali (with his WBC handlers) appeared to be scraping the barrel, rather than face more credible opponents, with an established ranking. Johnson was awful. His best career win might be against Alex Leapai (or even be derived from a Prizefighter tournament semifinal UD, against Sosnowski [another, subsequent challenger to Vitali's WBC strap]). Solis was an example of someone with potential, who ultimately proved to be a barely mediocre pro; twice being beaten by a 40-something Thompson. Both Johnson and Solis found themselves in the The Ring Magazine's rankings, more so by circumstance and chance than by merit. They were recognized fleetingly and, in the main, due to their being little else to choose from. This was Vitali's primary, Go-To pool of opponents; consisting of those, either on the borderline of relegation; the already relegated or the ones that wouldn't even get the chance to be either of the aforementioned. Johnson was so bad that Tony Thompson replaced him at number 10 in the rankings by the end of 2009 and he'd not long been knocked out by Wladimir (it seems that a limited and shallow division, combined with a win over Chazz Witherspoon was all that was required to redeem Thompson). However, it does seem somewhat ironic that Vitali and Thompson never met. Whichever way you look at it, Vitali's run was disappointing, leaving his fans having to big up the fairly dim scraps, which Vitali selected from a dire period in the division's history.
Solis was an amateur star at heavyweight. 3 world Amateur's and one Olympic golds [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odlanier_Sol%C3%ADs[/url] Johnson, a tall undefeated man with mobility and jab. These were fine pick ,and if you know boxing you know older champions seldom pick much younger fast handed challengers. I don't see how picking 5 ranked top ten opponents out of 9 title defense is a big deal. For modern example Wilder only beat two men that were tanked in his entire title run. I don't see any outrage from you. I see "Selective outrage " The disappointing part was Haye and Valuev did not want to fight Vitali, and Lewis not giving Vitali a re-match isn't. Those are fights I wish we're made.
The thread title says his legacy is unequal to his apparent talent. Which is unarguably true. Bit long for a title.
Griffin had not fought Johnson at that stage of his career.The Jeffries v Griffin bout was an exhibition with Jeffries agreeing to pay a forfeit if he could not stop Griffin.It was not a heavyweight title defence. Griffin went down from a push in the first round and was knocked down twice by clean punches in the second. From then on he was in survival mode to claim the $100 forfeit. One report, prior to the start of the bout, described Griffin looking like a "famine sufferer". Attendance: 5,000 Jeffries never fought either Childs or Martin,nor McVey for that matter. Can we now get back to the subject of the thread?
How about "selective criticism " ? Like bashing Lewis for not having a rematch with Vitali while giving a pass to Vitali for ducking the rematch with Byrd. At least Lewis beat Vitali and avenged his other two losses , Vitali lost to a guy who was brought in on a weeks notice and then ducked the rematch.. Thats worse , way worse!!!
