vitali not fighting in years hurt him?????

Absolutely. In his prime, Vitali would utterly dismantle Peter, who is the easiest kind of style for Vitali: Peter's weaknesses (lack of handspeed, mobility, defence and stamina) are serious trouble against a boxer like Vitali, while his strengths (power, a good jab and being able to follow a strategy) are not going to work against an iron-chinned boxer with a high counter-right hand and a messy frustrating style.

However age can turn the best boxers into torn Y-fronts. I think it will be a bit sad to see Vitali stumble around the ring with even less co-ordination than his prime and get beaten by a boxer only slightly less ponderous than the shadow that he will be.

 

The long layoff will definitely affect Vitali. Even in his prime Vitali would have had a hard time with him.

People just tend to overrate Vitali these day. Although he has beaten his challengers very convincingly during his reign, he has never beaten someone as dangerous as Peter.

Vitali gets way too much credit for hanging in there with an out of prime, out of shape Lewis. Remember, Mercer arguably beat an in shape yonger Lewis and is not as well seen as Vitali.

 

Hurt??? Maybe that's the wrong word . . . it would certainly affect him . . . ring rust affects all fighters and Vitali is not exempted.

 

It would hurt him if he was against a stiffer challenge.

But a fat dwarf that can't throw his best punch (downards on the head) and has a shakey jaw? Nah, rust won't stop the hammer.

 

Lay-off's generally have an effect, especially on aging boxers like Vitali.
Peter will look to capitalize on Vitali's rustyness by putting the pressure on him early.

 

It will definintely have an effect, I've said many times that I would've much prefered him to take a tune-up fight even if the opponent wasn't much cop.

The biggest question over Vitali's chances are how much his ring rust, age and previous injuries affect him. If they don't much, then he should win.

 

yea will take him an extra round to knock Kirk Johnson out.

 

You can also see it as he's rested and his body has had a chance to recoup.

While he may be less than he was, on the flip side, he may be revitalized, strong, and in stellar form.

 

I think Vitalis a bit mental to come back without a warm up like this, but mabye he knows something we dont.

Its easy to forget just how bad Peter is. The thing that really gets me is that in the Toney rematch he displayed some good movement and used his jab. And then in his next two fights he seemed to have "unlearned" to use his jab.

He's ****ing pitiful and I hope he goes on his arse in this fight, he's a fat rabbit punching **** and he'll wind up giving someone brain damage one of these days. That is if he dosent go mental himself before then.

He lost that first fight against Toney and never should have got the oppurtunity to fight Maskeav. I always think of him as a poor mans Ray Mercer, and I think his punching power is overrated.

 

this is the million dollar question. or 100 dollar question if you bet at my level If Vitali is close to form it should be a fight he wins. we need reports on his camp. and how big is the ring going to be? that is important here.

I agree that that its crazy to take this as a first fight and yet, doing so could hint at how easy Vitali perceives the fight to be. or he could be so desperate to be a titlist along with Wlad that he is simply going for it.

I favor Vitali a bit but I don't like that the rest of the world does too. I wanted to get him at something like +400 not -150.

But Peter is clearly vulnerable. McCline showed us that.

 

i was thinking the same thing
especially if he has been in the gym which he probably has been just because of his brother
hopefully he had been sparring along the way

 

He may be healthier because of the layoff but I expect his timing to be off. I can't believe he'd take this fight without at least one tuneup.

 

Who is Vitali's trainer and who is he sparring with? How many rounds has he gone?