Holmes had trouble with much lesser fighters than Vitali. I don't think he would be able to last 12 or 15 grueling rounds with a guy as big and strong as V. Klitschko. I'm sure Vitali could take the best Holmes had to offer and KO him late. Holmes was a very good fighter but is extremely overrated these days, if he got into a war with Klitschko he would come out on the losing end.
You can tell who just hates Vitali or is a moronic fanboy of Vitali because those seem to make up most of the comments here. Nobody wins this fight with ease. I take Holmes by ugly close decision or TKO from cuts late in the fight with a small chance of Vitali taking a close decision (Vitali is never stopping Larry goddamn Holmes).
I also question how well vitali will do against ATGs because he really hasn't faced good competition lately
Nope. Besides, Lewis certainly was not even near his best for that fight. I think Vitali is relatively untested to be honest. He certainly hasn't shown that he can beat a fighter like holmes.
He is a good fighter, by not an ATG. he needs to beat some good fighters first, which won't happen. Most ATGs have some good fighters under their resume. vitali has 0.
Holmes arguably had the 2nd weakest level of opposition among HW greats, with Marciano having the weakest. H2H though, Holmes ranks high in my list due to his movement, chin and great great jabs. That being said, I think Holmes beats Vitali by close decision. I am betting the farm on it though.
:huh Holmes has Snipes, bonecrusher, mercer, norton, shavers, Weaver, Carl Williams, Cooney, Berbick and Cobb... To me, he also beat mccall, and gave holy a good fight. I also can't discount his wins over spinks, Frazier, And furgeson Come on. that is a good set of wins there IMO.
First of all, he did not beat Mccall. He did not give Holyfield a good fight. And even if he did, that should not give him extra points. If he won, it would have been big, if he lost, too bad for him. No best of both worlds for him. The best names in his resume are Cooney, Witherspoon and Shavers and we all saw how these guys turned out to be. And no, Leon Spinks does not count. The rest of the guys you listed are mostly the same set of guys that Tyson had been criticized for easily beating. Holmes during his very prime struggled with old Norton and green Witherspoon.