Vitalis comeback title reign 2008-2012

KEVIN ! atsch

Okay, but, yeah, Kirk was a bum that night too, so I'll stand by it.

 

Its a shame that Kirk showed up at a ridiculous 260 lbs for the Vitali fight. The man was a good fighter and a wasted talent.

 

Vitalis comeback at his age.

Going undefeated against ranked , major opponents. Holding the title.


Is a HUGE accomplishment, and has not been seen before, YES it is a big boost to his ATG rankings and something that deserves respect.

 

There is no doubt that when Vitali ended the fight w Byrd it looked like an act of choice .. he was easily winning the fight and was never hurt by Byrd .. he was masking any pain he was in very well .. that being said, it was torn and it is an extremely painful injury .. I think there was a slight cultural difference in the European mindset regarding serious risk through injury and he simply made a decision that he had no idea would offend so many .. he clearly learned his lesson and refused to quit against a far more dangerous Lennox Lewis with his eye practically hanging out of his head .. Vitali's heart is unquestioned to me ..

 

You're misinterpreting what I said. I'm not saying it wasn't a legit injury or that he should've been required to fight with it. I'm saying it wasn't a high stakes fight and that may have influenced his decision a little. The fight was less meaningful than his fight against Herbie Hide, at the time.

 

The Byrd fight was probably a fix.

 

Yep. And what else he does is recover between rounds better than anyone. He looks fatigued bad going back to the corner. Sometimes in the third round even. but man, does that guy recover between rounds. Better than commander Vander who excelled at that. A testament to his conditioning. How many other heavies could use that skill---recover their gastank between rounds.

I like your comment about King Carlos---that really is a lot what the guy is like. But boxing fans that love flash, don't like that style whatsover.

 

Buddy McGirt went into his fight with Pernell Whitaker with a torn rotator cuff, he was competitive and went the distance.
I believe PacMan had the same injury against Floyd.
How badly their injuries were compared to Vitali's, I have no idea
I don't condemn Vitali for his decision ,it was his to make and he made his choice.
Some boxers have continued with broken noses,Jim Jeffries had his busted 3 times Genaro Lopez elected to quit.
Jeffries, when he fought Choynski, was hit so hard in the mouth a piece of his lips was driven between his teeth, his seconds snipped it off with scissors and he went on to a draw!

Some have continued with broken jaws, Ali and Kevin Finnegan are just two.
Everyone is different
..I am far from a brave man, just Mr Average,years ago I had a torn cartilage in my knee this was before micro surgery ,they opened your whole knee up.The op was performed at 10 am,at 5pm that evening I got out of bed and went to the toilet the other end of the ward,as I stood upright the blood began to circulate better in my leg and it started to hurt quite badly,but I had already committed myself to the john and the ward was full of guys watching me.so I continued .
The next day the surgeon came round and asked me if I could move my leg at all? I told him I had been down the ward to the toilet the previous day and he started to laugh, but a nurse confirmed it , he then said you have a very high threshold of pain in that case.This comment started me preening a bit but he soon brought me down to earth saying it has nothing to do with courage, and he's right.

 

Since it hasn't been said yet, Danny Williams is the exception and not the rule.

 

When were there any such heavyweights available when Vitali was active?

Vitali was never a defending lineal champion. Wlad fights the guys he faces because he has to and for huge purses.

most of those guys wanted nothing to do with him.. He can't just grab challengers and drag them into the ring kicking and screaming and say " okay time for your spanking."

 

Not so sure Chagaev and Pulev would be above Solis and Peter. For all the well deserved criticism Solis received, he trained his way to the 140s for the Vitali fight and came to win. Credit goes to Vitali for landing a sneaky shot that wobbled Solis, leading to his knee imploding. Strange outcome, but the punch influenced it.

 

None of those guys fought Vitali, you're thinking of Wladimir

 

Not so sure about Fury .. I enjoy him as a character but he looks sloppy as hell to me .. I think Wlad is going to crush him .. I do remember you were very high on Aerrola up till Vitali beat him up ..