Vitalis comeback title reign 2008-2012

UK fans who have followed Fury from early in his career, tend to be more skeptical of him.

 

Wlad's leftovers keep beating Vitali's leftovers.

Haye beat Chisora, Povetkin beat Charr, and Thompson beat Solis.

 

You might just have a similar comedown with Fury.

He is still a massively unknown quantity, and the British fans who said that he would never get much past Commonwealth level, might have been on to something.

 

I am with you. I do wonder about Fury's chin at this level. Also for all his size, I do not he think will be a big puncher at the top level either.

Pre fight build up will be fun; but come bell time I fear a mismatch.

I hope someone can quote this in three months time, so I can eat some humble pie though.

 

yeah, I get your point, it could of influenced his decision more than if it was a low stakes fight which is was when compared,,,

i think that was your point :think

 

you said in your post you have no idea how bad Vitali's torn shoulder was, that's cool, my point is it could of been far worse then most would assume by watching the tape without feeling the injury, that's all, thus to judge him to extremely on this one injury maybe selling short how bad that specific injury really was

i don't want to be a nitpicker, but continuing with a broken nose and broken jaw is not as difficult as continuing with a badly torn rotator cuff. I have had a broken jaw from sparring, i went 3 rounds with a broken jaw, i knew it was hurt but i was so dazed and scared of loosing i had been acting so well to conceal it and was so dazed from taking other head shots i never even thought of stopping. When one of your arms no longer works its far more difficult to continue.

Like i said, a partial rip and a deep or full rip are two very different things, a partial rip you can nurse and continue on just faking it, a deep or full rip your arm wont work whatsoever until after you have surgery.

 

Gomez had an excellent amateur pedigree was cruiser-weight Champ and beat some good heavyweights, Virchis and others and was a slick southpaw. I think it was a very good win and Vitali broke him down.

Solis was regarded as dangerous, also had extensive and successful amateur career, the right hand buckled him and made him twist his ankle from the impact....good win

Adamak ...very good win over a accomplished fighter and former Champ

Briggs always dangerous and Vitali dominated Briggs

Vitali handled Charr, dropped him and stopped him

Areola at the time was dangerous and rugged, Vitali out boxed and stopped him

Johnson and Chisora he was flat but Chisora did beat Helienus and Vitali dominated them

Sosnoski was an easy fight but didn't Ali, Holmes, have there share

Vitali was amazing the way he beat Peter after 4 years out. I rate Vitali high, I think he would have had an excellent chance to beat Lennox in a rematch and Lennox knew this and Vitali had some good wins prior to his retirement. I think Vitali had a good career, would have been better if he got Lennox in fight 2

As far as what they did afterwards, some fighters ruin a guy, Vitali took you to the 8th rd and then started to repeat the long right hands and put a little more power behind it it, the way Gomez and Peter lost destroyed them mentally because it wasn't a quick KO, they felt the pain and the energy sap their body's and then Vitali put the pressure on. These were painful losses, same with Adamak and Areola....Shannon Briggs I am surprised he can still talk and Vitali took his foot off the gas and showed mercy in that fight much like Calzage did with Jones.

my favorite Vitali fight was Kirk Johnson, fresh off of the Lewis fight, Vitali was mentally and physically ready for anyone that night.

 

Fury is a very good fighter, he showed me that in the Cunningham and Chisora fights. Fury has heart and spirit and good stamina, he has been dropped and got up, and I dont want to hear that Cunningham is small because he beat Mansour and had him hurt.

Fury is a tough Gypsy/Irish he has size, decent speed and grit and good stamina, I still think Vlad is a tough fight for him but I wouldn't sleep on Fury

 

though he has no difficulty when they are bums like charr.

 

That's basically why Wlad will go down as the greater fighter historically. Vitali may be the better fighter H2H, but that only takes you so far. Actual opposition beaten is more important than hypotheticals and being so great at "winning an amazing percentage of rounds" against subpar opposition. Wlad is the one with the far better resume of wins, beating many more guys who were considered top rated HWs at the time, and history will judge him accordingly.

 

With a couple of exceptions both have fought dross imo.

 

A few points:


Most of the HW division is mediocre.

A lot of today's HW's would like the above names on their resumes.

Yes, Wlad has fought Pulev and he's lined up to face Fury. But who have they beaten?

Who's Wilder beaten?

Wlad's longevity has to be respected, but most of his reign has been mediocre.

Yes, Wlad will go down as the better fighter, especially based on statistics. But how would his career have played out, if either Vitali hadn't have been around to support him both in and out of the ring, or if Vitali hadn't have had to retire for four years through injury? They're very interesting questions. Of course nobody knows the answers, but it's fun to speculate. Because IMO, if Vitali had remained active, he could have hung on to his belt for a long time, and he could have acquired Haye's belt if he'd have fought him first, or if he'd have fought Valuev or Ruiz. Under different circumstances, Vitali could well have held two of the main belts, which would have made Wlad's resume much weaker.

Statistics aside, I'd rate Vitali higher.


:good

 

You've made some good points.

But Vitali was desperately unlucky in the Lewis fight, and there was no way Lewis was going to give him a rematch.

The Byrd fight has been debated a lot on here, and I don't know how bad his shoulder was.

But Wlad was knocked out three times, and he only avenged one of them, and he was in trouble with Peter. The Byrd and Brewster wins were very good, but I wouldn't say that Wlad has beaten a host of top HW's, he's just had great longevity, which of course has to be respected.

But I think Wlad's career wouldn't look as good as it does, had Vitali not retired for four years. Four years is an awful long time in boxing. As I've mentioned in my previous post, under different circumstances Vitali may have had the better career. I appreciate it's all 'if's and but's' but if Vitali had gotten the Lewis rematch and remained active, things could have looked a lot different.