Vitali's resume may be a little weak but some of his feats are actually amazing

A 32 year old vitali will give anyone hell anyone !!!!

 

You already disqualified yourselve by bringing up Danny Williams as one of Vitaly´s best opponents.

I do not even hate Vitaly, in fact i like him, he´s a fighter. He´s just not that good, you Klitschko fans make him.

 

In my time I don't think I've ever seen such dominace like when vitali was active..

The fact of the matter is he hardly ever lost a round and that still remains the same in his fortys

 

That's not how it works. You become Lineal Champ by beating the Lineal Champ or by becoming recognized as the undisputed best in the division. Vitali has managed neither feat. He lost to Lewis and he retired before he could achieve a position as the divisions best. He has never been Lineal Champ.

 

Vitali could not be "undisputably the best active" when he only held one of the titles at the time needed to be Undisputed Champ and only picked that up after Lewis dropped it to retire, when one of the other people holding a world title was someone Vitali had lost to and refused to rematch, and when he hadn't beaten the guy rated #2 in the division who was that same fighter he lost to before. To be regarded as the Lineal Champ the very least Vitali had to do was rematch Byrd and beat him, but Vitali never even tried and in the end left Byrd for Wlad to deal with.

 

Vitaly is an ATG and sure fire HOF. To come out of a 4 year retirement and in your first fight, fight a once defeated Samuel Peter, and then go on and not lose a single fight is extemely impressive. Lewis deprived him of his rightful rematch which is a shame because haters can always cry about how he lost to the best fighter he ever faced. I don't fault Lewis, he wanted to keep his health intact and had already made tons of money to walk away was his perogative. However to use that fight as a way to knock Vitaly is ludicrous. I have Lennox Lewis regarded as an alltime great and I don't judge him when he got ICED by Oliver McCall and then knock every single accomplishment he attained after that because of that one fight. The one thing that bothers me is that when Lewis got ko'd by both McCall and Rahmen he got rematches but he didn't give a rematch to a man that felt they could beat him if given another shot.

 

Foreman refused to fight Tucker but he didn't relinquish his Lineal Title then nor was he stripped of it, nor did he relinquish it or was stripped of it when he refused to rematch Axel Schultz. That evidence speaks against the idea that if a Lineal Champ refused to rematch he loses his Lineal title.

Regardless of that, Lewis did relinquish his Lineal Title when he retired, but Vitali did not pick it up be default. He hadn't earnt it by ripping it from Lennox's grip, and he hadn't earnt by beating the division's #2 in Byrd, and he hadn't earnt it be clearing the division of all available opposition and picking up all the titles. He has never been Lineal Champ, and there is no valid argument for him being considered a Lineal Champ.

 

Wladimir is Lineal Champ. Vitali has never been Although there was no point for Vitaly to fight Byrd again. Up until the torn rotator cuff that fight was a total mismatch. You couldn't fill a highschool gym to watch that again.

 

There was a point. It's called "avenging your loss".

There was another point as well. Byrd was one of the top rated Heavyweight and had consistantly been so for years. In 2001 he was rated #3, in 2002 he was rated #2, in 2003 he was rated #2, in 2004 he was rated #1 and in 2005 he'd be rated #1. In 2001 he was behind Lennox, Wlad and Tyson, in 2002 he was behind Lewis and Wlad, in 2003 and 2004 he was second only to Vitali and in 2005 he was rated the best Heavyweight in the world. Beating Byrd during this period of time would have been a major scalp on Vitali's resume, it would have strengthened it, avenged one of his two losses and gone a long way to establishing his claim to the Lineal Title if not granted him the title out-right.

 

That´s not true. The first rounds were onesided in favour of Vitaly, cause Byrd didn´t do anything besides avoiding punches. After the 3rd round Byrd made it competitive, making Vitaly stumbling backwards in the later rounds. If there was an injury, it absolutely had non effect on Vitaly volume. He still punched with both hands, however he missed a lot, cause he couldn´t find out Byrd.

Whoever thinks that fight was onesided is either a diehard Klitschko fan or simply hates Byrd, cause of him missing power.

 

McBride, Williams, Valuev, Ibragimov, Byrd etc etc all beat either Holyfield or Tyson. Holyfield and Tyson were way past their best and regularly beaten by all and sundry, often by complete BUMS.

If they were Lewis' signature wins then God help him! Also, do you honestly believe that Vitali would not have beaten a shot Tyson or Holyfield? A Vitali win against either guy at that stage in their careers is as 100% certain as can be.

 

The only uninformed is you. At time of Lewis retiring, Byrd and Vitaly were recognozed as the no.1 and no. 2 heavyweights. Vitaly didn´t rematch Byrd, so how could he be lineal ? He fought Sanders the no. 2 of the WBC rankings. Now according to you so it doesn´t matter whose organizations no. 2 you fight ? Must be a joke. I do not even agree that fighting the no. 2 heavy in the world makes you lineal, you have to unify imo. Which neither Klitschko fully did.

 

Im still at a loss for words when I think of the lunacy of the DRs treating him prior to his nonbout with Rahman.

First they told him it was a high hamstring pull. 6-8 recovery. Then they told him it was a knee injury. All the while it was an L5-S1 pertrusion/protrusion. One of his discs has bulged out and one of his vertabrae had sunk in.

It is one of the most common injuries in sports. Also common in MVAs where seatbelts are worn. Symptoms are often pain in the hamstring high on the @sscheek, pain behind the knee down to his feet. This pain is caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve.

Back surgery is an option, but in my own case, 6 months of chiropractic treatment has my back almost 100% and Im a mason. He wouldve been back in the ring in 6 months had he sought out chiropractic treatment.

My own Dr. told me I HAD to have surgery if I wanted to work in my trade. Chances are I would be an OXY zombie to this day had I followed his advice. At the time I left him, I was hooked on Percocet 20s which are powerful narcotics. He started me at Lortab 7.5s to give perspective.

A month after I quit the drugs (and it was hell), I called an attorney who prompty sent me to a chiropractor. Never thought an attorney would give me better medical advice. Now, back to working 50hrs a wk and almost no back pain.
Vitali should sue his DRs for costing him millions in purses, and billions in legacy.

Ruiz, Valuev, Liakovich, Krasniqui, Toney, Holyfield, Maskaev, Rahman, Byrd2. If he made 6 of those fights, he'd be ranked higher CVA than Wlad.:think

 

According to judges scorecards he indeed could´ve stood there without throwing a single punch and he would´ve won.

Still this is not what the fight was going. After the 3rd round it was a competive fight with Byrd gaining the momentum in the later rounds. And there was no sign of Vitaly being injured, he still used both hands to throw punches. He realized though that he couldn´t catch Byrd clean, whereas Byrd was scoring better and better.

HBO always were biased against Byrd, they just couldn´t appreciate his skills. That lack of power was always a factor against him.

German commentary btw had it an even fight after the 7th or 8 and on punchstats it looked similar. HBO punchstats for example had Vitaly just landed 8 punches more than Byrd.

That was far from being onesided.

 

No. The highest ranked fighter behind Vitali in the division when Lewis retired was Byrd. Lewis was ranked Champion in 2003, Vitali was rank #1, Byrd was ranked #2 and Sanders was ranked #3. Sanders was next higest ranked behind Vitali in the WBC, but the WBC alone did not decide who got the Lineal title, and the WBC Title has never been the Lineal one. The IBF and the WBA did not recognize Vitali as the best fighter in the division, they had their own champs and disputed his claim to that distinction, because his claim was disputed he was no recognized universally as the best in the division and as such did no pick up the lineal title along with the WBC.

No, I assume to be the Lineal Champion that have to actually defeat the Lineal Champ and rip the title from him or else if the Lineal champ is retired start a lineage yourself by gaining recognition from all the boxing authorities of you place as the division's undisputed best by either clearing the division of all available opposition and picking up all the titles or being on top for so long that nobody can question you.

Byrd didn't have claim to the Lineal Champion, I never said he did, but he was widely recognized as the best fighter in the division other than Vitali from Lennox's retirement to Vitali's own retirment in 2005. Byrd and Vitali were the two top fighters in the division in 2004 and to start a new lineage, to crown a new undisputed best in the division, they had to fight each other. Because they didn't the Lineal Title became inactive, neither man picked it up and nobody has had it until Wlad recently.

As for my "quip about having to avenge his loss to Byrd". I dont see how that's ridiculous. Byrd was a highly rated fighter at the time in addition to being one of the two fighters Vitali had lost to who Vitali in beating could have gained a title he's never held, added a significant scalp to his resume and removed any credibility people criticising him losing to Byrd would have as well as cementing his place as the division's best and likely gaining the Lineal title. Byrd was a totally credible opponent for Vitali at the time and Vitali has more to gain from fighting and beating Byrd than he did from beatin Williams or Sanders.

I credit Vitali as being the best fighter after Lewis retired until Wlad took over during his retirement years, but he was never the Lineal Champion. Never. Your trying to claim something he never had, something he never achieved. He is a great heavyweight, a great fighter, better than anyone else after Lewis retired, better most around now except Wlad, but accepting this does mean that I have to ignore it when you trying peddle bull**** as fact. He never unified, never gained universal acceptance as the best heavyweight around, never fought the #2 rated fighter in his era and was never recognized as Lineal Champion.