Vitalis top 5 wins

He's no Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. But thats fine as few are... Vitali has shallow top notable wins for a HOF'er.

 

1. Sam Peter
2. Corrie Saunders
3. Kirk Johnson
4. Tomasz Adamek
5. Larry Donald

Notable mentions: Herbie Hide and Shannon Briggs

He doesnt have the best resume given he was WBC champion for some time.

 

Both can be true, however.

 

1)Kirk Johnson
2)Peter
3)Sanders
4)Adamek
5)Hide

Very weak resume for a first ballot HOFer but he throughly dominated everyone he beat.

 

He isn't an atg. He had potential for this but his resume isn't enough. Saunders win is incredible though.

 

He can't be an ATG because he didn't fight anybody except LL and he lost. That said I think he's the better of the 2 brothers and that he's competitive head to head verus some ATG heavies.

He was a potential with bad luck in the era in which he existed.

 

I always said Vitali and Wilder’s WBC reigns were more alike than fans want to admit.

 

It was a slip. If you slow the footage it’s clear that Sanders left hand missed Vitali’s head.

 

Yeah it was a slip. But, Saunders gave a good challenge him in first part of the fight.

 

You have to look at who, how and when. Vitali barely lost a round, dominated every one of his opponents in terms of punches landed even when he was in his late 30's and early 40's, had an ATG KO ratio and was never knocked down despite fighting many hard-punching heavy heavyweights. Furthermore, he faced a greater variety of styles and body types than was possible in much smaller and more orthodox past eras and was a historically long-reigning champion. Lewis stated that Vitali was his "toughest opponent", above the fighters who defeated him and Holyfield.

It's also too early to fully judge because some of Vitali's comfortable wins in his late 30's and early 40's are still very competitive with apparent top contenders and former world champions despite their age. 40 year old, 18 month inactive Arreola gave AJ-destroyer and former world champion Ruiz a very tough fight and gave contender Kownacki a very tough fight before that. 37.5 year old Chisora was recently robbed blind against former world champion and contender Parker, was unlucky not to get at least one win over contender Whyte and pushed undisputed cruiser champ Usyk much harder than most expected him to. The Klitschko's bummified their opponents, they were victims of their own success (and not being American).

Vitali's top 5 wins imo are smashing HW champion Hide in 2 (who went 6 with prime Bowe) smashing Kirk Johnson in 2 (who was never KO'd aside from this and defeated Larry Donald several fights prior) beating HW champions Sanders and Peter in 8 and dominating a prime Chisora with only his right hand being fully functional for most of the fight at almost 41.