Orlin Norris lasted one round vs prime Vit. Golota huffed to a ten round UD vs same along with Akinwande, Tucker and others. Vit the first guy to hand him his ass. Actually Tucker only took an SD although Norris was more prime.
Seem to remember that Hide was Klitschko s breakthrough fight, unless I'm wrong. Hide was kicking off at the pre fight conference, trying to screw with Vitali s head. Didn't really work out!
He also got the best out of Lennox Lewis and many believed Vitali was matching Lewis at the time of his stoppage for his cut. If Vitali ever proved himself it was against Lewis.
Vitali wanted no part of Rahman Quitali wanted no part of Byrd vitali only wanted Lennox rematch as Lennox was way past prime am he may of had a 5% chance
That was when I first saw VK. Hide was the betting favorite, had looked dangerous against Bowe and retired Tucker to regain the vacated wbo belt then made two cherry pick defences. I assume Vit was the mando from hell.
Same here. It was the dawn of the euro heavyweight s being dominant, but we wouldn't have believed just how much.
I actually favored Hide at the time myself. Hadn't really taken notice of Klitschko, had seen Hide do OK against Bowe and smash Tucker, so suppose I was duped.
Prior to Bowe he'd also put Bentt into an oxygen tent in London which added to his hype train. He just ran into a real deal hw that night vs VK.
Oh yes, forget about Bentt, the Morrison smasher! Never fought again after that near death experience. Probably added to Hides rep.