Which heavyweight you rank higher ATG, Vitali Klitschko or Riddick Bowe

Evebybody dumping on Bowe but cant make any case for why Vitali should rank higher.

Vitali gets ranked by people for things he could of done , not for what he what he actually done.

What about swatting nothing but air at Chris Byrd and then giving up on his stool?

Prime Undefeated Larry Donald was much better fighter than Chris Byrd. He had a better chin and used the ring a lot better. Byrd clowned Vitali with his back to the ropes.
Byrd would get kinocked out if he tried that with Bowe.

Who else did Vitali beat? The worst, fattest and most unconditioned version of Sanders made **** of him for the first few rounds before he gassed out and could no longer hold his hands up.
He sent Vit flying across that ring like he was a lightweight. In Klitschko world Sanders is an ATG , but in reality he was just a very average contender.

He got mangled by Lewis who took the fight on short notice, whose timing was all off and was clearly very rusty.
He couldn't avoid jabs, right hands and uppercuts to save his life. What hope would he have against Bowe?
Who did he beat this guy that he ranks above Bowe?

 

I go with Bowe because of the names on his sheet he was something of a comet and not at the top of his game long but beating Holyfield twice takes it for me.
I can see the longevity argument in Vitali's favour but the only real top guy he fought was on the way down and he still beat him. I'm not keen on that Byrd result either.

 

I think Bowes performs better against the field. Such great infighting ability for such a big heavyweight.

So I have Bowe slightly above Vitali.

If I ranked on anything other than H2H I would have Vitali clearly above. Whilst some can argue the merits of lineage, there's no one that would be ranked above Vitali when he beat Sanders. So whether he wore the crown or not isn't an issue to me because he sure sat atop that throne.

There is also his fantastic longevity and the clincher for me is that I truly believe in a perfect world Wlad would not have been the dominant champ, he would have had to face Vitali and would have been destroyed because the fight would have occurred round about the time of the Brewster fight. I think Vitali has an inherent weakness against any in fighters. But given the era I don't envision anyone being skilled enough to exploit that weakness. Maybe right up until Hayes burst on the scene I think Vitali would have had an easy ride.

Yes Wlad is ranked higher on merit but that's entirely (imo) due to Vitalis injury and his reluctance to face his brother.

So in short Vitali is a significantly greater fighter imo but he wasn't as good a boxer as Bow best for best so given my criteria Bowe edges him out.

 

Perhaps, but take away Frazier's defining bout against Ali and his legacy shrivels up. It's not really a point. Many boxers live off that one performance. Bowe showed us so much against Holyfield; indeed, the stuff of greatness.

Vitali will be known for fighting a great losing battle against an ageing champ. He claimed to have prepared for "so long". Lewis looked confused, career heaviest. It's not a pretty result (no pun intended).

His 'greatness' rests on a sympathy vote.

I don't think we can twist this argument into a matter of longevity. The bare basics are too stark. Houses must be built with good mortar to stand properly. When your brother has fought better competition in a weak era there's a problem.

I do rate Vitali in a head-to-head sense, but it's no guarantee that he could beat Evander when the latter was firing on all cylinders. For a start he lacks those key inside fighting skills, and it's not like The Real Deal is going to spend 12 rounds at the end of a jab.

In the Kiltschko's I see two excellent heavyweights, no more. Whenever they're thrust into the top ten they're more open to flak than any other candidate.

 

Vitali took the fight with Lewis on less than two weeks notice. Lewis had several months to accept the re-match. He declined.

While Bowe has official wins over Golota, he was owned in both fights and won on stupid fouls.

 

No, that was Lewis. Vitali won an emilinator to face Lewis 6 months prior. In another scenario , you would be praising Vitali for being the consummate processional and keeping himself in shape all year around. And you'd be right.

He kept fighting both times against Golota and forced Golota to quit. He didn't tell his corner he wanted to quit.

 

Vitali was already in training to fight 6 '3" Cedric Boswell when 6'2" Kirk Johnson pulled out of the Lewis fight , stop with the spin.
Lewis had to adjust to an opponent 5 inches taller who fought nothing like the stocky Johnson, who fought in a half crouch .Lewis was nearly 38years old and weighed a career high 256.5lbs and he still won.

Vitali flat out quit against Byrd. Didnt have a clue how to fight inside and would have been given hell by Evander.

 

This thread is already four pages old, so all my points have likely been, but I'll still list my reasoning,

Riddick Bowe ranks higher for me.

1. He was a legitimate unified world champion
2. He was never stopped and lost only once to a man he beat twice
3. He has a victory over a near prime ATG, which is better than any of Vk's wins
4. While VK may have more depth, I think even the best wins for VK are comparable to Bowe's secondary wins. I really can't see Sam Peter, Juan Gomez, Tomasz Adamek, Corrie Sanders or Herbie Hide being much better than Coetzer, Gonzalez, Hide ( younger ), Seldon, or an aged Tubbs.

 

The same disadvantage works in reverse where Lewis is concerned, on top of also being about 6 years older and less active as of late. Had this been the Lewis of 1997 - 2000, he likely would have beaten VK in similar fashion to the way he was dispatching guys like Grant and Briggs.

 

Slightly perhaps. Bow retired with 45 professional fights. Vitali retired with 47. Bowe fought his last fight at age 40 while Vitali fought his at age 41. So technically yea, he had marginally more longevity, but I don't think its enough to clearly set them apart.

 

I don't like either one of these guy's so im as unbiased , as it's gonna get i got VK, here he was better for longer, and if the 2 would have met Bowe would have got his ass kicked in a major way...

Bowe really had no physical or mental endurance for the sport, burned out at only 29, and his fear of Lewis, in my opinion really tarnished his legacy...

 

Vitali quitting to Byrd didn't tarnish his?:think

 

Can you imagine Chisora slapping Bowe in the face?

:tomb

 

You could also argue that that version of Golota (fouls aside) was probably the best hes ever been and probably better than any guy Vitalis ever beat.

Golota was Bowes Buster Douglas (minus the W)

 

In NY especially Brooklyn it is a built in response to respond violently and I think Bowe would have sparked Chisora,Tyson as well but because of Chisora's ignorance and lack of human dignity class and intelligence there was no reason to lose millions which is what Vitali would have lost had he cracked DC but post fight Haye was brought down to that level but at least he busted up the vandal Chisora. Haye did what he had to do but I respect Vitali for being smart and patient too bad he couldn't KO Chisora but Haye did it later