Who do you believe is / was the best Heavyweight - Lennox Lewis or Vitali Klitschko ?

Bowes not on Lewis' resume.

 

Bowe is a shocking matchup for Vitali.

You obviously have no clue about Ray Mercer whatsoever. Vitali would not knock him out, seriously!

 

In boxing terms, it IS something to be ashamed of. In a world title fight, in front of his own fans and well ahead on the cards; he quit.

I actually give the Klitschkos more credit than most for what they have achieved and Vitali in particular has good H2H credentials imo. However, on a CV basis Lewis vs Vitali is not close e.g. LL stopped prime Briggs in 5 rounds in 1998, 12 years later and he goes the distance with Vitali. Lewis' has a long list of excellent stoppage wins.

On a h2h basis, their fight did not have any sort of satisfying ending so the only thing we can really draw from it is that a past-prime, out-of-shape, non-motivated took on a prime Vitali at a couple weeks notice and made for a fantasic fight in which Lewis was the one coming on strong.

 

Lewis all day!! and Bowe vs Vitali :rofl!! The guys alright bashing up these guys and he hung with a past prime Lennox but Bowe a prime Bowe would demolish him. Be a damn war though.

 

My mistake was thinking of Holyfield.atsch

You cant deny has a great shot at going undefeated through Lewis resume. I'm not a big fan of Vitali but I do admire him for his work, he is real tough and cant see anyone knocking him out in Lewis resume.

Like I said though; Vitali will never be able to top Lewis. He hasn't the opponents there to do it. He could stay fighting for 5 years and keep winning, that still wouldn't be enough.

Vitali is in the wrong era.

 

Lewis.

Next question.

 

Vitali in his prime would probably beat the Holyfield that Lennox fought, I'll give him that.

But saying that, he didn't have the dig to get Evander's respect in the way that Lewis did.

Holyfield from 1991 would make roadkill of him.

I think of all the super HW's in history though Riddick is the worst matchup for him, closely followed by Foreman. In his prime he couldn't beat an old, out of shape Lewis. That really says it all as to where he is. A very good heavyweight, that's all.

 

In fact yes I can deny it. Vitali is on their level. He is not an ATG Heavyweight, and nor is his skillset that impressive when you take into account the level of opposition he's facing. There are so any Heavy punchers on Lewis' resume I would not be surprised if the always physically troubled Vitali would not fall to bits under some of their assaults.

You also have Holyfield, who could cut the distance well, could outbox Vitali on the backfoot or outfight him. Vitali will struggle to gain respect from a prime Evander, who had on of the greatest chins of all time.

He might well outpoint the fat Mercer Lewis fought over 10, but he was a massive bomber, and could work well on the inside with uppercuts when Vitali tried to stifle him when he got in close. One of the biggest HW punchers of all time.

Bruno had a good jab, solid power, and was not a bad boxer. I don't think he'd be outgunned by Vitali, although I'd lean towards him die to his awkward and more confident style.

Vitali would probably have trouble stopping Morrison. Who had a poor chin.

Honestly, I don't rate fighters for looking quality against poor opposition. I don't think it'ss necessarily a guarantee of 'if he thoughts greats it'd be closer', I think it's a case of him not doing anything near deserving of the praise he gets.

The reputation Vitali has for having a good chin comes from what? A contender-type in Sanders, notorious for smashing a pre-prime version of his brother. No ATG puncher. Hide. Who didn't hit him. Lewis. Who hit him hard and had him badly rocked at one stage.

That is not proof of high levels off durability. He is also injury prone. He would get sparked by a lot of top level Heavyweights IMO.

Vitali is in the right era. In the best eras of the Heavyweight division, he'd struggle to crack the top 5 IMO.

 

Was he really that out of shape though?Are 6-7lbs such a big deal on a huge man like Lewis?
He didnt look out of shape when he destroyed Botha,Tyson and easily defeated Tua.

Why wasnt he motivated?

Yes but Vitali who was scheduled to fight Cedric Boswell also took on the undisputed HW Champion on two weeks notice and gave him hell.
Thats like David Haye scheduled to fight some crap guy only to get the chance at Vitali on two weeks notice,taking the fight and leading at the half way point before being stopped on a cut.
It would have been great to see them go at it again with a proper camp behind them for both men.

 

beeston did you watch the entrance for wlad vs haye with foreman

did you actually see how much bigger wladimir was when he walked out past foreman, never mind vitali?

the major problem is, people fail to understand how big the klits are, people like foreman are NOWHERE ****ING NEAR the size of these two

 

On two weeks notice though.Vitali hadnt been anywhere near Lewis' level up to that point,Byrd and Hide were his only big fights up to that point.

 

And? Tyson was nowhere near the size of Tucker, Bruno, and Biggs.

Louis was nowhere near the size of B.Baer and Carnera.

Their height doesn't mean others can't close the distance. Tyson would savage these guys to the body.

 

-6/7lbs does make a difference and to my eyes he was clearly out of shape in that fight. Fought sluggishly and gassed quickly. You can credit some of that to Klitschko but Lennox has been hit before in fights and not deteriorated so quickly. Imo he was clearly way off his best shape but feel free to disagree.

-I say he wasn't motivated partly because he was out of shape(hope that doesn't sound like a circular argument) and also if you hear him talking prior and after fighting Tyson; that fight was about him 'completing his legacy'. I think he was basically done with boxing after Tyson and felt he had nothing more to achieve. To that end I have no idea why he took another fight.

-Yep, the change of opponent affects Vitali as much as Lewis but I just meant it as another reason why Lewis was not at his best. Also I would say that a great competitor like Vitali would greatly raise his game for fighting the world champion rather than Cedric Boswell, whereas, as I said, I don't think Lewis had the same motivation.

 

Haye - Valuev

Mike Tyson

Joe Louis

:hi: