With Vitali's retirement soon to come. Where do you place him among the ATGS?

Vitali will coast into te HOF primarily due to te fact that he is Wlad's brother. I wouldn't put him there on his own merit. He lost 2 of his 4 biggest fights against Lewis and Byrd. His best wins are a fat semi retired golfer and Wlad's leftovers in Sam Peter, his legacy is built on having Lewis remodel his face and beating on fat bums and cruiserweights. I'll welcome his retirement glady as it will signal the end of one of the most disgraceful HW champions

 

Sensational post, moneypaysbills

The reality is that Vitali's resume is risible. If you put to one side the fact that he is Wladimir's brother, here is a guy who has spent the vast, vast majority of his career as either a contender or a belt holder and who holds no wins against elite opposition; is that what people consider HoF worthy?

I can understand the fact that the two brothers do not want to fight one another so you therefore have to look at who has beaten the better opposition and that is without a doubt, Wladimir. Vitali has therefore neither beaten the No.1 guy in his division at any point in his career or posted better wins than the consensus No.1 guy either.

Whilst H2H, Vitali does better historically - much, much better - on resumè alone, Vitali is nothing more than a decent belt holder, much like Shannon Briggs or Greg Page.

 

its all subjective, there's some very good points for and against in this thread already.
for me, personally, i dont think he's an all time great simply because of the era he's been in, and lacks any defining fight that will have people talking about him for years to come.
i've no doubt he could've beaten many of the best HWs from various eras due to his massive size, athletic ability, heavy punches and iron jaw. but the truth is we will never know and have to make do by putting wins against the likes of sam peter on a pedestal.
even with the division being as weak as it is he still ends up fighting complete no-names when there is at least a few half decent challenges out there for him. its a shame but its not his fault.

 

Good post.

However, I feel that once again people put too much emphasis on size. Blown up SMW Chris Byrd managed to get around Vitali's size advantage, clown him and make him quit. He is a good match up for most HW's apart from Lewis who schools him every time but due to playing second fiddle to Wlad and not fighting the best opposition, even if it was god awful for a large period of the time. To be considered better than Wlad he would have had to fight the same/better opponents than Wlad and beat them in a more convincing fashion. He did not do this so no he is not HOF material

 

I assume the OP meant based on accomplishments? So, just outside the Top 10 at around 13-15 depending on what day you ask me.

Head to head he'd be alot higher.

 

If he didnt cheat in the olympics, quit against byrd,get raped against lennox and retire in his prime years he would be just outside the top ATG's, as it stands i rank him along side john ruiz.. Good champ but far too many flaws..

 

Please explain disgraceful you assclown..................

Vitali fought a wide variety of fighters and honored all his madatory defenses. He completely shut out boxers like Kevin Johnson & Gomez and he beat punchers like Peter, Arreola & Briggs. He even beat boxer/punchers like Kirk Johnson & Solis.

 

Purely resume 20 - 30
H2h top 10
So lower end of the top 20 for me atm.

I do believe he is a h2h nightmare in his prime.

 

:roll:

H2H I agree with you, however on his accomplishments he probably sits outside the top 50 and has no place in the top twenty. Unless you'd only say he was 13-15 ATG on one of your crack smoking days :smoke:dead

 

Thank you for naming a who's who of his disgraceful fights and thus making my original point exponentially more valid with minimal effort on my part :rofl

 

I'd say 25-35. His career isn't finished yet so I'd say outside the top 30. Assuming he loses to Charr, he'd be clearly outside the top 30 so you have to allow for the fact he's still active.

He'll likely beat Charr and if he does, he will be around 25-30.

 

Johnson is a dire fighter and Gomez was a cruiserweight.

Peter is a puncher with horrendous technique. Garbage caveman. Arreola was obese and Briggs was shot.

He "even" beat Johnson?! What kind of world is this? Are you living in fantasia where Johnson wasn't a fat bum? And the Solis win would have been significant....that is if Vitali had cleanly beaten him. He didn't. Solis won the only round of the fight and then lost due to injury.

 

I don't smake crack you filthy foreigner............Vitali would be a tough fight for any Heavyweight in history bar none.

 

If Vitali beat Lewis he'd be Top 5-10 by default since I have Lewis in my Top 3.

 

Are you a moron Ruscunt? I clearly stated that I agree with you regarding H2H. However, that does not make him a legitimate HOF candidate on his own, let alone top 20. Also I know a lot of you Klitschko nuthuggers are racists, but keep it out of these forums