He was always better. Nothing to do with last night, he is diminished but has the same strengths and weaknesses that he always had.
Vitali will always beat Wlad IMO...Vitali has a chin Wlad none and that will be the key factor. Vitali would take Wlad's power not the opposite.
That's rubbish, the man is 40 years old and may have fought with only one fully functioning arm. The criteria for Wlad is to keep winning and look dominant, Vitali has looked dominant in every fight he's had bar two. He's knocked out almost everyone he's faced, fighting experianced fighters, former world champions, mandatories and undefeated Boxers. Lewis and Byrd both have endings which can be debated one way or the other. Both the brothers have done incredibly well with what has been available to them during their era, that should be enough for you.
No way does Vitali land enough on Wlad to damage him. Vitali is below average power wise. He was landing flush shots on Briggs, Adamek, Chisora, Sanders and they were still upright. Wlad could take whatever got through without much problem.
Who could beat him?:huh That shell of man is going to remain undefeated for 3 more fights than retire at 42. That will leave him undefeated in his final 15 fights, 14 of which are considered title fights.:deal
Give Gisora some credit, he ate those punches well. Other HWs would have given up, backed up and let Vitali do his thing on them. Haye would have ran straight to the bank, smiling and saying "I just killed Box Office". Wlad doesn't hit harder than his brother, but his fights safer than Vitali.
40 years old, yes, but his last fight was one of his better performances in his entire career. As he has said numerous times, he doesn't feel old. Looking at his performance, he didn't look any worse than what he usually does. You can only beat who is around, yes, but Vitali has been fighting easy opponents. Fighters who walk straight forward and do nothing. Adamek, Arreola, Peter, Johnson, Sosnowski? Come on. A terrible list of opponents. The first time a fighter offers him something different and he's in a tough fight. Chisora isn't a great fighter either, he just used body movement well and was relentless. That's how easy it is to give Vitali a tough fight. He's just not a great. Very technically flawed. He has little defence bar his upper body movement, he throws arm punches, he has little variation in his combinations, abysmal footwork that ranks somewhere alongside Max Baer's and Jess Willards. If he was better than I'm saying he is, he'd have slaughtered Chisora, who is a very inexperienced fighter and not physically gifted in any area.
Byrd schooled Vitali, he got robbed of a clean victory. Old Lewis proved that Vitali is a top level fighter but having said that did he do better than a Mavrovich ?sp or a Bruno? There is also a difference between tko's against old shot guys and Knockouts.
Old now but he looked great 5 months ago against one of the best opponents he's fought, in an easy fight which he could have ended in the second round? Please.
I like to exaggerate things and make ridiculous claims here and there in an attempt to get a reaction from both the Klitschko lovers and those on the opposite end of the spectrum who despise the Klitschko's, but this statement sums up my feelings. They've cleaned out a division. Spectacularly or not, pretty or ugly, they've beaten just about everybody they've needed to. History will recognize them as fantastic heavyweights who could give many greats a very difficult night with their size, power, and athleticism.
Err Wlad has proven single shot knockout power. There are guys with poor chins that have taken everything Vitali could hit them with for the full twelve.