Wlad is so much better fundamentally as a boxer than Vitali

Simple, they rank him higher cause he would most likely beat up Wlad.

 

Overall Wlad was better but Vitali was better on the backfoot. Wlads inability to box and move would cause him to lose a lot of fights against the greats because he had had no recourse other than hold like a squid in the face of attack.
This is why he went life and death with Sam Peters and why Vitali made Peters look like a bum.

Vitali wasn't as good punching forward as Wlad was. Hence why he had trouble landing clean on Byrd. Wlad had much better technique when throwing straight right hands hand left hooks.

 

Absolutely, Wladimir was more gifted in boxing, Vitali himself stated that, but still I liked Vitali better, somehow he was more resistant and coped well against various styles...

 

You're making me want SF6 haha but I'll buy that in time most likely on a deal

 

The division got better after them imho. I'll take the Wilder/Fury trilogy over the Klit reign but that's my preference.

And yes it's a shame there wasn't a "clear undisputed hvy champ" since they didn't fight each other so we can only speculate who would win. For the record I do think Vitali is all wrong H2H too but I rank Wlad higher bcuz he was more dominant despite both not being in a strong era.

 

I was certainly not expecting to see Street Fighter references when describing the Klitschko brothers. Spot on comparison to Blanka and Honda. Vitali was extremely repetitive and lacked imagination, but he was effective in that small area he specialized in. The Briggs fight is particularly painful to watch because he could've gotten him out of there as early as round 7 if he had better technique and variety. All his punches are thrown the same way with the same speed and timing so it wasn't hard for Briggs to brace himself.

 

Imagine if in the 90's there was no Tyson, Holyfield, Foreman, Mercer, Moorer, or Morrison and all we had was Bowe and Lewis fighting B and C level guys. Then at the end of the decade we expect Lewis and Bowe to fight and they don't.

That's what the Klitschko era felt like. The only 2 elite A level guys refusing to face each other and no one to truly push them.

 

Completely different styles, Wlad was more fluid, Vitali had that Upright European style.

 

You were vehemently defending the idea that the 20 months retired, 42 year old, 2014 mayor of Kiev would have schooled and stopped Wilder too.

Vitali effectively retired in 2004, Wlad was the No.1 ranked heavyweight from 2006-2015 and de-facto No.1 after he beat Peter in 2005. Vitali was only active for 39% of the Klitschko era and fought inferior opposition for the most part, ending his WBC reign at 41 against Charr.

 

Yeah the division definitely got better but it's still lacking regarding the big fights happening between the top guys. But if we can get the likes of Joshua/Wilder Usyk/Fury in the next year then it will turn into quite a memorable Heavyweight era.

 

Nobody can reasonably rank Vitali's resume as greater.

H2H the reason people will sometimes rank Vitali higher basically amounts to

a) chin. nobody has ever seen Vitali look like Wlad did against Sanders or Brewster. a lot of fans see one or 2 brutal knockout losses and decide a fighter is especially chinny, and would lose to anyone who could hit him hard.

b) TKO6 and the Byrd loss both having big asterisks on them.

Fighters that never lose or never definitively lose have a mystique about them. Once you've seen someone get dominated, especially by lesser fighters, it's hard to not imagine that being an imminent possibility in all fights.

 

There were plenty of contenders of that era I would expect to beat Morrison Foreman Mercer etc. If Jesse Ferguson and old Holmes can beat Mercer so should plenty of that eras contenders

 

Wlad had a better hook and cross than Vitali who had a better uppercut

Wlad ever had a chin worse than Vitali's

 

No-one has. That can't be disputed.

 

I don't think anyone rates Vitali as greater in regards to resume, but i think some may rate him a better H2H fighter overall in mythical match ups. And i think most would favour Vitali over Wladimir aswell.