Wlad VS Haye ?

Jantior,

Vitali has been hit by some hard punchers who landed their best. If yu get a chance watch the Hide fight ( round 1 ), the Sanders fight ( round 1 ), and the Lewis fight ( Several rounds ).

Can you name many fighters that took harder shots on film than the ones Sanders and Lewis landed without the guy taking them going down...or at the very least being in serious trouble? I can't. Vitali is one of two ring magazine champions never to be floored. His chin has to be rated as excellent.

 

I think Gomez best weight was between 212 and 214 around what he weighed for Sunil Sam.Over that is excess flab.
Gomez is past his best now ,and in truth was never very good at his peak ,he was a cagey guy who knew his way around a ring, thats about it.
I understand Vitali had to fight him ,but it was no great acheivement beating a past prime cruiser. imo
Vitali is one of the 2 best heavywieghts out there , but there are no "names " to make you sit up on his winning sheet imo.
His resume is rather underwhelming in terms of quality.
If he beats Haye and 1 or 2 more of the better Ruskies,it will help his legacy I think.

 

You are right, he had the WBO Heavyweight title for a while thats it.

 

Gomez may have looked faster than he was in the Sinan Sam fight. Sinan Sam was the slowest heavyweight out there. I would perfer to see Vitali defeat Valuev, and take two belts. Haye would be my second choice

Legacy can be defined in many ways. Vitali has already corned the market on the following:

All time KO% among champions.

All time best rounds to rounds lost among champions.

One of two ring mangaizne champions never to be floored.

The only man to take almost 4 years off, and win a world title belt at age 37+ with no warm up fights.

If Vitali keeps winning vs top ten guys, he will also carve out a niche for being one of the best older champions ever.

 

Vitali is very tall, fights tall, and has good movement for such a big man. I dont think hes as big a puncher as his brother, but his other attributes outweigh them. A guy tough to reach causes the opponent to miss leaving countering openings, and this is exactly how Vitali fights, cautiously. Haye's going to have to plant himself on Vitali's chest and turn it into a war, and thats going to be harder against Vitali than it would have been against Wlad.

 

Sanders and Lennox didnt land many shots though, neither no longer had the stamina to maintain a sustained attack and withstanding 1-2 odd shots here and there isn't the mark of the greatest chin of all time.

His chin is good but is crackable, what if Lennox had been able to land a few more shots after that massive uppercut where Vitali was hanging on for dear life?

 

Intuativley I think that Vitally does have a superior chin but I am always wary of pronouncing a fighters chin to be all time great based on a couple of instances of him taking heavy spectacular punches.

That aside the Hide fight, the Lewis fight and the Sanders fight all took place before Vitally Klitschko's enforced layoff.

We are walking into uncharted teritory now.

 

Which is why you can use his entire career. He has never been knocked down 39 fights.

Which fighters can you think of that took absolute bombs without going down that did not have good chins? I'd like to read that response.

The truth is, I've seen Foreman, Marciano, Dempsey, and many others floored and hurt by lesser punchers.

 

We could look at the circumstances of those knockdowns and the level of competition each of these fighters faced but that is by the by.

The bottom line is that VK is coming off a long layoff and we don't know how his chin is going to hold up.

 

Vitali took some heavy artiliery from Lewis. His face was falling off, and he was still standing. I think he can take a pretty good lick. To me that was his coming out party as a real fighter, but he never really followed up with any consistency. It seemed like he avoided Rahman like the plague who would have been another good proving fight as Rahman was still in some sort of boxing shape at that time. It will be interesting to see how he does against Haye, but to me Haye was presenting the style I wanted to see Wlad match up against, because it seemed certain Haye was going to turn it into a brawl with some speed attached.

 

If anyone hasn't heard...David Haye will now fight Nikolai Valuev instead of Vitali Klitschko, apparently because the contract offered to him by the Klitshcko camp was unacceptable.

Who is at fault, the Klitschko's or Haye? Is perhaps nobody at fault?
Is it a wise career move for Haye?
Is it good or bad for the division?
What are his chances against Valuev?

Is Haye all mouth or is he genuinely interested in fighting the Klitschko's, but on more even terms?

 

I think he picked a ten times easier fight. Valueav is horrible. The Klitschko fights will always be there if he wins the title, and maybe he will have better bargaining chips for a fight down the road. I dont know the details of what really happen.

 

To answer the first question, both Klitschko's have managed to end contracts with Haye in one way shape, form or another. Wlad pulled out to fight Chagaev and Vitali's people weren't generous enough I suppose. As for the Valuev fight, I think Haye is going to beat him up pretty badly. Nikolay's size will probably take him to the score cards, but I'm hoping Haye wins handely. I don't have anything personal against Valuev but he needs to be removed from the picture. He has no business being in the upper tier, and this fight seems like a good way to take out the trash ( no disrespect intended. )

 

Agreed.