- Joined
- Nov 18, 2011
- Messages
- 791
- Reaction score
- 14
I liked both. I think both are a little under rated in terms of heart chin and legacy. Not Goat but Top 20 or so for sure.
Vitali. His only real loss was Lennox. Wlad lost to people legit, vitali lost once to a legend and once to his shoulder.
Which of his highlight reel stunning one-punch KOs back up your claim, please?
Kindly sit through this & count the actual punches thrown with correct bodyweight & extension, please? I did, & I make it one right hand (that missed):
Hahahahahahahahahahahhaa
You assume because someone doesn't arm punch that they then become a one-hitter quitter? Regardless if you refute that rhetorical question (don't try, if it's rhetorical, I either already know the answer, or I don't want yours), read on.
I should go and collate some biased splicing of his life. May I approach the bench? Will your honour allow the submission of new evidence?
Sometimes, yes, he may, but many do bear that fault. But to adhere to the limited scope of your evidence, and cling to it as gospel? Ha! That would be.........uncivilized.
Er. Yeah.
I don't know why you've gone all knee-jerk about it (& fuck knows what a "one-hitter quitter" is, when he/she/it is at home) but the fact remains: he punched like a kickboxer his entire career & never learned to punch correctly. He mostly pushed his punches or whipped them from the shoulder without correct torque or extension behind them & with very little bodyweight. Being fuckin' massive & really fit, this wore guys down, mostly due to his workrate & physical presence (it gets depressing being twatted with a fly-swat & then man-handled & not being able to hit back).
But he was an arm-puncher, & never learned to punch correctly, like a boxer.
When you're eighteen stone or thereabouts & really fit, of course even tapping some dude is gonna inflict damage & this damage will grow cumulatively over time, especially if you've got a great engine... Even if you can't throw punches properly, with correct footwork & proper form & extension.
Y'know, like Vitali.
I don't even see how this point is up for debate, really. His stance was always a weird hybrid of kickboxer & boxer, he threw nothing with correct bodyweight behind it & he never scored a single one-punch knockdown of a top-flight opponent (& the dire state of the division means that "top-flight" in this discussion is relative, as we're talking about 40 year old fat Sanders, near-40 shot Briggs, a fat pre-retirement Lenny, none of whom were known for the Oliver McCall-esque fortitude of their chins).
Just in case you're still confused, I'll try in words of two syllables or less, in short easy-to-digest soundbites:
Was he the better of the two brothers? Yes, he was a very effective fighter, for reasons I mentioned in my original post in this topic.
Was he likely to stop fat shitters & be a generally difficult night for anyone? Yes, due to the reasons I outlined in my original post (massive, massive dude, fit as fuck, workrate, brilliant chin, physical awkwardness, extreme competitiveness/will to win).
Could he punch properly? Fuck no. Never ever learned it. Turned out, he didn't have to. If he ever did (& I contend he spent too long kickboxing for this ever to happen) then Lewis's head would've ended up in row 34. But he didn't, 'cos he was an arm-puncher.
I am confused that you seem unable to hold this fact & the fact that he wasn't shit in your mind simultaneously. They're not contradictory.
PS: Another plus-size arm puncher, who does quite well for himself: Tyson Fury. Watch his technique. It's very much in the Vit Klit mode of flicks & swipes & prods. Yet guess what? Eighteen stone plus of flicks & swipes & prods really fucking hurts, if he keeps landing on you.
Vitali was pretty hard to hit really clean later in his career. I'd pick a decent version of Vitali to beat Joshua fairly clean, where as I think Wlad would always struggle with a guy like Joshua.Wlad is the better boxer but Vitali is the better fighter. I think Prime Vitali beats Wlad and prime Vitali does better against other ATGs than Wlad. Vitali has a better chin, better endurance, he throws a higher variety of punches, has better headmovement and is mentally on a different level.