Boxing – Vitali Klitschko: It’s time for praise
November 1st, 2009
By Dennis Broadhurst: Now has come the point where we have to put Vitali Klitschko up there with the remembered, great fighters. I recently wrote two ranking articles on the heavyweight division and placed Klitschko as the 16th greatest heavyweight of all time in front of Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. I feel that to get a ranking among the greats a fighter must prove them-self during their time and be the dominant champion or at least one of the dominant champions in their division.
Let’s look at what strengths Vitali has. His first is his most obvious, his size. Vitali is 6ft8 and around 250lbs, what a tank! We have not seen a champion of such size who has the skill of Vitali apart from his brother Wladimir. Vitali has something his brother does not, an iron chin, Vitali is along there with guys like Muhammad Ali and Jake LaMotta when it comes to taking a good punch. Something that some people may not see is how well Vitali uses his size, he can use ihs long legs to move around the ring very quickly and his reach helps him fire his huge straight shots from range. We saw how well Klitschko moved from Arreola recently and then pouncing his face and body made him look amateur. Klitschko it seems is perhaps one of the most dangerous fighters of all time, he can punch hard and can take a well as he gives, also most fighters are not used to fighting 6ft8 giants. I think if Vitali turned on his brother then the fans would love it and I think Vitali would win.
Vitali uses his strengths so well, he will NOT ever be beaten by David Haye, mark my words. Wladimir may fall victim to Haye on a lucky punch but Vitali will crush Haye if they meet. I hope Vitali boxes for a few more years because he is a great champion and I hope will retire as champion to go down in history as the best fighter of his time (Calling Lennox’s time the 90′s). I do not think Klitschko would beat the greats such as Ali, Tyson and Foreman but he would give them good fights.
Tags: 23 Responses to “Boxing – Vitali Klitschko: It’s time for praise”
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i,m glad the talented giant is finally getting his credit.thou not one of the all time prettiest because of his size. he is of the all time best.his chin is iron. he controls the fight with his jab has good punching power. but whats never talked about is his vision in the ring how he punches under, over and around the opponts guard in the same combonation. and how good he is at sliping punches, that why people say he is boring because he doesnt lose rounds.lennox lewis who beat tyson holyfield and ruddock.and who never seemed to want to vitali credit recently told david haye watch vitali because he was the hardest fight he lewis ever had he said he punched the hardest toughest and hardest to hit lennox lewis should know
ring generalship STRAIGHT PUNCHING BOXING SKILLS- JAB RIGHT HAND. VERY GOOD DEFENCE. HEIGHT WEIGHT AND SUPERIOR CONDITION. lets face the facts. vitali would give any past heavyweight a lot of problems. it is my opinion he is in the top ten of all time.
klitschko vitali is the best all around fighter af all time.
praise ?? and for what ?? beating up bums
vitali was not in his prime—lewis was…he had just won a series of his best fights of his career. lewis was scheduled to fight what many thought was the best boxer of the day and was bulked up to throw punches, not box. vitali was in his first big fight and was on tap to fight a very weak opp. not that i am a fan of either, they are just big, strong, and almost equal in talent. vlad looked better against all three opp that lewis and he shared. he was basically outboxed by ray mercer, a fighter that couldnt lay a glove on vlad, pre improvement…in his next fight tyson after lewis he was beaten by a journeymen. lewis lost to 2 nobodies, got gift decisions and was freq outboxed by any opp with two arms. i remember a tall, skinny gut named zelzko (?)took him the distance,almost beating him—poor marks for that. nicholson said vlad hit much harder, another common opp. what he had was size, as does vitali, which just doesn’t impress me..they both rank about 32 all time in my book, side by side, looking like beached whales just as they did in their fight. but i’ll take vlad over either of them..
i keep saying that box. has evolved and klits. are the best ever
Taffia-I’ve been saying for several years that sorry match-making and bad judging were going to kill the sport in the US. and it damn near has. Most of the promoters in the states are to busy trying to create the next super-star and very rarely do they match the best fighters against the best fighters. Title unification bouts have almost become a thing of the past. Hell for the first time in years I can’t tell you who I think are the best 3 or 4 fighters in each division are because I don’t know. I hope what has happened here doesn’t happen in Europe.
Taffia- If Vitali came to the states when he was 20 yrs old that would have been 18 yrs ago. Unless I am mistaken 18 yrs ago boxing was very much alive and well in the USA. If you want to look it up , in boxing records. I think you will see that we had more than our share of world champions.
I wish Vitali would have been able to come to the states when he was twenty yrs old. I think that he would have done very well and would have enjoyed watching him fight as a young man. The coaching and the sparring that he would have gotten in the states would have only made him better. Can you imagine what a slicker and more aggressive Vitali would have been like. If this had happened it damn sure would have answered a lot of questions.
Prince nadeem hamed came out the same Sheffield gym as the new talented British heavywieght Richard towers..
Tim- Vitali took the fight on short notice not Lewis. To be honest Lewis retired rather than share the ring with Vitali again. Yes Lewis won the fight that night, but its quiet clear to see that a rematch wasn’t his “cup of tea”. By the way I liked Lewis from the first time I saw him fight years ago. I remember telling my son that was watching the fight with me that Lewis would one day be the world champion. He turned out to be quite a champion didn’t he.
Tyson Fury got beat by a bum call mcdermott! You must be on drugs to mention his name in the same sentence as Klitschko! Mcremott himself has been ko in 1round by Skelton!
No wonder people say that the BRITS live in they fantasy world and I am not surprised that Khan is leaving the country!
Hatton is not a good person! He swear many times aagainst Mayweather and the got battered! Hatton is a spoilt, fat, ugly drunk person that was deluded in thinking that he was going to beat Pacquiao 100%
Haha Skelly you know nothing, Naz was a featherweight and wasn’t even the greatest featherweight, not even close.
I thought that this forum was supposed to be about the sport of boxing and we are united as boxing fans
and leave out religon and politics.
The fans will determine who the peoples champions are regardless of religon or politics. We as fans should all become friends and leave religon and politics out of the sport totally.
I root for both a fighter without caring in any way.
vitali has all the right tools,
incredible chin
soild defence
jack hammer jab,
shot gun right hand, the dude just keeps on winning,
i would like to see vitali in atleast 4 more superfights to create his legacy, as one of the greats of this era,
i want to fight nikola valave, david haye and a few more number 1, 2 , 3 chalegeners.
I completly agree,he is an amazing fighter..he has shown that throughout his carreer. I hope he’s around for few more years. His size definitely gives him a good advantage.luckily in England we have couple of prospects who have same size as vitali. Tyson Fury from Manchester and Richard Towers from brendan ingles famous Sheffield gym.
I agree with most except I think he could beat Tyson as he is now and Tyson at his best not as lewis met him, and Big George to. Not sure about Ali.
Cant except anything said about Lewis. He wasn’t in with the best Vitali that creature is as we see him now. Lewis at his best and Vitali now would be a clean up for Vitali. Lewis was lazy Vitali never, he is always at peak fitness. 2010 is his, there is nobody remotely near him for that year. Johnson doesn’t even have a punchers chance because he isn’t a puncher. Still looking forward to it nevertheless.
lewis was hurting Vitali and was gaining on the scorecards of what was a very close fight. But it must be remembered that this was an old lewis who was past his prime by a couple of years.
Vitali is by far and away the best around today, but unfortunately for him there are no decent fighters to fight against. Haye is unproven at heavy, POvetkin is average, chambers is to small, arreola is overweight and to slow. The division needs some marque names, but nobody seems to be arriving on the scene.
Good article but lennox (at the end) was on the rise in that fight and would have probably won anyway. Vitali is a great champion and has beaten everyone who has been put in front of him and i don’t think he has ducked anyone either. He is very under rated and it is nice to see an article praising him for once =). Good job, nice to see a writer who uses facts instead of making things up =)
Yes sorry my mistake.
lennox retired because he didnt want a rematch with vitali, if hes lip wasnt hanging off he would have won
I think Vitali is an excellent champion and deserves his place as the best champion in the last 8 yrs.
A few points:
Vitali beat Corrie Sanders (getting revenge for Wlad), it was Chris Byrd he retired against due to a shoulder injury.
The worst Lennox Lewis (getting ready for retirement, no motivation, old etc)beat the best Vitali.