The Only Interesting Heavyweight Fight? : Wlad vs Vitali

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Just a bit of fun here really, and probably done to death in the past, but I wanted to make a topic

Anyways, the only fight of interest at world level in the HW division is one that will never happen, still doesn't stop us discussing it though. Who do you think would win this fight right now and why? Do you even think this is the most interesting fight available at the weight?

I would personally opt for Vitali due to his incredible chin and the fact that I could see him simply walking Wlad down, and eventually breaking him down for a mid to late stoppage win. Although at the same time, I wonder how much power Wlad does hold in his hands, could he possibly stop Vitali dead in his tracks with a few rights? I think a younger version of Vitali would win 10 times out of 10, but at this stage in both careers, I feel it gets much more interesting. How do you guys see it going?

Being a gifted athlete and fairly good boxer is far better than being an overweight talentless boxer like the majority of Wlads opposition. Seems to be a trend that people are trying to make his opponents out to be better than they are.

As interesting as this has been, would like to draw attention to the equally split poll! I'm yet to read any posts saying how Wlad would win though, except one or two.

Sorry mate got wrapped up in the whole Lewis/Wlad debate again

Even if they fought today can only Vitali winning fairly comfortably by knockout, he has the power, size and strength to cause Wlad problems while i'm not sure how Wlads jab will deal with a bigger fighter than him.

I'm in the same camp as you there. Have to say, the Wlad/Lewis debate is really confusing me, it started off with who's jab is better which is a decent enough question, but it seems to have moved onto CVs, and surely no one can argue Wlad to win on those grounds? Unless it is based solely on the David Haye win and where that should rank?

i can see wlad winning if they fought tomorrow, vitali has slowed and is easy to hit these days (one round of solis showed that), wlad with better speed and better movement could stay out of trouble to win a points descion or possibly stop him on cuts

Imperial Ghosty -

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on the matter.

licence_007 -

If Wlad and Vitali fought tomorrow, they would fix it between themselves for Wlad to win.

This hypothetical is to be taken as meaning there will be no fix or any sort between the brothers. In fact, just consider that they aren't even brothers, just two heavyweight boxers that hold the titles. Who would win in that scernario?

I do think that Wlad could get rounds under his belt but with his chin do think that Vitali would be willing to walk him down sooner or later where the pressure could tell and do think he'd wilt.

Do think it's slightly insulting to Lewis to compare Wlads record to his but i'll leave it at that.

The only major question I can think of are: - How is Vitali's punch resistance at his age, against as hard a hitter as Wlad? ; and How hard does Wlad actually hit?

licence_007 wrote:This hypothetical is to be taken as meaning there will be no fix or any sort between the brothers. In fact, just consider that they aren't even brothers, just two heavyweight boxers that hold the titles. Who would win in that scernario?

Wlad is currently the better of the two. He has the better jab, better movement, better trainer and he hits harder.
I wouldnt be surprised if he would scraps through a close MD/SD victory.
A prime Vitali stops him in the mid/latter rounds though.

J.Benson II wrote:

licence_007 wrote:This hypothetical is to be taken as meaning there will be no fix or any sort between the brothers. In fact, just consider that they aren't even brothers, just two heavyweight boxers that hold the titles. Who would win in that scernario?

Wlad is currently the better of the two. He has the better jab, better movement, better trainer and he hits harder.
I wouldnt be surprised if he would scraps through a close MD/SD victory.
A prime Vitali stops him in the mid/latter rounds though.

What are you basing he hits harder on? Can't dispute the other parts, just my thinking is that Vitali could take Wlad's best blows and continue walking him down and putting him under pressure. Would be fun to see a fight where neither of them held as big a reach advantage as they are used to. Cheers for giving reasons for a Wlad win though!

i think sometimes wlads chin is overplayed, he had a problem early on his career. but the way people talk about it you would think vitali would only have to touch him and he's down. i dont think he's that bad anymore. haye landed couple of big shots and he was fine, added to that his much improved defence where he's not getting hit clean like he was early on his career. wlad was reckless when getting hit early on and that was part of the problem.

The thing is a bad chin is a bad chin

Have to fancy Vitali hits just as hard if not harder than Haye as well.

does khan take a better shot now than early on? you can get used to being hit and improve your reaction to doing so. i feel that both wlad and khan has improved this

added to that normally improves with filling out at your weight, much more of a help with khan that one but might have helped slighty with wlad

Khan had to boil himself down to make lightweight which can effect his punch resistance something he doesn't have to do so much, the same can't be said of Wlad at heavyweight, he is who he is.

And we have no real evidence that his chin has improved since all he's taken are a couple of shots from Haye, and if we take Haye at his word, they weren't full-blooded, and yet Wlad still seemed hurt at points.

every body fills out in weight at some point. but thats not really my major arguement more that with wlads improved defence he very very rarely gets tagged clean. hayes got great speed and couldnt land to much how would a much slower vitali do it?

licence_007 wrote:

J.Benson II wrote:

licence_007 wrote:This hypothetical is to be taken as meaning there will be no fix or any sort between the brothers. In fact, just consider that they aren't even brothers, just two heavyweight boxers that hold the titles. Who would win in that scernario?

Wlad is currently the better of the two. He has the better jab, better movement, better trainer and he hits harder.
I wouldnt be surprised if he would scraps through a close MD/SD victory.
A prime Vitali stops him in the mid/latter rounds though.

What are you basing he hits harder on? Can't dispute the other parts, just my thinking is that Vitali could take Wlad's best blows and continue walking him down and putting him under pressure. Would be fun to see a fight where neither of them held as big a reach advantage as they are used to. Cheers for giving reasons for a Wlad win though!

Wlad throws his bombs with more speed and better technique.

Freddie Roach told Amir Khan that Wlad was the hardest hitter he's ever had on the mitts. I don't think his power can be disputed.

I think if Wlad fights a smart fight, he would be able to keep away from Vitali, land his jab enough and survive a few edgy moments to eek out a tight victory.

I also think his "chin" issue is a bit over-played. Yes, its suspect but not totally glass (a term that applies more to the likes of Hide, Moorer and Morrison).
The loss to Sanders was more down to a poor defence.
Even then, Wlad tends to only get KO'd after taking several heavy blows rather than single shots.

Vitali has a far bigger reach than Haye and would be far more willing to take a punch to get his own off, he doesn't get tagged much because no ones had the ability to do it but Vitali even at his age is a far better boxer than anyone else at heavyweight.

Haye isn't a big pressure fighter though. Vitali, although he might be a bit slower, you would fancy that the pressure he would put on Wlad would eventually catch up to him in the later rounds and Wlad's chin and defence would truly face a tough test.

Still can't see anything other than a late stoppage, with Wlad ahead on the cards.

Benson - I'm not questioning that Wlad hits hard, just the part where you said he hits harder than Vitali. Has Roach worked with both?

Not overly sold on Wlads power, he doesn't tend to take people out with one punch rather slowly wears them down before stopping them late.

im with benson on this one

i feel that wlad can stay out of trouble and simply pressure from vitali will mean him eatting a hell alot of shots something even steel chinned as he his will take effect at the age of 40

Imperial Ghosty wrote:Not overly sold on Wlads power, he doesn't tend to take people out with one punch rather slowly wears them down before stopping them late.

56 wins 49 KO's - whether or not he has brillant one punch power you have to respect he does have power, ask the 49 victims

That's a statistic that doesn't tell the full story, I see it as being 49 stoppages rather than 49 KO's. he has decent power but it's nothing special.

I'd say his power is above decent with that stat. I mean, I agree he's not powerful enough to be a one punch KO artist at heavy, but 49 wins by stoppage is still extremely impressive at the weight!

I see his power very much in the Holmes category, makes an opponent respect it but not much more.

have to disagree with you there i feel he has great power, no foreman or shavers but his accurate, speed and power are what stops people. you have to remember he's ultra negative and wont trade he make sure he gets hit without getting hit back, something the other great power hitters didnt have to worry about as much.

you can talk about level of oppostion not being as good but theres nothing to say that the heavys of today cant take a shot better or worse than the oldies and wlad has one of the greatest KO's win % of all time

If his power was great then Haye wouldn't have been able to take his shots as well as he did, its decent but nothing more.

Fair enough. I think Wlad's defensive style is something which probably distracts from just how hard he does hit. I do feel he is a hard hitter, although I find it difficult to work out just how hard. How do you rate Vitali's in comparison?

Think Wlad has better than Vitali who does rely on wearing his opponents down, it was his lack of concussive power that cost him against Lewis.

I think Vitali relies more on accumulation damage while Wlad is more capable of flooring his opponents with single shots (as he did against Brock, Castillo, Chagaev etc).

I just think Wlad is the more explosive and concussive puncher.

He couldnt take Haye out but he barely threw any power shots in that fight and Haye rolled with the ones that he did throw.

Besides, I think we should take Freddie Roach's word above anyone else's.

Compared to Justin Fortune he will hit harder but from memory I can't think of any other Heavyweights he's worked with, if Steward had said it I may take more notice.

I just wish Wlad would showcase it a bit more with taking a couple more risks in fights! I missed a lot of Vitali's first title reign so I wasn't sure how his power was then, besides seeing the Lewis fight. Right now, I do feel his power is on the wane, since he couldn't put Briggs down, but at the same time...still feel that fight should have been stopped in favour of Vitali, but it is a definite illustration of how he wears down opponents.

I'm pretty sure that Roach has worked with Mike Tyson before.

I think Steward has also made similar comments, but I thought his comments could be biased since he's still training Wlad.

you have to remember he's ultra negative and wont trade he make sure he gets hit without getting hit back, something the other great power hitters didnt have to worry about as much.

shavers had to worry about it, his chin is worse than wlad's

i think vitali has more power but wlad is more likely to get a one punch ko as is more accurate and has better technique

So Wlad punches harder than Tyson? Yeah ok.

Committing to a punch is a big part of generating power, it's all well and good saying you have great power but you need to prove you have in the heat of battle.

I'm simply going by what Freddie Roach said.

Considering he's dealing with the force first hand, I'll rather take his word over anyone else's.

Wlad's negative style means we probably don't see the best of his power.

He's dealing with the force in training which is completely different to being an opponent in the ring, if you can even begin to consider Wlad hits harder than Tyson fair enough but it's evidentally not the case.

i don't know chris byrd's view on wlad's power but i'd like to hear it, he's been in there twice with wlad and can compare it to vitali, tua and ibeabuchi

Does he have twitter?