So I watched it first time in a long time and I must say Corrie kicked his ass in that round. A lot of clean quick hard punches landed by Corrie and he even badly hurt vitaly at the end of the round. This is a prime Vitaly too mind you. So the questions that comes up is was Corrie Sanders underated or is Vitaly overrated ? I know it's only one round but Corrie was old and fat, you gotta imagine if he was younger and in shape he could win this fight easily. Watching this round kinda puts in perspective how crappy Vitaly's recent competition and the division is in general nowadays..
Corrie had some intangibles that made him a decent fighter but a shitty fighter at the same time, but he would lose to Vitaly 95 out 100 times. A younger fresher Corrie could catch Vitaly with hard punch a few times and not let him recover and stop him...but more times than not he get abused 10-12 rounds decision...
He buzzed him with a shot off the ropes, Vitali ran away from him, then he got hit again and fell. Wasn't badly hurt, just caught with a hard shot.
I equate being badly hurt with being dropped or doing the Judah dance. I saw neither of those.:scratcher:
Right. He has just caught by a huge punch from a big puncher. He was fine, if not slightly buzzed for a second.
Sure maybe slightly buzzed for a second, thats different from being "badly hurt". I think it was more of Vitalis clumsiness than anything. The only reason Vitali fell was because Corrie pushed him.
It's tough to recall Vitali going in against another fighter with the combination of speed and power of Sanders.
I don't think Sanders landed 'a lot of clean hard punches'. They measured each other for two minutes with Vitali landing more (meaningless punches). Sanders was able to lure Vitali in and landed a perfect counter from the ropes which clearly made Vitali uncomfortable and followed up with a combo but didn't land all that much. In the third they both landed some. Sanders had a great combination of speed, reach and power, so to me getting hit by him is not a big deal at all. Otherwise Sanders was very average, so Vitali whipped him bad as any very good / great fighter should
Corrie Sanders had great offence skills and could put damage on just about anyone for 1 or 2 rounds before he gassed.
Just like Bert Cooper, Hurricane Denzel Carter, or a million other dangermen before him. Its also a good example of how fights turn on their own facts. Vitali went into that fight a bit tight, the Klitschko name was out the window if he lost, but he won, and teeth have been gnashed ever since.
I think Steve_Dave has whittled down his ETA for a Klitschko thread to around 4 seconds now, by the way :: He's not interested, you see. :laugh11:
Classic big counter pot-shot. Hopkins would be proud of it. A classic snare. Vitali took it well and did the smart thing- ran.
Yup. I think he was off balance too or slightly pushed to the canvas. Can't quite remember, but Sanders got some nice lefts in that first round. How would a Sanders - Chisora fight go down do you think?
Hard to say, I think Sanders could stop him. We've not seen Dereck in there with any fighters who combine speed and power in the left-handed style. it could be the styles that undo him. Fury, Helenius and 41 old Vitali are all broadly similar formats, and, despite his brave gutty efforts, all Chisora has to show for them is one robbery. Sanders might put him in a shell with some early bombs and keep him there.
<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PjuXgo8icuE?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PjuXgo8icuE?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object> Great stuff. Chisora was working that right-hook to the body very well vs Vitali and it reminded me of Lyakhovic vs Brewster. Its an odd punch, the traditional shot is the left to the liver, but the stomach and intestines are on the right, it seems to work just as well, and its a viable option against orthodox jabbers who leave their left out there.
I think it shows that one of the main strengths Vitali has over Wladimir is his toughness. Because of that, no matter how much more skilled Wlad proves to be, I will always rate Vitali as the more difficult boxer to defeat.
That fight, helped Vitali probably more than any other fight in his entire career experience wise,..given his classical 1 dimension european amatuer training from Fritz, he found himself having to completely improvise on the spot, he didn't clinch, he just ran around and awkwardly counter-punched. Without this fight, I dont think Vitali could have dealt with pressure fighters as easy as he's capable of today, he absorbed to create a more polished style of dealing with pressure. Wlad on the other hand, simply refuses to deal with any pressure via his chronic Hopkinseque clinching. I'm also not convinced Wlad can truelly deal with a fighter who rivals his own height and reach, as I've said before, the Thompson fight was a disgrace, and you know it Frank...you know it was worse than Calzaghe - Bika...
This has at least been the case between them for long. Difficult to tell now if Wlad has learned to protect his weakness well enough so that it isn't an issue anymore or is it just that his opponents have not been as good as earlier in his career. IMO results tell everything, but it isn't easy to compare Wlad and Vitali. Based on common opposition Vitali is obviously the better, but otherwise Wlad's ring record is much better. Is Wlad better now than in -04, hard to tell for sure
Still, it's hard to forget the time Byrd walked him down, landed half of his punches and made a Vitali who was throwing a bunch of punches with both hands quit on his stool with a shoulder injury.
Yep- and do you know why its hard to forget? Cos he's still here, dipping your nose in it to this day. If he hadn't quit, that would have been his last fight and he would have been forgotten. Ironically, his greatest memories are built on your greatest memories. Cheers Stephen!!!
No...neither Klitschko can fight going backwards. Neither of them has a chin and they both quit. This is what we said in 2000, and now we have to stick with it for consistency-sake. Ever notice how certain fighters- certain fighters- get really really angry with the brothers for standing up to them???
Upon second viewing Vitaly wasn't "badly hurt" he was rocked. But I must say Sanders landed a lot of clean shots on him in the early rounds of this fight. Especially when you compare it to nowadays where he gets hit more at the weigh ins than during actual fights. Heavyweight division these days is absolute crap.
