Klitschko Quits...Where Do You Stand?

Coupled with the fact that lowlight Danny Williams fought and knocked out a guy while one of his arms hanging limply at his side due to a dislocated shoulder, I emphatically agree.

Fighting Chris Byrd, Vitali was unlikely to get knocked out. He had the fight won. His shoulder hurt, so he quit.

 

I'm guilty of this in this case, but one important extra thing that I would add is that Vitali not only didn't show the injury, but (as I recall) he used the injured arm the whole fight up to quitting. He may not have used it nearly as effectively, but he used it. So to finish the fight, just quit using it.

 

I think he should have continued. Vitali caught a ton of flack, not because he quit, but because he was absolutely dominating at the time he quit, against somebody who was posing very little threat to him.

That is not something you see everyday in boxing. I can't think of another instance offhand. Maybe somebody else can chime in if they can think of one.

Maybe Ray Robinson vs. Joey Maxim can be debated, though anybody can see Robinson was near death from dehydration when he collapsed between rounds........and Maxim was bigger then Ray and still way more of a threat then Byrd was at the time, regardless of whether Sugar was winning big or not.

Either way, Vitali has long ago proven to me that was a fluke and I think he became a better fighter because of the experience. He's a tough dude regardless.

 

:boohoo::boohoo:

He was unlikely to get knocked out? By Byrd, maybe. He said he was slipping further and further and couldn't concentrate anymore through the pain. Byrd was unlikely to do anything in and of himself.....but he had Klitschko's central nervous system working overtime for him also.

The Williams situation is clearly different. First off, the nature of the injury: Williams had a dislocated shoulder, Klitschko had a tear to his rotator cuff. Secondly, Williams had been told that he had 1 round to turn it around, or it was being stopped. He gambled on a shit-or-bust approach and it paid off. Thirdly, Williams opponent, a British journeyman called Mark Potter, continued to leap in giving Williams chances to land the money punch, something Byrd was unlikely to do.

The notion that every fighter who comes through some sort of an injury related scare makes Vitali look bad...is a duff theory. Always remember what Ali said after Norton....



Ali: "What? Keep fighting keep taking all that punishment on my jaw knowin' it was broken? Man, you dumb"


Thirdly, Vitali beat fuck out of Williams when they met, so...........:boohoo::boohoo:

 

With a name like Klit do you have to wonder why he's a pussy?

Seriously, the injury wasn't life threatening or career changing. You just don't use that arm. It was nearly the end of the fight and he was fighting a guy who was getting dominated. Byrd couldn't defeat him if he had no arms up.To make matters worse he didn't even seek revenge, he got Wlad to do it. I have zero respect for this clown. <small>


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How many cut eyes are life threatening? How many unanswered right hands to the skull are not life threatening? Fights are stopped all the time when there is no risk, fights go on all the time when there is risk.

How do you know the injury wasn't career changing? How do you know that to continue would not have been career changing? Even at the point he quit, he spent 8 months out and only managed a decision win in his comeback.

How do you know what damage would or wouldn't have accumulated to the arm over the next 9 minutes? How do you know that the pain wasn't driving the guy to quit?

People are taking one very narrow slant and running with it. They are not even answering the question which was asked, as they perennially fail to take into account what happened after {i.e. in the years following} he quit.

Was Cotto right to quit against Margarito? At the time people thought not. Now they know about the wraps........

 

Anyone who has endured a torn rotator cuff would not begrudge Klitschko calling the fight --- I'm absolutely sure of it.

 

Part of the issue here is that people are interpreting the question in different ways.

Was he right to quit.....with regard to his health.??

Was he right to quit....with regard to the American "Warrior Code"...

Was he right to quit.....with regard to his career???

Was he right to quit...in that he could have still won the fight and not suffered any more damage to the arm than he had already incurred?


People like to think that he was wrong to quit, that he was too far ahead, and that this is the end of the matter, far from it.

 

Always thought Vitali caught some unwarranted shit for this. People tend to like their boxers "heroic" like a "warrior" who goes out on his shield, etc etc. Holyfield kept fighting against Byrd with the same injury apparently.

I think Larry Merchant should get some of the blame - he laid into Klit right away.

He injured his shoulder and quit. It was smart, and look at him now.

 

That's my take on it.

You take 1 year of shit from the Yanks, and you get 10 WBC title fights in exchange.

Right now, at this point in time, he is looking at a title fight at the Garden, against David Haye. It's a no brainer. Quitting vs Byrd served him well.

 

Serve him well? Are you a fortune teller or something? can you tell me 100% he would have been damaged goods if he continued for 3-rounds fighting with one arm? Dude's a punk who never even redeemed himself against the man he quit against. The only one that's worse is the other quitter with his theories of being poisoned.

Cupey

 

No I cannot. Like I said, it's a compromise. He figured he would have been worse off, and the doctors, German doctors of course, confirmed as much. It is unlikely his arm was going to improve any time between the 9th and 12th rounds. It is likely to have worsened. These are likelihoods, not certainties, but when taken on board with just a pinch of common sense, you see why I say what I do.