Joe Louis beats them both on the same night, before calling to speak to Al Capone and ask him how his Syph is coming along.
He is a modern-day Willard, who himself is somewhat under-rated. Their careers have taken very different trajectories, but the similiarities are pretty significant.
Their styles are similar, but Vitali's understanding of range, accuracy, lateral movement & footwork generally are astronomically better.
Agreed. This is like pointing out that Cliff Etienne and Joe Frazier are similar. Their styles have similarities but that's all. The big difference is that Vitali looks the way he does because of choice whereas Willard simply lacked techniques (you can tell this by watching how easily they got hit, how much they landed punches, how successful they were etc)
Vitali is much much better than Willard was. Vitali has an awkward style but he knows how to fight tall, has good workrate, heavy hands, great chin and is actually relatively elusive for a Heavyweight.
Yeah I forgot to mention work rate, Vitali must throw twice as many punches as Willard. And to throw that many without getting hit much isn't just stamina/fitness/willingness, it shows all the advantages of technique I mentioned to find/create the safe openings to throw all those shots. BTW, this vid is interesting, though for opposite reasons than intended by the creator. I think it shows that even allowing for the shitty film quality a guy like Vitali is way, way better than Willard. The difference in lateral movement, accuracy & mastery of range with footwork is big. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srrmj6eAFGc&feature=related Piece of shit wont let me embed.
Excepting elusive (which, to some extent, I would challenge), your description of Klitschko reasonably matches Willard. Willard was definitely a harder puncher than Klitschko, too, who I don't rate as a special puncher, truth be told. Just as an example in the moment, he tried to get Briggs out of there the other night --- it got pretty embarrassing. Willard (not a terrible fighter at all, despite so many claims to that effect) beat Carl Morris, Luther McCarthy (admittedly, when both were green), Arthur Pelkey, & an old Jack Johnson. Terrible fighters do not have those men in their Win column. I won't dispute Willard's significant limitations, but he was a damn sight better than he is remembered, & Klitschko, also a pretty flawed fighter, has hardly ever struck me as being some kind of huge step forward. I guess in the end the subject always draws my interest, because I find myself making many comparisons between the two, yet by so many they are viewed as being worlds apart in terms of ability, & I have to comment I just have never seen that.
