Photos by SUMIO YAMADA: Vitali Klitschko and Kevin Johnson both weighed in today in anticipation of their upcoming bout this Saturday in Bern, Switzerland, for Vitali’s WBC Heavyweight Championship. The bout will be broadcast live on Germany’s RTL television and shown tape delayed in the U.S. on HBO. KLITSCHKO WEIGHED IN AT 246.9 LBS / JOHNSON WEIGHED IN AT 242.5 LBS.
by Neil Dempsey – David Haye has been talking up a fight with the Vitali again ahead of Vitalifs defence against Kevin Johnson by claiming Klitschkofs best performance is the defeat against Lewis but exactly how good is Vitali?
Since his enforced hiatus through various injuries Vitali has been near punch perfect disposing of then WBC champ Samuel Peter, Juan Carlos Gomez and more recently unbeaten Mexican American Chris Arreola each one disposed of inside the distance.
With only 2 reverse decisions in his entire career the brutal contest against Lewis and the shoulder injury retirement against Chris Byrd in 2000. Vitali has rarely looked in trouble and has never been down winning all but 1 of his fights before the final bell, the only person to go the distance with him an unheralded Timo Hoffman who in fairness was unbeaten in 22 contests before his defeat to Klitschko.
Klitschko first won a world title in 1999 by knocking out Herbie Hide in 2 rounds to claim the WBO title; he made 2 defences of his title before retiring on his stool against Chris Byrd with that shoulder problem. The Hoffmann fight was the first entry back in the ring after the retirement against Byrd. Subsequent fights against fighters such as Norris, Puritty, Bean and Larry Donald lead to that fight with Lewis which he took as a late substitute standing in for Kirk Johnson and we all know what happened in this one, having been ahead on the official scorecards the fight was stopped on cuts, the cuts deemed to have come from punches. He showed heart and desire as well as a granite chin in losing.
He then faced Kirk Johnson, Corrie Sanders and Danny Williams before retiring as a WBC Champion Emeritus due to various injuries.
Due to his standing within the WBC he made his comeback against the hard hitting Nigerian champ who caused younger brother Wladimir no end of problems in their fight. This was a tough fight for him against the Nigerian but he pulled out a very accomplished performance stopping Peter on his stool at the end of the 8th. He has since disposed of Gomez and Arreola without really breaking sweat and surely a defence against Haye is only round the corner.
Vitali has beat almost everyone put in front of him and has looking impressive in most dominating and stopping top ranked guys but exactly how will he be remembered?In the age of giant heavyweights its almost impossible to compare him against average sized heavyweights such as Marciano and Dempsey, but putting him up against Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Tyson and Lewis may well have been another story. Lewis was coming to the end of his career when they met and the argument could be made that is was Lewis who suffered more from the late entrance of Klitschko and it was Klitschko who seemed to get a lot more out of the defeat then Lewis did from the win.
So where does he fit in with the worlds best heavyweights? Arguably he is the best at the moment and the fight with Johnson is another chance to prove that. As for the greatest heavyweight of modern times… the legacy on this one sits with Ali. Lewis, Tyson, Frazier and Foreman making up the rest of the top 5. Klitschko for me sits somewhere between 6 and 10.
No doubt Haye will disagree but letfs hope he has a chance to prove himself against Vitali in 2010.