Will Vitali be Remembered? Long Post. Tell me your Thoughts.

10 years after Vitali Klitschko retires, are people going to remember his name and what he did? Or will he fall away from the spotlight?

Today, people -those not even Boxing fans- have heard of Muhammed Ali, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and George Foreman. The fight fans remember them for being champions, hearted fighters, powerful punchers and others, not fight fans, remember them for the publicity they have recieved and for the Grill one created. Good work George.

Vitali ranks among them and in some cases has done things they haven't. He has one of the highest win by k.o percentages of any boxer.
He is the only boxer to spend so long out of the ring and return to claim the belt in his first fight.
He, and Wlad, are the first brothers to hold HW titles.
At one point, it was noted he was the most powerful puncher of any boxer in the last 2 decades.
He has passed his younger brother, Wladimir, as the No.1 HW boxer despite only fighting 2 fights since retirement and his brother holding 3 belts, compared to Vitali's single one.
Also, he has never been knocked down in a professional boxing fight and, according to him, only has ever been knocked down during a Kickboxing fight after recieving a kick to his head.

In fact, he has never been rocked by a blow in Boxing. The most famous fight of his career, against Lennox Lewis, gave him one of the hardest hits he'd ever recieve. An uppercut by Lewis that almost took Vitali's head off did nothing more then make the Ukrainian fight harder. Anyone else to take that blow by Lewis would of been holding on for dear life.

With all this said though, I feel he fails to recieve the international recognition he deserves. I blame this partly to Boxing becoming less popular in certain nations, unlike in Germany where the Klitschko brothers are considered like gods.

One popular argument I see is that Vitali hasn't fought anyone 'worthy' or 'good'. This can't be further from the truth.
Such opponents can be considered worthy. Danny Williams, Samuel Peter, Timo Hoffman, Corrie Sanders, Herbie Hide and most recently Juan Carlos Gomez.
It can come down to the two fighters he lost against. The first, Chris Byrd, who must have been praising the LORD God when Vitali pulled out after injury, after punishing Byrd for 8 rounds. Byrd had no chance to take that fight and yet by a painful misfortune, the Ukrainian submitted to injury.
The second case, against Lennox Lewis, was perhaps one of the best fighters to grace HW Boxing in the past 15 years. Vitali was punishing Lewis severely and was devastated the fight was stopped due to a cut, giving Lewis the Victory. Had the fight continued, anyone not a die-hard Lewis fan could tell you Vitali would of finished it soon enough.

It is these 2 defeats that people can claim he couldn't defeat anyone good, and yes while he did lose, he did not lose based on performance on his part but by unfortunate injuries in both cases.

So, in the 10 years after Vitali retires, for good, will he be remembered on Global Boxing scale or will he drift out of the spotlight, out of the media and out of people's hearts.