If anyones getting sparked it would be Sanders. and pre-rumble George would demolish Byrd as well. standing there throwing those pit pat flurries like he did against Ike is just asking to get whalloped by Big George.
I think Foreman had a fight pre-rumble where his corner ( Sandy Saddler ) told him it was the 10th round when it was the ninth, and he almost gassed out. Byrd if he can make it past five rounds could pull a Jimmy Young on Big George. Foreman's stamina in his prime and poise were suspect. I saw Wlad on the way up in the amateurs. He won the gold medal at age 20, and had so much size and skill, he just had no experience with an opponent who could take his punches for 10+ rounds. Purity caught him at the perfect time. If there was a re-match 6 months later, Wlad would win.
Sometimes its good to put a prospect in with an experienced but dangerous journeyman/gatekeeper. They did the same thing with Tyson and Tillis, although it was close on the scorecards, Tyson himself said he enjoyed it because he got to do full 12 rounds. I guess its all a learning curve. To me journeymen/gatekeepers are probably the most important stepping stone in a fighters career, alot of the time its make or break. You dont learn much by knocking out 15-20 cans. Look at Wilder, since hes turned pro, i dont think hes improved on a single thing because he keeps crushing cans in 1-2 rounds. To me, if/when Wilder loses, i dont think he will be able to adapt or recover from a loss
Again, if Wlad had Steward he knows his stamina by making him fight 10+ rounds vs three or more sparring partners. Universum also focused too much on weights, and trained Wlad in a style that he was most likely to be upset with as he had zero clinching skills, limited knowledge about his stamina latte in fights, and apparently limited knowledge about how durable Purity was. In hindsight, Wlad's learning curve was delayed at Universum who was very new to the professional game.
I don't see the problem of Wlad fighting Purity over 12 at this stage of his career. Purity had lost 3 of his last 4, yes they were good fighters (at the time) but he was comprehensively beaten in those fights. They where Byrd, Donald and Sanders. He had also lost a complete shutout to michael grant (a 10 rounder) 2 years previous. Wlad had all the tools to beat him as good as the previous fighters mentioned he just didn't use them, simple as. Purity was a step up compared to his previous opponents but i wouldn't say as big a step as Price took against Thompson and you have to step up sometime.
I agree with all your points, but I just think that a 10 rounder would have been a smart stepping stone for a prospect who had only been 8 rounds once and 6 rounds twice, especially against durable, hard punching trial horse who was well accustomed to going the distance against contenders.
It was good old fashioned hubris that did Wlad in here. His team didn't give him much of a rest leading in to the fight or address the possibility of what to do if Purrity didn't simply fall do like everyone else had, and it showed. Sure, he'd have won if it was a ten rounder, but the hiccup on the way up did him some good.
True, you can blame the promoters/managers on that one. Wlad to me, seemed to be very inexperienced early on in his career, mabe more so than others, how much of this is Universums fault is up for debate, but those setbacks made him determined to become much better later on on his career. His learning curve may have been delayed, but lets says Wlad never lost and carried on knocking out cans like Wilder, if he eventually lost in the later stage of his career, it may have been too late to reshape him. Sometimes an early loss can benefit SOME fighters. Wlad being one of the best examples and Lewis as well. Its what a perfectionist does, learn from their mistakes. Like me
I do agree with the 10 round point but as someone mentioned before maybe Wlad would of fought even harder, gassed even earlier and purity may have got to him in the 9th or 8th. Wlads early career and Prices have a very similar look. Having both had stellar amateur careers, Price didn't win gold obviously but was good nontheless and then going on on to heavy losses in the pro game after fighting much inferior opposition. Unfortunately thats where the similarity ends in my opinion. Price doesn't seem to have the resolve or heart to even have half as good a career as wlad.
Thats what i mentioned earlier, sometimes its good for a fighter to have an early loss that they can learn from and make changes, but other times it can have damaging effects as well, like aforementioned David 'Plumber' Price. Hamed is another example, by the time the MAB loss came along, no way was Hamed going to be able to come back from that. Same with Hatton, bringing in Mayweather Senior to teach him defence, that was never going to work, not in that stage of Hattons career (or maybe in any stage)
Think my favorite part of the Hatton/Pac fight was after the first round, Senior is screaming something at Hatton like "I wish you had came to me sooner!"
Hatton was a very good fighter, but also a ****ing idiot, he was never going to change his style. Too stubborn and stuck in his ways. And i dont think he understood a word out of Mayweathers snrs mouth at all. And senior skipped town as soon as the fight ended. What a dick!
I think Wlad was already working his ass off pretty hard for most of those 11 rounds, and was beating Purity handely. He was exhausted by round 10 and got decked yet survived the round. Still, he would have gotten the decision had the bout ended. Would things have been different had it been a shorter fight? we'll never know. But my point is that it was bad judgement on the part of his management to put him in a 12 rounder with a tough opponent after only having seen the 8th round once and with most of his bouts ending inside of four. I agree that he needed a learning experience, and had it only been scheduled for 10, he at least would have hit the mile stone for surviving his first 10 rounder and rising off the canvas to win... That's an eventful enough outing in the field for a day's work.