CLASSIC FIGHT NIGHT THREAD:Wilder-Fury II

Of course I had a problem with the headbutt attempt! Was the most blatant I'd seen since Ortiz-Mayweather. The head holding was excessive but less flagrant, for the most part. But I disagree with your take on Fury's intentional rabbit punches though (one of which was probably the first foul of the fight). Most of his rabbit punches were thrown when he and Wlad were chest to chest. Indefensible stuff.

 

For most of the pretty ineffective fight Wlad showed a disturbing lack of appetite for the fray ,he turned his back on Fury several times.He has been gunshy for years and now the wheels have finally fallen off. I for one won't miss his underwhelming, clutch fest defences.He has had a very good run and now its over GOOD!

 

I don't hold "the annual rankings" up as a holy scripture.
Lasky's credentials going in to the Braddock fight do not strike me as being at all better than Cunningham's or (rematch) Chisora's, and I'd be surprised if those two weren't "ranked" by some or more than one governing body or publication.

 

It doesn't hurt his legacy.
He reigned for years, and is 39 years old.
Fury might even turn out to be good.

And if it hurts it at all, it hurts his legacy far less than Rahman KO hurts Lewis's, imo.

 

I just watched highlights of the fight, and what a load of **** it was! Fury posed more than punched and Vlad hadn't got a clue what to do with someone awkward and big. Doubtless some will say Fury is a great fighter who would thrash the old timers, but I just can't see it.

Old George Foreman would have had more success against Fury than Old Vlad did. Credit to Fury for giving it everything though, unlike Haye.

 

All superheavyweight fight like Primo Carnera if you up the tempo. A great trainer can tell Kilt to throw as many jabs and one twos as he likes but he's not getting off at all if the tempo is all wrong for him. He needs to set himself, get off, get in out of position faster than he can do it. Then you get all the swiping, poking and reaching arm punches that we got from both of them. Seriously, you up the tempo to an uncomfortable pace and a big man loses 50% of his technique even with the best coaching!

Now is the time to set the superheavyweights apart and cut them adrift from comparisons with real traditional sized heavyweights.

 

several points need to be made regarding Wlad title:

He never won the WBC belt.

In this crazy world of boxing his defending of WBO titles (as an example) would be akin to Louis fighting another top contender prior to beating Braddock. As such you cannot compare Wlads title rein and Louis. Nor can you compare Louis being undisputed champion for 12 years vs the fragmented defenses of Wlad. Incomparable.

 

He was still the best super heavyweight on the planet. He did not need all the belts for that.

It's a new division now anyway, it has nothing to do with earlier traditional heavyweight eras. Klitchko was operating at superheavyweight under superheavyweight conditions that suit that weight class.

I rank and rate him and all others of his ilk separately from the traditional guys.

 

I completely get where you are coming from, but does that mean that you think the normal sized Heavyweights would have no chance with the giants, or do you think that the "tempo" the smaller guys could set would pose them problems they aren't used to?

 

Good fighting ability is good fighting ability. Fury can't fight a lick. Wlad is only slightly better.

Being the best does not make you the champion. Beating the current champion makes you the champion.

 

Again Louis or Ali could beat both of the men who fought Saturday night in one night. Complete joke calling that bout for the hwt championship of the world. Two fighters that never learned basic boxing.

 

It would cause them problems under earlier conditions. Smaller gloves. Longer rounds. Traditional training that kept more weight off guys. But seeing as so much of the equipment, training and pace of boxing now suits bigger slower men too much disadvantages anyone smaller. Nothing used to favour the big man. Time was when the big man was handicapped. Now EVERYTHING favours the bigger man. Smaller guys are too handicapped. It's not fair anymore.

So I say go back to old rules, training, equipment and the bigger guys become more handicapped and it really would be back to the better man winning not just the biggest.

But this is not what is going to happen so I say give them superheavyweight. They won't fight under old rules so it's impossible to make true comparison of their worth until they do.

They have been superheavyweight for years now anyway. Set them adrift.

 

Fury can fight as well as any big man can.

Because he has a better work rate and showed up in shape he was always going to a problem for walking paced Wlad.

But the tempo he set prevented himself from looking like a good fighter too. It's just that the pace limited what either of them could do. It came down to who had the longer arms because the pace cancelled both of them out of using any real quality. It's Superheavyweight, what do you expect? This is no longer the heavywight division.

The action allowed Fury to land just a bit more incorrect punches than the champion could manage under the rushed pace Fury set.

 

To be fair there are probably 4 proper belts now and Wlad has held 3 of them for years now and has been ranked as the man to beat in the heavyweight division. The WBC doesnt hold any more importance than the WBA or IBF now as an individual belt.

Besides his brother Vitali held the WBC belt for most of his reign - and they were never going to fight each other. Also Muhammad Ali in his re-match with Leon Spinks was only fighting for the WBA belt so I guess Ali was never a 3 time HW champion as Larry Holmes held the WBC belt

 

I honestly think they should re-name the heavyweight divison the Super Heavyweight division and change the weight limit at cruiserweight to 215lb. You could also re-name the Cruiserweight division the Heavyweight division too to create more interest in the division. Called a division Cruiserweight doesnt have an appealing ring to it - its a very new division too. Then we could go back to watching traditional heavyweight bouts and the guys at that weight would now earn more money in a weight named Heavyweight.