Joshua vs Klitschko - Video Preview & Prediction

Well i can see w. klitschko's age will be the most popular excuse .

 

Stylistically I like Wlad here but I just don't know how much he has left. Long layoff and before that he has not looked good vs Fury and Bryant. Even Pulev caused problems he just never learned to defend against a left hook.
If Wlad can turn back the clock he wins, if he can't Joshua wins.

 

Joshua is going to steamroll him. This will be hard to watch.
Klitschko is incredibly brave for taking this fight. He certainly has the pride, belief, and will of a champion.

 

I agree 100%. I almost feel sorry for the dumb ol' guy. I wonder if Vitali has discussed with him what a ***** it is to get old?

 

I think Vitali should have seriously advised...urged...his brother not to take this fight.

 

??????!

 

I wont be sorry to see Wlad retire ,he has conducted himself like a champion should ,but his performances have left me distinctly underwhelmed,laying on and clinching is something he has been allowed to get away with in Germany ,hopefully he wont be allowed to do that at Wembley,I expect him to get stopped.

 

I do not think you need good timing to hit Joshua. Just nerve to throw the punch.

Joshua if and when he gets stopped will turn to clinching too. Wlad when he started out steamrolled guys too, then changed his style after being stopped. Haye was aggressive early, then stopped and turned into a safety first type.

Boxing is the art of hitting and not getting hit, Wlad perfected it.

There is stuff out there that says Joshua was KO'd by Lawerence Okolie in sparring( Late 2016 ), and wasn't he also Ko'd by David Price? In the Amateurs, he was stopped by Nistor, and down a few times in a pretty short amateur career.

Wlad even at his age is far better than Okolie, or Price. I see defensive holes in Joshua's game and he's not a runner type. Wlad can find him. And if he does, I suspect a TKO/KO win for Wlad.

 

Wlad fought pretty much everybody. He ducked no man fo a period of time who was ranked. These days Wilder selects top 15-50 guys for title defense, and Joshua's two latest title defense would not even rate among Wlad top 12 title defenses.

I'll give Joshua props for taking a risk vs a 41-year-old man who's been out of the ring, as he's at least ranked highly.

The funny part is I know Joshua, who said he'd like to retire in 5 years has a suspect chin and WILL change his style once stopped or retire early like say Sultan Ibragimov.

If you're looking for the next aggressive warrior who can take a punch and give one and has little need for clinching check out Hrgovic, set to go professional.

 

Lets be real here , Wlads style was always an old mans style. Its not like he was Vitali who relied on youthful vigour , activity and movement to out box guys.
Wlads fights throughout his reign were carefully constructed to whittle 3min rounds down to one min rounds. What i mean by that is the illegal clinch was employed to shut down the other guys offence so Wlad could fight his fight at his own pace.

Rummy made a good point about how he was still elusive and reactive in the Fury fight and he's 100% right. A shot Wlad would have been battered and stopped by Fury. He still had plenty left , it was just unfortunate (for him) that all his efforts went into defence which is why his offence was left back in the dressing room.
I believe the result is what you would have seen against any version of Wlad.

I also think this Wlad has just as good a chance to defeat Joshua as any other version of himself. Im pretty sure he believes he can Pulev Joshua. As in forget about boxing and just look for an opening to spark AJ out with a massive banger.
Thats what he done against Tony One and Pulev , there's no reason to think he won't employ the same strategy here.
Bearing in mind that AJ is is a stiff come forward in straight lines type , i see no reason why a WK KO win should be so far out of the realms of possibility.
What im trying to say here is Wlad couldn't and cant out box these big skilled opponents. He's banking on the lighting bolt and since its bailed him out before , it may very well bail him out again.

 

Hold up , lemmie stop you there. He actually didn't , ever.

The clinch is contact. Contact is getting hit. Did Johnny Ruiz master the art of hit and not get hit. NO. He was a fraudulent bear hugger just like WK.
When his #1 tactic for winning fights was forbidden in the Roy Jones fight , he was soundly out- boxed by a light heavy weight.

Getting hit means not getting hit. It means no contact. That is not the same as illegally octapussing guys , j'understand?

When you think of that phrase you think of . Ali , Holmes , Pep , Mayweather , Jones Jr etc. You don't think of Grabamir Clinchko

 

Wlad had an all time jab, a fearful right hand, and a lights-out left hook. He also had speedy feet for a big man, and was seldom caught with the combinations.

NOW DINO, why don't we use punch stats on Wlad. It might shock you that he got hit a lot less than Ali, who in some fights clinched more than Wlad did.

Yes, Wlad did clinch, but he was only a matador with swords, he also had the strength of the bull to tie up his man when needed and was technical and quick in terms of doing it.

Clinching is a skill, and no fighter has to just stands there and let him do it.

 

Look , the Wlad ATG jab thing was fun at the time but its time to move on. We all know thats just silly.

Boxing is a skill. Bear hugging and back humping is illegal fouling and Wlad illegally clinch more than he boxes because that is what he was better at.
His career would have looked a look different had he not been pampered in Germany where he could do whatever he wanted in the ring. I witnessed Sven Ottke have the same bogus career so its not like it never happened out there before.
Take the illegal clinch away from Wlad and you take away his success.
Its all there to see on film and it began in the first Bewster fight. Byrd refused to allow him hold and what happened?? Couldn't last longer than 5 round.
Couldn't even go a round against novice club boxer Jennings without pathetically holding on which then lost him points on the cards.

Clinching is not a skill , its a tactic to compensate for lack of skill. Every world level fighter knows to clinch when they are hurt. Thats not the same as basing your offence around head locks and back breakers.

 

wlad going to have to bring his A+ game Joshua has good speed with power. if wlad can make him work for the early portion of the fight I think that he can the better of him in the later portion.