He was in sparring mode for the first few rounds. Light taps , not following through with his shots. He could have took the guy out in round one if he really wanted to. Gassiev always seems to nice to these type of opponents.
It is a hard fight to judge. Gassiev was clearly trying to get some rounds in, and looked very lackadaisical. Wallisch, for his part, tried, but he clearly doesn't really want to be in there, and looks almost pained. I am a big fan of Gassiev and hope for big things, but even I will say that if he wants to fight guys with that kind of height and reach advantage, he is going to have bring a lot more intensity. Wallisch had his moments--he just doesn't have much to bring. I would say this is a good dust-knocking fight. Gassiev has to lose 5-10 pounds and throw more. He has to rediscover his arsenal, and, for a fighter with such ability to go to the body, he should be doing it more against these big guys. Most of his fans want a big fight next. I actually think that based on this performance, he should spend a little time fighting frequently against similar opposition. Get the Teper fight, and Johnson, and maybe someone like Wach, and do it all in 6-8 months. After that, when he has found a good weight, Ruiz, Whyte, etc.
If he does half of this it will change my mind! He's pretty young to be at this activity level, plus at his size it's going to take some real speed and movement to compete with the giants (I'm not totally sure that's his plan, perhaps he's happy to make a living a notch below that?).
Of course he's going to be a fat heavyweight. He looked well-built at cruiserweight and was still making the limit. It's the guys who look thin at the weight that are the true naturals at the weight. This is something that is confused all of the time.
Gassiev has to step it up. What do you take away from fights against Seferi and Wallisch??? Nothing. He probably had harder sparring sessions recently. Gassiev is young, he had a very bad injury and coming up a weight class so i give him a slight pass but i expect some better opponents in the future.
He looked like he always does: slow, methodical, low punch output, unable to fight going backwards, very very strong. He ko's most opponents but not the fast, high punch output guys. Ruiz would massacre him. I don't think he looked "fat". Carried the extra weight very well IMO.