Hypothetical: 41 year old, two loss streak, winless in 30 months Wlad takes the November 11th Las Vegas rematch rather than relying on “little bro” Joshua to indirectly extend his legacy (“The more you shine, the more I shine.”) “I think he (Joshua) is vulnerable, and this will be something he will need to work on.” - Wlad post-fight “If I have another one of these fights, I’m done with boxing. I should be good enough that I don’t have to go through hell and back to win a fight. It should be a good competition, but I shouldn’t have to go through one of those fights to win.” - Joshua to McCracken post-fight “It (not taking the rematch) was the most difficult decision of my life.” - Wlad, 2017 Would the bright lights of Vegas have been a factor? Joshua is 0-1 in America but hadn’t yet made his American debut Wlad was 11-1 in America
Wlad and Vitali blew it by going with the wrong tactics. I believe that Wlad could have beaten him in a rematch. I’d have given him a very reasonable chance of pulling it out.
Tough call, you always have to add the mental damage that a loss, especially a stoppage loss causes to the equation to figure out who would win a rematch. In this case i think Joshua would actually be more cautious as well, if its a chessmatch, wlad would have the edge but then agaim corrupt judges had joshua ahead the first time
I'm sitting on the fence here, haven't voted and am interested in seeing how it pans out. But I think a significant factor in retrospect could be the bright lights of Vegas: Joshua is 0-1 in America Wlad was 11-1 in America
I think Joshua's troubles began in the Wlad fight, I think he became a lot more gun shy following that heavy knockdown, and I think the success Klitschko had in that fight, being competitive right to the end when most at the time (myself included) were predicting an early stoppage loss, would have actually given Klitschko confidence moving forwards, so a rematch could well have gone Wlads way
Wlad past his best and AJ still a beast. So probably 50-50 depending on whether Wlad reviewed his punch selection for that fight. He was trying too hard to land the leaping left hook and AJ saw it coming every time.
I think it was omly bad in hindsight. Wasnt a bad tactic at the time. Rushing him post kd coild also lead to an aj vs ruiz situation.
Joshua easily, Klitschko was so slow. Every time Joshua turned up the pace Klitschko couldn't handle it and got knocked down.
On the flipside, when Joshua finally turned up the pace in round 5 he gassed out for 5.5 rounds (halfway through round 5 to round 11). Wlad decided to box after round 6 and place his faith in the Matchroom judges, rather than risk gassing going for the finish against a badly hurt, gassed out, demoralised, out on his feet Joshua, which in retrospect (and quite obviously at the time) was a grave tactical error.