Wlad The reluctant warrior

good post. i still wish he'd bring back some of the old offensive fire without sacrificing the defense. his movement, in all seriousness, is some of the best i've seen in ages in that division. but like joe frazier said he moved forward, ali just moved. wlad uses his movement well but only defensively. he can feint, lay traps and pounce but chooses not to. i want some of those brilliant ray mercer era combinations, mixed into with some more offensively minded movement and the ring generalship he has today. no one lasts past 6 against that wlad. NO ONE

 

Hard to argue with success. Vitali does things very oddly, but it's completely effective. And looks can be deceiving. If success is any indication, looks must be deceiving with VK. A lot of top fighters do things they "shouldn't" do by the textbook. Dimitrenko seemed to react as if Chambers had at least some pop when the mouthpiece went flying out of his mouth and he went down.

 

as was said earlier pinpoint accuracy and timing go a long way. he was bang on that fight

 

ewwww, johnny nelson...

 

True, I know this. But NO pop? Come on. Too harsh.

 

oh that's what i'm saying. tons of power or not, his punches have pop behind them. his punches are backed by timing and technique and do the job just fine when he has to

 

I guess some find it irksome he puts up such a good career in an era of giants. Meanwhile so many want to champion the heroes of the past and their titanic tilts with lilliputians. No Marty Marshall or Fat Willie Meehan or Tony Galento would ever, ever put a dent in the plans of a prime Wlad Klit. Sorry, at his best, he is just too good.

 

Number of times I've read the word "Lilliputians" on ESB: 1, and just now

I have to give you some kind of points but I'm not familiar with a points system that covers this. Like...25 points? Will that do it? I hereby award you 25 points, my man. They're not official points though, because I have absolutely no power vested in me here.

 

I think what irks people is that the Wlad who fought Mercer was a much more offensive and entertaining fighter, and that the opposition is so poor that his fights aren't overly competive. More to the point, his opposition is so poor that he should be able to blast these guys out in short order.

Someone said the art of boxing his to hit without getting hit. True enough. But what some people forget is that boxing, football, hockey etc. are all forms of entertainment. This is what Ali figured out that few other boxers did. He wasn't just a boxer, he was also an entertainer. In the same vein, Wlad needs to realize he's an entertainer too, and the way to entertain boxing fans it to either have a good competive fight, or if it's not competitive, a quick KO. Winning ugly might get the job done, but if falls woefully short on the entertainment scale.

 

:huh No one's talking about those guys here.

 

His last good early KOs...almost 6 years apart. Wlad takes a good right in the Jefferson fight oddly enough.

Wlad vs. Jefferson

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuH0UMpN9Pc&feature=related[/ame]


Wlad vs. Austin

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO_sWnawpU4&feature=related[/ame]

 

The concept of sport beeing entertainment seems very odd to me. Most people I know want to see people give their best in their sport. When they do so they are satisfied, no matter if it was entertaining or not. Sports beeing entertainment is more of an British/American concept than an continental European one.

 

I was more disappointed in Rahman because he did not seem to give a honest effort in there. Of course that was to be expected considering his past performances against Toney the second time and Zuri Lawrence.