A fighter thats fallen completely off the planet and boxing fans minds as well. Would you say he's a more complete fighter then, say, fellow southpaw Michael Moorer? Is he more dangerous in H2H matches? How great were his amateur accomplishments, beating the legendary Felix Savon at age 19? Savon absolutely dominated most if not all of the future big name heavyweights he fought when they were young. Lamon Brewster, Luan Krasniqi, Michael Bennett, David Izon, Shannon Briggs, David Tua (Brutal knockout) Danell Nicholson, Sultan Ibragimov... The list goes on. So, thoughts on Ruslan? Is he going anywhere in the current HW scene? He had a fight scheduled against Kali Meehan a few weeks from today.
He's done. He's never been right post-Hepatitis I don't think, although whether it was the illness or the lay-off, I don't know. I'd say he was the third best HW since Lewis's retirement, at his very best.
Hepatitis can certainly ruin a fighter. Did you know that Monzon only signed on to fight Briscoe for a second time after he had caught and recovered from it? Does a hell of a job on a person. Why are you so certain he's done? You also seem to think very highly of him. Why?
I think his career has been very damaged by inactivity and coming back to take a lop sided beating against Wladimir. Its a pity the Chagaev-Ibragimov unification never happened, I remember Chagaev pulled out because of an injury
that's the "word on the street" and that beatdown from Wlad certainly did him no favors. he was certainly a well-rounded, quick heavy with decent power and solid fundamentals. one of those "looks can be deceiving" fighters.
Ruslan Chagaev was a good fighter. This is Wladimir's biggest win. A win over a undefeated heavyweight champion in his prime, a big win for Wlad. He dominated Chagaev too. We will see what he has left in his next fight.
He was a mobile two-handed fighter with a good chin and great timing. He had a good work-rate, was savy, and by all accounts was a commited trainer who was even known for one or two nice little inovations. I thought he was excellent. I think he's done because he looked **** against Skelton and **** against Wlad.
He got the hep in mid-2007. People forget that he totally wrecked his Achillies tendon, a career ending injury by itself. That was a bit later. In fact I think this was the injury that caused the Iggy bought to be called off.
Yeah, he was Q. Wlad never let him get going, no doubt about that, but he had boxed only 18 rounds in over two years. He looked OK against Drummond, but Drummond was nobody and he didn't get the KO but won a TD. Against Skelton he gassed badly in the tenth round, though he did dominate Skelton. Skelton was KO'd by Martin Rogan a year later. He was a British level fighter.
It's hard to tell with him simply because not many of his earlier matches were televised, and he clearly wasn't the same fighter after contracting hepatitis. That said, even at his peak, I'm not sure he was any better than, say, Alexander Povetkin. More complete than Moorer? Sure, I'll buy that. But Moorer was really a LHW who relied on power to be great. He had only one very good win at HW, and his opponent happened to have a heart attack in the ring during the middle of the fight.
I think Rogan landed a huge late round KO shot on a tough but aging Skeleton. Chagaev is a solid all around fighter. He had skills on offense, and defense, could punch, take a punch, and was a pretty smart fighter. His problem was, he was only 6'1", with perhaps a 73" reach. Chagaev did not have dynamic footwork, so vs. Wlad he was brining a knife to a sword fight. To make matters worse, Wlad was sharp and in his prime for the fight. Klitschko owned Chagaev at long range, zoned him with clever footwork, and cracked him in round two. From here on it, there was little Chagaev could do. Such is the advantage of skilled super heavies with great power, speed and skills over much shorter and lighter men. I do think Chagaev with wins over a Ruiz, Valuev, and Vrichis was the 3rd best man in the division. He faces Meehan next, and might get a WBA title shot if he wins. A healthy and focused Chagaev is better than Haye in my book.
I agree that Chagaev was probably Wlads best win, or at least second best, behind Byrd. I also agree that Chagaev is better than Haye, and would probably beat him.
Shame, I expected more from him but he seemed to lose the fire, the other fighter who fell of the earth and I think could have been a good one was Sultan