1990's Peak Wladimir Klitschko: A menacing Joe Louis

Just Ross Purrity it is H2H then

 

Wladimir fought something like 12 times in a year leading up to that fight and had a injured back.

Vitali wasn't the only one to be a athlete in other contact sports like kickboxing for years before turning pro as a boxer. Wladimir hasn't been as injury prone as his brother, but it's happened.

Fault Wladimir all you want for the Sanders/Brewster loss, but pounding on someones iron cast jaw for an entire fight with an injury and then gassing isn't really indicative of very much. Purrity didn't win a single round in that fight, nor did he land a single good punch. Even when Wladimir went down at the end he wasn't hit hard if I'm remembering correctly.

It was every bit as lopsided as Vitali/Peter, difference being Wladimir was the injured one and Purrity actually had balls.

 

I agree, Wlad in his younger years had incredible handspeed and power. The Mercer fight is a slaughter and while Mercer only had his iron jaw and jab left at that point, it was a beautiful display of power punching by Klitschko. Especially that left hook at 1:39 of round 5 that opened the cut, was brutal. Feinted off a jab.

Indeed, today his handspeed has diminished a lot and he seems to limit himself to 1-2's, but rarely a coherent combination beyond that. Povetkin may be the man to take advantage of his decline, although he's still a force, obviously.

 

Absoutele slaughter. Even Lennox didn't unload that kind of firepower on Mercer.

Loved that fight, anyway. Mercer gave Wladimir some pretty hefty props at he end of the fight, which was semi-normal for him.

 

SQ: Wlad was always a terrific offensive fighter. The Sanders fight exposed his china chin , one that was always there but took a certain type of fighter to take advantage of ... a 41 year old Mercer could not do it and a terrified McCline could not do it but Sanders sure did and it was no fluke ... he then went balls to the wall wih a terrific offensive display only to punch himself out against Brewster ... after that he rebuilt himself as a defensive fighter because he knew he had a weak chin and did all he could to minimize it ...

I like Wlad, I think he is a fine rep for the sport and a solid champion, difficult to fight because of his size and talents ... however, I do not think he is or was a great fighter and would put many heavyweights before him ...

 

The Young Wlad Kltishcko was a destroyer. I remember seeing the 20 year old win gold in the Olympics at super heavy, and my thoughts were, this guy is very impressive.

I do not think either fighter could take each other's bombs for long, but I do think Louis could recover a bit better and keep his composure, so I'd pick him.

The fight could go either way. If they went at it three times, I think Wlad wins one.

 

SuzieQ49, you are not the only one to think of Joe Louis when HBO introduced Wladimir Klitschko to me some time ago. The way Wlad put nice hurtful combinations together, Louis is the only heavy that could do it any better.

I don't know what it was, but I always felt like something was amiss when I watched Wlad. HBO kept touting him as the next great thing, and I just thought something wasn't quite right with the picture. Then Sanders came along and almost derailed Wladimir Klitschko's future. I did not predict Sanders to win. I don't want to claim that. I was thinking, "You think Rahman ko'd you? Wait until you see this."

I was actually impressed a little by Wlad's performance in the Sanders fight. I noticed he kept coming back to Sanders while getting knocked down over and over. I know that may not have been a good plan, but I thought it showed a flash of heart. Heart is what I hadn't really seen from Wlad. I told my friends Wlad could get it together, and go on to accomplish some good things.

Then Brewster and Williams happened, neither of which I predicted, and I again started to doubt his future. I thought Wladimir would be another guy that almost made to the top. Then the fight with Peter was scheduled.

Against Peter, I knew Wlad had all the tools to win. I told a fellow fight watcher that Wladimir was going to reemerge against Peter. He bet me $20 that Wlad would lose. HBO did a piece on Peter, and not on Wladimir, just before the fight. I thought to myself,"You're backing the wrong guy." Then the fight started. I had never seen Wlad look so apprehensive, but he still won.

I won't pretend to know whether Wladimir has changed due to age, a fear of being hit, or trying to fight as Steward instructs him to do. I just miss the offense he once offered.

 

Thanks, SuzieQ49. I didn't comment after your training regimen post, but it was quite an inspiring read. I haven't been around here for all that long, but I remember that you used to be the guy with the Walcott Avatar. The fact that I remember that must mean that you left an impression.

 

In other words, another exciting fighter ruined by Manny Steward.

 

Actually from the mid-rounds on, Purrity can be a dangerman of sorts, remember what he did to Morrison and Gonzalez. Then Wlad fights a 37yo Sanders and gets smashed into next week.

Then theres the KDs against Pannel, TOS, Peter and a few others.

Wlad was simply defensively poor pre-Steward and open to counters, which his chin couldnt take. Thats why Wlad doesn't fight like this now, he's minimising countering opportunities, not because hes worse.

If he fought the way he used to against top opposition he gets smashed again.

 

Nice thread. I had forgotten what a young Wlad fought like. What a shame he wasn't blessed with his brother's chin.

He fought like he wanted to tear you apart back then; he really went after his man. Now he's a rather boring if clinical fighter so scared of getting hit it's not funny.
When people on here were saying Wlad is slipping I didn't buy it, but looking back at these highlights it does seem he's lost a bit in handspeed at least.

I don't know if he was so unprepared against Sanders. Yes it's logical to assume he was overconfident and underprepared, but with a potential world title fight right around the corner surely it would be utter madness to overlook anyone at this stage, especially like I said with a title fight in his immediate future?

Isn't it possible that Wlad was simply beaten to the punch (which happened) and never really recovered? Is it really so hard to believe that he lost without anything to pin the blame on?