Anybody else think Wolak is taking too big of a step up tonight...

and might get schooled by Ishe Smith?

To me, Wolak is like a worse, unproven version of David Estrada, who Smith beat a few years back without much trouble. He has Estrada's aggressive style, bad defense, sloppiness, and like him he's an average puncher. But his chin/stamina/toughness is still unproven and he sometimes slows down when opponents have success countering him or confuse him with intelligent movement. Wolak also isn't particularly physically strong, so he's not hard to push back and control for a bigger guy like Smith.

He's taking a huge step up tonight. For the last couple of years, his team has only been matching him up with old, C- or worse (usually much worse) fighters coming off losses. His fight against Sparkman (a weak chinned old fighter who was owned or blown out by other prospects years ago from 140-154) was a close decision win in Poland, which means that it had to be a close, very competitive fight. I can't find anywhere to watch it though, so I'm not sure what happened exactly or if he had health problems or anything else. Still, it's an important thing to note and I could see how a veteran boxer despite having a horrible record could give a guy like Wolak problems just by using simple movement and countering skills.

Ishe Smith's biggest problem is not his lack of skill or chin, it's his workrate. He doesn't throw punches, even if he has an opponent in front of him who has bad defense. In interviews he keeps saying that he will throw more punches and this time I believe he will, because he got a new trainer for this fight and seems to understand that this is a do or die situation in his career. But even with his typical low output, I believe he could beat someone like Wolak. Wolak is used to fighting horrible opposition that he can easily overwhelm and adjust to early in fights. Smith's style will not be easy for Wolak to figure out. He will try to leap inside and swarm Ishe with punches, but after Smith starts countering him, I think he will become very frustrated and confused. I'm also not sure if his chin can handle a flush counter from Smith that he will not see coming. Smith has some power, he just rarely cares about stepping into his punches or finishing off opponents after hurting them.

So, I see Wolak maybe winning the first round, outworking Smith as Ishe warms up. But after that, I see Smith countering him, clinching effectively at times, and using his superior boxing skill/movement to confuse Wolak for the majority of the fight. If Wolak's chin is very solid, he could make this a very close fight and perhaps win if Smith doesn't throw enough, but I don't see him being aggressive for 3 minutes of every round and walking through Smith's counters. A Smith KO win here isn't out of the question and him dropping Wolak is a high possibility. He's a sneaky counterpuncher and I don't think Wolak is ready for someone like this yet, maybe ever.

 

It's strange to see them throwing him into the fire like this. They're probably confident in him beating Smith because of Wolak's superior workrate and they see he's coming off of a recent loss to Joel Julio. Julio is technically a better and more experienced/intelligent fighter than Wolak though, plus Smith seems to be a lot more motivated going into this fight. Should be interesting (and if Wolak manages to make an Ishe Smith fight exciting, then that's an accomplishment in itself ).


When the betting odds came out they were nearly even. But today the odds have gone towards Smith a little bit.

 

I knew your ass would show up here.

Those opponents were horrible when they faced anybody. Nobody ever said Taylor or Duddy's opposition wasn't horrible when they were still fighting these type of guys, relax. Wolak hasn't fought anybody worth noting yet, no C level fighter even and that's a fact.

It's time for a step up, but not such a big one IMO. Wolak is a very limited fighter who needs to be fighting lower C level, fairly solid skilled, motivated boxers right now.. not someone like Smith who is capable of schooling him. I'm not convinced that Wolak will make Ishe work every minute of every round.. if he starts getting countered with flush shots, there's a good chance he will slow down and be forced to fight Smith's fight more often than not. Smith is not just gonna lay on the ropes and let Wolak swarm him with sloppy combinations like his past opponents have.

 

Povetkin had a great amateur career and he showed real skill running over his horrible early opposition. Wolak didn't do either, so it's not a real comparison.

I agree with you about appreciating fighters like this though. Someone like Povetkin could have still been fighting **** opposition in Europe every few months, making a lot of money at low risk and getting hype, but he was confident enough in himself to go after the #1 HW in the world as soon as possible.

If I was Wolak's manager or promoter though, I would never put him in with a fighter like this all of a sudden. There's confidence and there's craziness. We'll see tonight if they made the right choice.

 

So, looks like the answer is that his team made a horrible choice..

Wolak's chin and toughness was impressive, but he pretty much got schooled tonight. If Smith really pushed for the KO he could have gotten it, but that's not his style.