Wlad in the amateurs and early in his pro career was an absolute destroyer type. Steward changes his style and tactics. Banks I think is a B level trainer and does not have Wlad's complete trust. If Steward were alive, I do believe Wlad could have won this fight. But you're right. Wlad needs to make up his mind if he wants to risk getting hit and let his hands go. Only good things will happen as Fury will surely fall down like a drunk Giraffe if Wlad lands his hook or right-hand flush. I'm not sure what happened in the first fight, or Wlad didn't press it. Many of those rounds were close, and Fury won them by throwing just a few more punches. It's plausible that Wlad had a bad camp and lost confidence somewhere. The fight was delayed with a calf injury. PS: Whoever counter punched Wlad? It's hard to counter punch a great jabber who follow up when he connects with an all time right hand.
It's difficult to counterpunch him because he turns completely passive and stinks the joint out for a victory. This is demonstrated against both Haye and Ibragimov, both guys were sneaky and evasive counter punchers with fair pop, against both Wlad tightened up his defense, established a distance and mostly jabbed his way to victory. He fought the exact same way against Fury, it backfired this time though because unlike Iggy/Haye, Fury was longer and rangier so he had an answer to Wlads jab - his own jab.
I agree with this by and large. I've wondered what the heck Wlad and his team were thinking about in training camp. They either A. were grossly underprepared for the Fury, and didn't anticipate the advantages he was going to have in that regard which were plain to see (I predicted it, no reason they shouldn't have) or B. They knew, tried to prepare Wlad, and he just couldn't break out of his shell/muscle memory of how he fights. If A, a rematch might make a difference, if B, which I suspect is the case, then he really shouldn't even bother.
Vitali will not be coming back .if he is stupid enough to try he risks being humiliated or badly hurt .was good in his day but that was then this is now.fighters normally come back when their hard up don't think vitali needs the dosh so why bother?.
Did Foreman need the cash? If he wants the age record he just needs to say when and beat up Wilder like the overgrown schoolgirl he is, or whoever has his belt.