How boxing savvy are you?

Might I further suggest that ability to take body punches is one area where the trend towards weight lifting among heavyweights really has paid dividends.

A body builder is basicaly armour plated around this area. A punch to the solar plexus will hurt him less than a slap will hurt an ordinary man.

For contrast fighters of the past always developed their neck muscles to improve their chins.

 

Please to notice that after the debacle that Sanders presented, Wlad has defended against two southpaws in a row. I think it is as close to ridding himself of that demon as is possible. I give Wlad credit for that. And in the end, what he does he does so emphatically that few- if any at this moment- can derail his approach. His fights are increasingly being fought by his rules and this is not by accident. A couple extremely dominant tools are better than a toolbox fool of merely good implements.

 

Wlad dosnt back down from a challenge.

When he took the Peter fight a loss would have finished him as a world class fighter.

He is the only beltholder who wants to unify and we should give him credit for that.

 

One other thing is that Wlad looks a lot more easy to beat than he is. Probably because it's easy to miss how big he really is and how perceptively fast his hands are. For instance, the thing Stonehands said about throwing a left hook to the ribcage when he sticks that left out... several fighters have tried. When he has that left sticking out and you mount an offense, he just takes a step back. You throw the punch, come up short, you're off balance and he's ready to throw that right hand which seems to be able to stop almost anyone.

 

I agree, Pontius... Thompson's chief second was telling him early on to throw a straight left... "to the body". That struck me as bad advice especially because it was after Thompson was landing a straight left on Wlad's cheek.

Also, Wlad is built like a brick sh*t-house. The man is extremely well-built and not like a body builder, but more functionally powerfully (Evander's slim waistline). Why bother with the body?? I used to stupidely spar guys pushing 300 pounds and realized early that it is a waste of time to try popping that padding. It's 2 feet thick! Not that Wlad is fat, but he's solid downstairs.

Body shots should be used only as strawmen... and to set up head shots on giants like this.

 

I get the analogy... pardon my skepticism but i think it is very easy to point out flaws from ringside.

Marciano is wide open for a good jabber! Ali couldn't block the left hook! Louis and Holmes kept their left hand low after jabbing.


These may all be true, but the fact is that very few fighters could use those "obvious" technical flaws to a victory.

 

The key to defeating Wlad is effective aggression. He doesn't do well against guys who attack him without being frozen with their own reluctance to take a risk. What I am proposing has already been proven to work... and throwing a left hook to the ribs after a 3, 2 over that frozen Wlad jab is going to either cause a retreat, force Wlad out of position which can set up better shots, or hurt him with a little luck.

Wlad establishes a measured pace that is reflective of both his strengths (physical strength; long range artillery) and his weaknesses (reluctance to take risks, inability to remain composed inside or in punching range against a puncher, a fragile chin...). So what to do? I am obviously making it easier than it is, but I thoroughly believe that the vast majority of Wlad's opponents have made harder than it needed to be... DO NOT ALLOW HIM TO FEEL SAFE. DO NOT ALLOW HIM TO SET THE PACE. Sultan and Thompson offended both requirements.

 

I appreciate your pessimism, but neither JG nor I are ignoring Wlad's strengths. And the simple fact is that Marciano was wide open for a good jabber and acknowledged that himself. Ali was a sucker for the left hook in 1971 -the tapes proved it 74 times, and Holmes absolutely dropped his left. And these flaws did in fact cost them! Marciano ate more jabs than meatballs during the length of his career. Ali lost to Frazier in the most important bout they ever had precisely because of that left hook swelling up his face. And Holmes took unnecessary punishment for that flaw, went down, and lost to Tyson. Low hands were factors.

Wlad faults are glaring. He gets away with it because he is a monster and because he's fighting relative club fighters. Some solid posters confuse (in my opinion & including you) this for "skill" (I don't see it. He's amateurish) and "effectiveness" (consider the oppostion and it becomes quite relative)...

 

Yeah, ok, it certainly makes for interesting discussion of course.

But let's be realistic here. How many fighters used Ali's lefthook flaw? Only one, Joe Frazier. A great fighter. Foreman and Liston had great lefts hooks; better than Frazier's. But they didn't come close to beating Ali. How many fighters took advantage of Holmes dropping his left? Shavers is the only one i can think of, and he couldn't do the trick twice despite being one of the hardest punchers in history (he did come close of course). Tyson "knocked" his guard down and hit him with a right hand after that; it had nothing to do with Holmes' technical flaw. And how many people jabbed Marciano silly? Walcott, Moore and Charles are extremely skilled fighters and while they landed their share of jabs, it's not like landed at will...

Schmeling was the only one who punished Louis because of his technical flaw despite fighting a ton of ranked contenders. Everyone in the world wanted to land that right hand that McCall and Rahman landed on Lewis, yet they were the only ones out of a tremendous set of punchers in Ruddock, Bruno, Tua, Tyson, V. Klitschko, Morrison, Briggs, Mason, Mercer,
Tucker, Grant, etc.


So what i'm trying to say is, you might spot these technical deficiancies (spelling), but it takes a unique set of tools to actually take advantage of the situation, and history (see above) has shown that even for great fighters, it happened no more than once in their entire career that a fighter really took advantage of one specific, "apparant" technical flaw.

 

I see your argument. I think that this may be a matter of perspectives. Every man is beatable, not every man has the insight, experience, or willingness to study and apply that inate 'beatability' of their foe with committment. HWs are more prone to rely on power than strategy which is one of the faults many lay at their feet.

The success of Wlad, Jack, Sam, Harry, Muhammad, and Willie are despite their flaws and stylistic vulnerabilities. It stands that the failure of most of their challengers is due to myriad factors -failure to exploit weaknesses and bad strategy is not least among them! Eddie Futch made his name exploiting every flaw he saw and he did it exceedingly well...analysis is what makes boxing a science and if Wlad's opponents and opponent's trainers applied it, they'd be far more likely to become rich men.

 

THE MISFORTUNE OF A FRAGILE MANDIBLE...!

classic.

 

Schmeling said " I see something” when he saw Louis fight Uzucdun on film. In fact, fighters such as Harry Wills and Jack Johnson felt Louis, though blazing fast and packed with power in both mitts, was defensively flawed and born with slow feet.

Looking at Wlad’s losses, the Purity one was in-experience. Wlad, who was 22, and never gone past 8, tired to KO Purity late in front of his hometown fans.

I think Wald underestimated Sanders, but credit Sanders for blitzing Wlad early, and landing hard punches. Sanders had some unique skills. I never saw a southpaw that big, that fast, and could hit as hard as Sanders did.

Brewster won the hard knocks way. It was they type of performance that fighters only can pull off once or twice. Brewster had special motivation for the fight, due to his trainer, passing just before the fight, had a top chin to over come the early hailstorm.

Wlad has improved his stamina and defense a lot since the Purity and Sanders losses, and proved he could defeat a power punching hard- knocks type of fighter in Sam Peter.

After seeing most of his fights, Wlad’s main weakness seems to be he is a slow starter. That and he’ll never have a top chin. He doesn’t need to be a top in-fighter, because he is the best clincher in the game.

The critics are off on Wlad being mentally weak. Actually, Wlad has stellar character. He lives a clean life in terms of staying fit in-between fights, and had the mental reserves to over come KO losses to regain the #1 spot. Very few fighters can do that. Do not confuse not being extra durable with being mentally weak. It takes a lot go through training camps as fighters age. Wlad says he loves his job.

 

I "saw something" indeed.

Wlad grabs, and when he pivots out or moves out, although it's an athletic maneuver, he leaves his hands below his waist. Literally every time he moved out laterally, his hands were below his waist and I was thinking, man, if Thompson only had the reflexes and timing for that...
I actually thought the same thing on Saturday night, that I saw a glaring weakness... Or at least that was the thing that stood out most.
I was thinking how some of the ATG's (mainly Frazier) would have had a field day with Wlad's inability to fight on the inside.