I feel that beating Wlad is an issue of generalship - controlling distance and tempo.

Calvin "Tapdancing banker" Brock was ahead up until round 5 against Wlad. Wladimir was flustered in that fight, but once Manny gave him that talk in the corner it was over. He will simply open up if you get ahead in the early rounds.

If Brock could have hung in there, there is a strong chance Wlad would've gassed out. Watch that fight again. To his credit, Wladimir took that fight away that night.

It seems that Wlad doesn't like movement. Specifically lateral movement. Corrie Sanders used a little bit of that.

Ruslan has no chance whatsoever in this fight. He is made for Wlad in my opinion. Too small, too slow, and too inactive lately. Wlad will KO Ruslan. If I was into avatar betting, I probably would do it this time. But I have no avatar.

 

Ruslan is slow. His handspeed is SLOW. He is not going to have any leverage on his shots because he is just too small. Iggy's problem with mounting an offense against Wlad was due to the size discrepancy.

When you have two skilled athletes but one is significantly bigger than the other, who has the edge then? I also believe that Wlad will actually stop Chagaev. I'm surprised that Chag's people took this fight.

 

i think "pressure style" fighting can beat Wlad....thats why i gave haye a good chance to win, because he can be explosive like that.

 

i hope chageav wins, i cant see it, vlad in borefest and then stays in germany to defend against bums

 

I am yet to hear who else he should have been fighting that was available? Some mythical list of non existent fighters who are much better then the ones he fought?

Wlad has agreed to fight the ring ranked #3 in the world, with only 3 weeks to adjust to the totally different style.

And there are people out there so blinded by stupidity and hate to think he is somehow trying to avoid tough fights?

atsch

 

Seconded.

Rather than fighting an oponent who's only two HW wins are Tomasz Bonin and Monte Barret and who was KO'd once against Carl Thompson at cruiserweight, he chooses to face an uncomfortable southpaw who is undefeated and has bested John Ruiz and Valuew.

As rightly pointed out in many previous posts, the only question mark is Chagaev's fitness. In the, sadly rather unlikely, event he is 100% this is a much tougher fight for Wladimir than the one that just got cancelled.