I Watched A Few Tony Thompson Fights Yesterday

Thompson is pretty bad. Ray Austin is about a fair comprsion. Wlad should destroy him quickly. This fight lasts as long as Wlad wants it to.

 

A 6'5 Southpaw is a Freakshow...lol
I think Wlad will dispatch him withing 4 myself, but then again.....
(F'n Purity, Sander's & Brewster ruined Wlad for me, when I see him in there vs. a Qurantee on paper it always makes me cringe)

 

i think he is pretty decent. but his style is based on fighting smaller guys. a tall infighter is effective against a guy 6'4 at most but wlad is 6'6 and uses his reach and length far more efficienctly.

his defence isnt a amazing either. but i think he will give it a good shot. austin was looking for the one shot. this guy wants to wear him down and finish him

 

First, let's get these Purrity - Sanders - Brewster arguments out of the way. Against Purrity and Brewster, Wlad was beaten by his own body in fights where he won every round until his body broke down. It has nothing to do with stamina, bonking happens to world - class endurance athletes all the time. Some athletes are more vulnerable to it than others, Wlad is vulnerable there. If he collapses the way he did against Purrity and Brewster, he would lose against Chris Byrd or any fighter who could survive a few rounds with him.

This leaves one loss to a fighter who beat Wlad on his own merit. Sanders had excellent handspeed, footspeed and power to beat a poorly coached version of Wlad. Being a southpaw had nothing to do with it and Wlad won about 27 of 30 rounds against Byrd and Iggy, who are pretty skilled southpaws. Very few fighters have this combination of speed and power that Sanders brought to the table and Wlad has improved a lot under Steward since that loss. Wlad can still be beaten, but I would say it takes someone with some truly great attributes to do it. Thompson is a solid fighter and he deserves respect for entering the sport at age 27 and making it that far. He doesn't have anything to trouble Wlad though.

 

It'll probably go longer than 4. Wlad typically doesn't throw a power punch until the 5th or 6th round anyway.

 

But he won't.

 

Well, the fans in Germany love him regardless. I don't think he truly gets the desire American fans have for the heavyweight champion to put someone away.

 

he'll be exterminated

 

This is an excellent analysis. well done. the only other thing i would point out is footwork. Watch Wlad around the time when he faced Sanders then watch his any of his fights starting against Peter. From the waist down, he is a completely different fighter. He used to very flat-footed and stationary. Today, he utlizes lots of lateral movement usually bouncing on his toes. This is the biggest technical improvement in his game and one of the main reasons why he has become so dominant. A man that big shouldn't be able to move so well. It's pretty amazing stuff. For some reason, this aspect gets often overlooked.

Catching a mobile 6'6'' monster on his paper mache chin is not as easy as it looks :deal

and i agree. thompson is toast....

 

Wlad was extremely cautious with a midget southpaw in Ibragimov, and i know Thompson doesn't have the boxing skill that Iggy has but his 6'5" frame will no doubt have Wlad using caution again.Still i expect a mid-round ko.
Wlad ko7

 

i watched Iggy-Wlad again recently....and i think wlad deserves
somewhat of a pass. sultan contantly circled staying out of the punching zone. additionally, he kept very low and leaned on his back shoulder. wlad had to literally bend his knees to throw the right.

this made wlad very uncomfortable and hesitant to throw even when iggy was in the punching zone and extremely hittable. wlad never go into rhythm. however, he still found a way to dominate the fight.

thompson will not pose such issues allowing wlad to get into his rhythm. i expect wlad to look similar to the brewster rematch. if he looks tentative in this fight, ill begin to worry

 

I see what you mean.I think Wlad will be tentative for the 1st couple of rounds until he figures Thompson out.Thompson is much tougher than Austin, he won't go down so easy.I'll change my prediction to Wlad KO6