I know people are growing impatient over his recent opponents. Pianetta, is clearly a low level fighter. However, let's look on the bright side. Pianette was only a tuneup. Wlad has some of the most important fights of his career coming up with mandatories. He has Alexander Povetkin, who would help Wlad's resume tremendously, and then he has the winner of fury/pulev which would be another tremendous fight vs a top 5 undefeated Ring Magazine contender. Wlad's next two fights will be vs Alexander Povetkin vs winner of Fury/Pulev Both tremendous fights for the heavyweight division
I hope these fights happen. Especially Povetkin fight. Its about time this was sorted out. Another fight im looking forward to is against Wilder when he is finally ready. Helenius wouldnt be bad also
The thing to remember is that these fights are not ppv - they are on free tv (well almost: it's 4 dollars to get them were I live). That should factor in to people's expectations. If I had paid 60 dollars to watch Wladimir vs. Pianeta I'd be disappointed (and, let's face it, a bit of a fool) - but at 4 dollars a pop, it's value for money. As long as he does fight the worthy challengers who now and then rear their heads the occasional beatings of low-level contenders is ok with me.
If Povetkin pusses out again, I hope Wlad fights someone semi-decent as a replacement. Scott, Adamek, even Jennings, green as he is. Can't really stand too many of these undefeated punch bags. They're embarrassing, and adding weight to the claims of Wlad's detractors that he only fights bums.
Boxing fans just need to cheer for Father Time. Eventually Wlad will step aside and we will get exciting heavyweight matchups again. Unfortunately, that will also lead to an era of titles passing hands like hot cakes. Then, posters will lament the quality of the champions and wish we had one true one again.
