my opinions on the fight

as a wlad fan i was a little disappointed that he didn't throw more right hands and gun for the ko earlier. i believe he was trying especially as the fight wore on into the later rounds, but he was very conservative tonite.

however i have a few points.

1. wladimir didn't have to risk getting ko'ed just to make people excited. he's been ko'ing guys COLD lately, so a less stellar performance even in this unification, doesn't mean he's crap or scared etc. far from it. he controlled a rather solid fighter in sultan with EASE.

2. styles make fights. ever since sultan was dropped by austin he turned ultra conversvative. admittedly wladimir has become more conservative as well after the sanders loss BUT at least he is willing to press the issue and gun for the ko at all times as long as he doesn't do anything stupid. (which obviously means it wont always be exciting to watch for fans). sultan on the other hand makes winky wright look like pavlik, (as far as getting stuck into it)!

3. it takes two to tango. wladimir was walking forward. throwing a decent number of punches (yes, mainly jabs but with a jab that is almost like a right hand why take too many risk early on?) AND started to wear sultan down late in the fight. BUT sultan being the smaller guy, got even smaller BUT DID NOT want to throw. he was simply hoping for a hail mary shot to end the fight all night long. if the responsiblity was on anyones shoulders, it was sultans. he and his corner knew after the first couple rounds they would lose easily, but rather than try, he simply got so low it made it a balance issue for wladimir.

4. as wlad said afterwards. he had to reach so far down to hit sultan in that crab defence posture that he would most likely lose his balance if sultan spun away, even if sultan didn't throw anything! of course wlad should have thrown some hooks and uppercuts, but nevertheless, people reckon wladimir's stlye is bad... well i consider leaving your head at waist height far more annoying. hopkins was stunned by taylor in the 3rd round of their first fight using that tactic. you put your head that low it's either gonna be a rabbit punch or a jab most of the time.

5. expectations. i admit i thought wladimir would ko sultan. but like the taylor-pavlik rematch, not every fight is going to end in a ko simply because one guy has a great ko percentage.

6. and finally... i don't know if it's a colour issue with some haters, or a nationality issue. but the facts are that the american fighters are crap at the moment. (hence why wladimir has been brutally ko'ing them all lately).... while the soviet fighters are good. :yep sure it was a bad matchup tonite, but at least they've being beating all the competition until they met tonite. so yeah... american heavies are non-existant. soviet fighters are doing just fine as much as that may **** you haters

i wish wladimir did more tonite, but then again i've seen many fights over the years where i wished fighters did more, and *gasp* a lot of them have involved americans and mexicans :yep

if wladimir goes back to ko'ing heavies after this fight, and snags another belt along the way, i suppose i can find a way to forgive him

 

yep. and i think what seems to scare/worry most fighters against wlad is when they taste the JAB, they must think "****! if that's just his average jab, then what the hell is his right hand gonna feel like then?"

 

indeed. i was surprised he used the left hook more when sultan came in or sometimes fell into him. a short straight right down the pipe with no left jab to alert sultan would have caused a bit of punishment and possibly tired sultan out more. and if sultan had taken more punches earlier, im sure wladimir would have ko'ed him.

the few times wladimir managed to get a combo onto sultan, the smaller man looked ready to hit the deck for the count