Ruslan Chagaev continues to drag it out...

I've said many times that Chagaev STILL has something left in him, he's just lazy/fat/unmotivated. If he lose 20 lbs, hooked up with a good team he cracks the top 10, easily.

 

It makes you wonder about what Sultan Ibragimov could've been doing if he stuck around.

 

Man, I was thinking the same thing.

Given that Sultan had faster hands, a little more power, also had a southpaw stance, no illness, and never had problems coming in shape, I'll bet he would have had a hell of a career by now. Although Chag does have the insane chin.

 

I don't think that there is much doubt that Iggy had faster hands- Mike Tyson himself was impressed by them. Also he had real power.

His problems with Austin were mostly size- he just had trouble taking punches from a guy that big. Again, it was the chin thing. Thereafter he took up a careful boxing style rather than his blitzing knock out style he had been employing.

 

Well, Sultan was a WBO champ with wins over Whitaker, Briggs and Holyfield. Even in his one loss he took Wladdy the distance. I would say that is a very good, if short, career.

Seems to me that you are thinking of Chag mostly in terms of what he accomplished as an amateur. The lack of training and hepatitis really killed a lot of his high end potential, and he himself, in wins and losses, failed to trouble Valuev, Ruiz, Virchis, Povetkin, Walker, Meehan, Klitchko, Oquendo and Skelton with his power.

It is nice that he got a fat KO tonight, but it is the exception in his pro career.

In any event, congratulations and good luck. If his injuries and illnesses are healed, he is dedicated to conditioning, and he is going to rely more on power, he could easily be the third best man in the division for awhile after Wlad and Povetkin. There are a lot of young guns coming up, but they will take time to develop and I have no doubt that he could beat Wilder right now.

 

As was Ruiz. Valuev just wasn't that great in the first place.

I think that is debatable for reasons stated above. They both had very good careers. Chag's was just longer.

Klit fought cautious because he was a southpaw with fast hands and power. You don't get that because you don't accept the premise that Sultan had fast hands and power- but he did, and everyone, including Mike Tyson and Wlad Klit, give him that credit.

He doesn't have that great knock out ratio against anyone who hits back. He even failed to stop guys like Manswell who...well...sucked. He may indeed have the power that you think he does, but he has not showed it as a pro and that is factual. Lets hope he keeps it up from here on in.

These are not impressive knock outs.

Could be. I always liked Pianeta but it is hard to say how much the cancer took out of him.

In any event, I like Sultan and Chag and I wish Chag well.

 

Ibragimov was the better fighter than Chageav and Povetkin. With Mayweather in his corner, he was much more versatile. Lightning quick too, Briggs couldn't lay a glove on him.

 

The truth is with his Kazach team he can be a Kazach world champ but won't crack it at the elite level. He knows it, his team knows it. They know they can't get him into better shape, they can't afford better trainers. Let's face it they're just the typical south-eastern European lazy bunch who don't like to work and break a sweat.

They will milk this sham of a belt with their Grosny and Eastern German shows and maybe get another payday against Wlad should they get into mandatory position. A 2nd loss against Wlad would be Chagaev's retirement paycheck.

 

Hahaha, here is the prophet at it again...

Leapai could stay in this form and Chagaev 5 years from now would still beat him easy 9 times out of 10.

 

Exceptional power? No. Good power, yes. Chagaev has fought some guys that were hard to stop, but sometimes power is only as good as its delivery system and style.

When Chagaev wants to bang, he can. His main problem is he's short with a short reach fighting much taller opponents, and he's not always in shape.

 

Just spotted this 1 round ko, got to give Chag credit for that.

 

Chagaev is better than Wilder.................