Ruslan Chagaev Discussion

I think his career has been very damaged by inactivity and coming back to take a lop sided beating against Wladimir. Its a pity the Chagaev-Ibragimov unification never happened, I remember Chagaev pulled out because of an injury

 

that's the "word on the street" and that beatdown from Wlad certainly did him no favors.

he was certainly a well-rounded, quick heavy with decent power and solid fundamentals. one of those "looks can be deceiving" fighters.

 

Ruslan Chagaev was a good fighter. This is Wladimir's biggest win. A win over a undefeated heavyweight champion in his prime, a big win for Wlad. He dominated Chagaev too. We will see what he has left in his next fight.

 

Mcgrain,

Are you saying Chagaev was past his prime against Wlad?

 

It's hard to tell with him simply because not many of his earlier matches were televised, and he clearly wasn't the same fighter after contracting hepatitis.

That said, even at his peak, I'm not sure he was any better than, say, Alexander Povetkin.

More complete than Moorer? Sure, I'll buy that. But Moorer was really a LHW who relied on power to be great. He had only one very good win at HW, and his opponent happened to have a heart attack in the ring during the middle of the fight.

 

I think Rogan landed a huge late round KO shot on a tough but aging Skeleton.

Chagaev is a solid all around fighter. He had skills on offense, and defense, could punch, take a punch, and was a pretty smart fighter.

His problem was, he was only 6'1", with perhaps a 73" reach. Chagaev did not have dynamic footwork, so vs. Wlad he was brining a knife to a sword fight. To make matters worse, Wlad was sharp and in his prime for the fight.

Klitschko owned Chagaev at long range, zoned him with clever footwork, and cracked him in round two. From here on it, there was little Chagaev could do. Such is the advantage of skilled super heavies with great power, speed and skills over much shorter and lighter men.

I do think Chagaev with wins over a Ruiz, Valuev, and Vrichis was the 3rd best man in the division. He faces Meehan next, and might get a WBA title shot if he wins. A healthy and focused Chagaev is better than Haye in my book.

 

I agree that Chagaev was probably Wlads best win, or at least second best, behind Byrd. I also agree that Chagaev is better than Haye, and would probably beat him.

 

Shame, I expected more from him but he seemed to lose the fire, the other fighter who fell of the earth and I think could have been a good one was Sultan